Carbon Remover Homemade. Is It Worth Trying? We Checked

A homemade carbon remover is worth trying if you want to take your engine apart and clean certain parts like the valves. Although you'd have to rinse well after washing due to the acidic nature of some ingredients like vinegar. Never pour such solutions into your engine as a way to clean it out!

Cleaning additives highlights

• Efficiency:good if used correctly
• Availability:lots of products and brands
• Average price: $50
• Way to use:spray into the throttle
• DIY use:yes, butmaybe complicated
• Experts' advice:mixed advice
• Independent testing:a lot of positive testing
• Consequences:injector damage ifused incorrectly, exhaust system damage, valve damage

Carbon Deposits in an Engine

The build-up of carbon in a petrol or diesel engine is a normal occurrence due to the internal combustion processes that take place. The soot is the ash that's produced when fuel and oil don't burn totally in the combustion chamber. Such an accumulation can result in unwarranted wear if not tackled on time.

Black carbon gathers at many spots over time. These include the surfaces of components such as pistons, cylinders, exhaust, and so on. It's the fuel varnish/gum which forms on piston tops, intake valves, fuel injector nozzles, and chamber hemispheres that make it easy for the ash to stick.

The deposits can build up to a point where your car's performance is adversely affected and engine damage is possible. They get bigger, tougher, and more difficult to clean!

Carbon deposits can accumulate in your engine abnormally due to poor fuel quality and dirty air filters. These factors can be caused by a negligent attitude to car maintenance.

Consequences of Engine Carbon Build-Up

It's necessary to elaborate on the effects of accumulated carbon in an engine for you to fully grasp the importance of the removal procedures. See the potential effects of this element in your engine below.

1) Pre-Ignition

Carbon that has collected in a combustion chamber can result in hot spots that can ignite petrol or diesel before your spark plugs fire. This will lead to a rise in combustion pressure.

2) Knocking and Pinging

Knocking and pinging can happen when the combustion chamber volume is changed due to the gathering of carbon on your piston crowns. Combustion will become irregular and problematic.

3) Bad Fuel Economy

What happens when your fuel injectors are blocked by carbon deposits? You can expect that they won't work properly for the right combustion flow to be maintained. This will lead to poor fuel economy and an undermined driving experience.

4) Turbulence in the Engine

Carbon build-up slows down airflow from the exhaust and intake valves. The exhaust valves allow air to move out of the engine, while the intake valves allow air to come in. There'll be an imbalance in the air-fuel ratio when turbulence is caused by the inefficiency of such valves.

5) Fire in the Engine

This is one of the worst issues that can come up as a result of excess carbon in an engine. The situation can be so critical that a major part of the engine will start malfunctioning, thereby putting the system at risk of catching fire.

Using a Homemade Carbon Remover: Vinegar Solution

The homemade carbon remover that we'll be focusing on is the vinegar solution. Its constituents are only two and they're easy to get. Just distilled vinegar and water! Mix them following a 50:50 ratio.

You'll need a small dry towel to soak in the solution and use to wipe whatever engine part you're cleaning. You can also soak those engine parts in kerosene for a small period before washing them. Kerosene helps to soften carbon molecules.

Another way to apply vinegar is the use of a spray bottle. Just get an empty one, open it, pour distilled vinegar and water inside, attach the nozzle, and shake the contents for some seconds.

The common composition of vinegar is 4-8% acetic acid and 92-98% water. These are the ones that are used for human consumption. The variants that have up to 20% acetic acid are the ones you should target for cleaning purposes.

You can use vinegar to polish copper, brass, bronze, or silver. But it can damage common metals; such as aluminum, lower grades of stainless steel, and even copper if not rinsed well. Vinegar is utilized in interior car cabin cleaning as well. For example; car seats, windshields, dashboards, etc.

Why You Shouldn't Pour Vinegar into Your Engine

Mixing vinegar with the oil or fuel you put in your engine will only yield negative results. In other words, you should never pour or spray the solution either in the oil tank or fuel tank for any carbon cleaning procedure. Read about what the application of vinegar into your engine can do below.

1) Render Oil and Fuel Ineffective

The oil will lose its lubricating properties. As for vinegar in fuel, it won't make the engine run or it will cause a misfire.

2) Damage to the Engine Parts

Pouring vinegar into your car can lead to engine damage. For example; degradation of the hoses and seals. This is due to the solution's corrosive properties and tendency to make certain metals prone to rust. It's the acetic acid in vinegar that has such qualities.

3) Clog the Fuel Filter and Injectors

A diesel engine's fuel system can be contaminated by the vinegar solution, bringing about fuel filter and injector blockage. You may be able to pour vinegar into the coolant water to clean the system out. But there's the risk of the solution adversely reacting to your antifreeze.

Other Carbon Cleaning Solutions

We have acetone, WD-40, CLR, engine additives, and others that are effective for carbon cleaning. The first three are meant for uninstalled engine parts, while additives are for engines that haven't been dismantled. We'll describe each of them in this section.

1) Acetone

Acetone is a very volatile (flammable) liquid that has a strong smell but no color. It's a common solvent that's utilized for various purposes, including carbon-cleaning processes. It's also miscible with water just like vinegar.

This product can dissolve carbon when used to clean engine parts that have been disassembled. But not rinsing on time may lead to component damage due to how harsh the chemicals in it are.

2) WD-40

You can use this to remove carbon dioxide deposits from spark plugs, carburetors, and many other engine parts that have been uninstalled. Technically, this product doesn't "clean". But it removes carbon and oils efficiently.

WD-40 has penetrating properties that will clear carbon blockages, grime, grease, and so on from separated engine parts. It's advisable to go for the variants that are meant for throttle body, carburetor, and choke cleaning.

3) CLR

CLR means "Calcium, Lime, and Rust" remover. But it has been proven to be effective against heavy carbon deposits on dismantled engine components as well. Although the company recommends that it shouldn't be used on any metal except stainless steel and chrome.

CLR's major constituents include gluconic acid, lactic acid, and water. You should rinse it off well from whatever part you wash after.

4) Engine Additives

Engine cleaners and degreasers are used to clean or flush out carbon from engine areas like the combustion chamber, fuel injector ports, intake valves, etc. You can pour the additives into your engine instead of having to undergo the tedious process of removing the engine parts for individual cleaning.

An example of a fuel additive is Sea Foam. It can be poured into petrol and diesel fuel tanks to clean various areas and components. And there's also the spray variant for a limited reach and application via the engine intake.

Note: Engine additives can be chemical solvents or refined (high-octane) fuel.

A well-performing engine will help the additives or detergents in the carbon removal process. The motor will help to burn off the carbon deposits as the RPM (revolutions per minute) increases. Such products are applied into the fuel tank or oil filler port depending on the manufacturer's instructions.

Stubborn carbon collections could still remain after using the cleaners and degreasers. But you can tackle the problem further with the other cleaning solutions mentioned in this section. You just have to take the engine apart.

Use steel wool, wire brush, or putty knife to make this stage of cleaning easier. And it's OK to use a power washer for parts like the pistons.

Conclusion

Apart from all of the above, there's also hydrocarbon engine cleaning that involves the use of distilled water in a sophisticated procedure carried out at auto repair shops.

Mechanics also use the "blasting" method to clean separated engine parts with crushed walnut shells. This is due to the product's safe abrasiveness for engine parts and high effectiveness.

Lastly, benefits of carbon cleaning an engine include enhanced performance, better power delivery, less noise/vibrations, better fuel efficiency, and reduced emissions.