water decarbonization

May not be soap, but theres gotta be some kind of detergent in it...

 

Water and methanol...

 

Here is the MSDS sheet for regular washer fluid. Depending on the temperature rating, the concentration of methanol will change.

http://www.consulab.com/files/windshieldwasher.pdf

 

I stand corrected. I just looked it up before you posted the msds. I just assumed it had a bit of detergent in it. When you did it did it foul up anything? Cat, o2? Leave your exhaust tip blue!!!!?

 

Lol, it didn't do anything bad. It just cleaned out the motor really good. After 2 1/2 years, I need to do it again to get my mileage back to where it was.

 

So you're saying the regular blue stuff is just water and methanol? What makes it blue? The methanol?

 

The blue is a dye. Washer fluid also often contains ethylene glycol which is typically the magic sauce in antifreeze.

I know that antifreeze in your combustion chamber is bad, but I honestly don't know why.

 

depends on how hot the metal surface is

at high temperatures, liquids coming into contact with a hot surface undergo the leidenfrost effect- the liquid in contact with the hot surface vaporizes faster than the liquid can spread over the surface, effectively separating the two from making actual contact- like dropping water on a really hot frying pan, you'll notice the water bead up and bounce around instead of just evaporating

preheating the water so that it's really hot could prevent or minimize the leidenfrost effect; since LF properties come into play when there is a large temperature difference between the liquid and the contact surface

but that's just my .02, I don't actually know what we're talking about until I go through the thread.......I just saw water and carbon in the title

 

Plane Jane washer fluid does not contain ethylene glycol.

 

some washer fluids do have diols in them IIRC

You wouldn't want ethylene glycol in your engine since it's a sugar alcohol

 

Sounds like you're thinking of de-icer.

 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002803.htm

Prestone AS259 All Season Windshield Washer Fluid - 1 Gallon

http://www.amazon.com/Prestone-AS25..._2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1427972436&sr=1-2

some of them have ethylene glycol to act as an antifreeze on the windshield

 

Again, we're not talking about the premium $10/gal stuff that you posted. We're talking about run of the mill washer fluid that's closer to $2-3/gallon. That is the stuff that does a good job cleaning out the carbon.

 

Ah. I guess so

Still trying to learn about what we're actually talking about here

The thing I'm curious about is that carbon itself is not water soluble, nor soluble in any solvent

so I'm guessing the "steam" liquifies the other crap stuck to the carbon buildup, and may help break it up.
Methanol might also help extract the other gunk since it's a good organic solvent, and it evaporates easily; though at that high temperature with that limited time of exposure, I don't think it would really do much

I'm close to a degree in chemistry so this is a fun little brain game

 

This is what the original conversation is about. using water to clean Carbon off, under the premise of how a piston head looks like when its had a blown head gasket. Like this pic (not mine, google search, but hey it is a 3.4 GM) here's a link to the website i got the image from.http://www.greatautohelp.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=4906&start=8 the topic has strayed from how water boils to using smurf juice (wiper fluid) to boiling point of water. All very good info for people who want to know later on.

 

Ok, another sitrep. I reset my ecm, or whatever it's called, then brought the truck up to operating temp. Ran about half a gallon of distilled water through it, at a gentle pace, via pcv hose. A couple weeks back i installed an oil catch can. when i went to take the pcv hose, where it attaches to the intake, i noticed it was pretty loose. So after the water treatment i installed a hose clamp in said position. After i finished the water, i fired the truck up and noticed the oil was a bit milky in my oil catch can spy glass (glass fuel filter i installed on the hose going from oil catch can to intake manifold) so i checked the dipstick. Nothing there. Popped the oil cap off and it was milky inside. Immediately shut the truck off and changed the oil. When that was said and done i fired the truck back up and hooked my obd2 up to torque on my phone. Had several codes pop up. Two misfires, lean fuel, and one other i cant recall. Almost went into panic mode! I then replaced my positive battery terminal clamp, cleaned pos/neg battery terminals and negative clamp. Went for a spirited drive. I should note, after i replaced the pos clamp and started the truck back up it stayed idling at around 1100 rpms. Got back to the house, rechecked the codes, and they disappeared. The idle settled back to normal, and it seems to not be so rough when in drive and my foot is on the brake (my original problem). Not sure if the water or the cleaning of the battery connections did that, but something did. Years ago i had a 78 280z that started to run like shit after i got it back from it being stolen (BASTARD). Come to find out it was a lose battery clam. which one i cant recall. So i think im ok. Im driving to san Francisco in the morning (53 miles one way) so ill see how she does then. Wish i could remember the dang codes. Half tempted to flash the computer one more time today, cause in my dtc menu on torque its reading incomplete on evap, o2, and catalyst system i believe. Will double check that in a bit. I believe i know why the evap is incomplete. Last week i cleaned both vsv's and didn't oil one of them after cleaning, and it started to make a clicking noise. I sprayed it with some wd, which quieted it, but i think i fd it up. No biggie, ill hit the junk yards for that one sometime. Suggestions and opinions are welcome!!!!

Edit: as per post #57 by keakar.

 

what you meant to say was you were resetting your ECM not reflashing it, reflashing it is when you reinstall the computer software that controls it.

someone might "freak out" seeing you say you reflashed it lol.

 

I'm not surprised by the misfire. I got the same on my wife's van doing the same thing with seafoam. It doesn't run real well while you're dumping fluid in it.

 

Seafoam never caused any misfires for me, that i know of. Ok as i promised kinda. Pics for dtc:
Also for shits and giggles, heres my ltft. First is at idle in park, second is at 3000 rpm in park. Is this right? I will say it was at about -2 when in park and idling before i started all this. I plan to research the ltft.

 

the codes are just from it freaking out while the water was going through it. you sure didn't need to run a half gallon through it, that's a lot lol. I mighta done a quart at most and usually all you need is half a quart but it never hurts to be extra sure. it would have been best to run half a quart then wait 5 minutes to let the engine fully warm up again then do the other half quart.

one of the biggest dangers in doing this is if you put the wrong stuff in it, it can cause cat converter issues so that's why water only is best. some cleaners can mess with your cat and the only 100% safe thing I know of is just using water.

I would never use washer fluid or any other chemical liquid for the reason stated above, just my recommendation