Do I need to blow the engine out?

I had a Camaro that was overfilled with oil and got a lot of carbon build up on the pistons due to it.. I put a camera down the spark plug hole to find it. It had so much, there was a tick from the carbon hitting the top of the head… anyway I tried multiple things with not much change until I ran it down the interstate in a lower gear with the rpm around 4K (gassing on it from time to time) while a heavy does of Techron was in the tank. I did this in 1 hour intervals about 4 times with that tank of gas.

afterwards no more tick and the pistons had very little carbon on them verified with camera.

There is a fairly scientific paper floating around the internet about getting temperatures really high to break up the carbon.

So I can only describe the best way I know how to break up carbon… lots of heat/presssure for a prolonged time with Techron or something similar with PEA active ingredient.


I also agree that FI engines should have less issue but it still happens….For example direct injection engines get a lot of carbon on the valves (over time) mainly due to the pcv valve feeding back into the intakes/plenums and no fuel to clean the valves.

Main reason I Try to buy cars that have port injection(ford and Toyota have both port injection and direct injection in their most recent vehicles). I have also read that Mazda intentionally runs their valves hot to help combat carbon build up.

my 2 cents and I may need change

 

I know for certain on my 2 stroke stuff it makes a huge difference. My son ran a string trimmer all summer for his landscape biz and never once ran it at WOT. The ports were leaking black gunk by summer's end. I always run them WOT for a few minutes every week and everything stays clean. This has been more necessary with the EPA restrictions on 2 stroke

 

One has to remember that older (pre-EFI) engines were very poorly controlled and because of that, sometimes all sorts of deposits built up inside combustion chambers. Back then, there was some validity to running an engine hard once in a while to blow these deposits out. (We could debate the actual effectiveness of the process over many beers.)

Newer engines have much better control of the combustion process and thus have far fewer problems with excessive build up. So, do you need to blow things out once in a while? Probably not. Do you feel better if you do it? Sure.

 

Do I need to do this if I floor it from every stop light?

 

Way back in the dark ages when I went to a university that had a driving school for high school students, and taught pursuit driving to law enforcement, we had 12 vehicles provided by the local Chevrolet dealership. We were constantly having to blow the carbon after high school instruction. Our “rabbit” was a 1974 Camaro that we had to blow out constantly. The local police officers went through our training so they looked the other way when it came time to blow out the 12 vehicles. Nothing like a couple of eager college kids taking them out… me being one. The dealership always provided one pickup. The last one I drove had a 454. It was horrible about building carbon. It was barely running one day so I was sent with the truck to the dealership. It was backfiring so I nailed it in the middle of downtown. The mufflers blew most of their outer skin and people were running for cover. The dealership kept it and gave us an early 1975 with a 350.

 

Its a toyota. Its OBLIATORY to bang the revlimiter often.

 

Blowd the mufflers right off of eit

 

Lately there has been several issues with direct injection engines and carbon build up (over time and some worse than others). Most of it comes from the pcv valve and not much can be done for the valves in direct injection engines due to no fuel flowing over the valves. The pcv valve letting oil and byproducts into the intake is the main source of carbon build up. I agree newer engines are much better at controlling carbon but the significant number of issues with direct injection engines and carbon build up is proof enough to me that build up can and does occur. This the main reason Toyota/Ford does uses port injection with direct injection from what I understand… to help keep the valves clean. It is also to help with Low Speed Preignition but honestly I cannot fully comprehend all the stuff I have read on LSPI.

 

I can say mine seems to like to get a bj from time to time. My preferred method is to drive down the freeway, up a long hill, before the top gun the crap outta it. I try to not go longer than 4 months, since I short trip it on the weekends all year long.

 

That may have been true for my 425hp 57 Chevy with a carburator so big it would suck in birds and small children, but not for this computerized V6, the way it sucks gas at higher RPMs and, well, the current price of gas.

 

That’s why I said you need to take the Camaro out for a run.

 

It never hurts to take a city truck/car out for a good hi-way run.

 

Funny that this thread just came up. I recently started watching The Car Care Nut 's channel on youtube. He's a long term Toyota/Lexus master tech and very much agrees with giving the car a good hard run occasionally. I'll try to find his video I recently watched where he talks about this and link it. Anyway, he says that full throttle use gives a good spray of fuel across the valves, cleaning them.

 

It’s a good idea to blow out the wifes motor once in a while also , it’s makes her happy and she will run a lot better , and quieter

 

Still no service bulletins or anything other than hillbilly bullshit to make a case.

 

I did a brief look at each post.
I haven’t seen (or missed it) anyone mention of the secondary intake runners.

I believe it doesn’t even come into play until close to 3,000 rpm

I have personally seen the effect of NOT running the engine hard on a 4.6 Mustang Cobra. The car was owned by an older man. He never drove the car hard. The secondary intake butterflies wouldn’t open fully. They were fouled with gunk.

As for me, I don’t intentionally run mine hard for that purpose. Mine gets run hard towing. I run 4th gear at 65- 70 mph. There are a few hills that definitely put me in the 3500-4000 rpm range to keep up with traffic.

 

I’ll need solid test data proving blowing out your engine does nothing. Otherwise your post adds no value and could be interpreted as midwestern bullshit.
I posted a link to an article earlier, not evidence but some decent logic from an automotive source. I’m certain you didn’t click since you don’t need to read things besides what you already believe lol.