Water injection cleanup?

Isn't it funny, Steve,
If we search anything loooong enough, we'll finally read what we WANTED to to hear in the beginning. LOL Bill W.
 
Jim Brierley said:
Auto shops used to pour water down the carb before a tune-up, to get rid of the carbon. It worked then and will now. Keep the revs up and pour slowly. It will be more difficult with the updraft carb, a squirt bottle might be best? Paul from Main ... tractors, trucks and many cars used an oil-bath air cleaner where the air was forced into a "U" turn and dirt embedded itself into a pool of oil at the bottom of the cleaner. A simple centrifuge.
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Yes Jim, you are correct in that many shops including Ford dealerships still
do it now. Ford's modern 4.6 and 5.4 V-8 engines are notorious for the spark plugs breaking off in the head during removal due to the carbon seizing the end of the plug where they just snap. The cleansing fluid now used is injected through a vacuum port and the steam just rolls out the exhaust as the inside of the combustion chamber is steam cleaned. This method removes the carbon from around the spark plug. My Lincoln Aviator has the 4.6 engine and is about due for new spark plugs. I am about ready to go through the process myself and am not looking forward to removing the spark plugs!
 
Using a spray bottle is the way to do it. Worked back in the day and still works today. Back in the days of early computer controls this came back into vogue since these engines built carbon to the point of knocking.
 
I didn't read the second page. Regarding new sparklers, its good to remove them before they 'weld' themselves to the head and never-seize them. The Fords will generally allow themselves to be turned/removed about 1/4 to 1/2 turn before they bind up. Crack them loose, fill the hole with brake fluid and go to lunch or let them sit overnight. Then they'll come out with care. If the engine has 2 piece sparklers [they break easily] I suggest replacing them with 1 piece plugs if available depending on year and engine.
 
G.M. dealerships use to have canned water that was for pouring slowly in the carburetor to remove carbon deposits. In the past I have poured water through down draft carbs on later model cars, it did help. Now that the tetraethyl lead has been removed from the gas, carbon deposits are no longer a problem. We now get black soot instead of hard carbon build up on the tops of the pistons and the spark plugs. My model A's run real clean with Champion W 18 spark plugs.
 
Purdy Swoft said:
G.M. dealerships use to have canned water that was for pouring slowly in the carburetor to remove carbon deposits. In the past I have poured water through down draft carbs on later model cars, it did help. Now that the tetraethyl lead has been removed from the gas, carbon deposits are no longer a problem. We now get black soot instead of hard carbon build up on the tops of the pistons and the spark plugs. My model A's run real clean with Champion W 18 spark plugs.
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I hear you, Purdy, once I accidenally put leaded gas in my chainsaw & it would shortly "grow" carbon "whiskers" across the plug gap & PFFFT!---DEAD like our FAMOUS horse!:eek: Someone put 3/8" reach plugs in a Chrysler Hemi instead of 3/4" reach+*^$^$% Bottom 1/2 of threads FULL of carbon, NO tap +*^%&$$ Ground 3 flutes in an old plug for a thread chaser-----and that's the rest of the story. Chief showed me how to file grooves in an old nut to use as a thread chasing die!!
You might be saying, "This CHIEF guy, he must've thought he was sumptin' SPECIAL"!:D HE WAS!! Of course, he paid me $$$$$ to say that! Bill W.
 
I remember JCWhitney used to sell a water injection system some years ago. There wasan't a lot to it . I made one of these and ran it on a 78 f150 300cid. engine. You had a jar of water, the lid has to have a small port to hook the line to. You teed into your PCV line,one that pulled vacuum whent to the top of the jar , and the other to the bottom of the jar in the water, when the engine was running it created a lot of water bubbles which was injected into the air fuel mixture in the intake manifold. My understanding of this is it took the oxygen out of the water and inturn caused a greator explosion in the cylinder. My truck did seem to run a little better, especially in these hills of West Virginia. Maybe this could be riged up on the model A. only thing I see is that you would be pulling out side air.
 
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When I raced motorcycles i would feed a small handful of sawdust into open Amal carbs.....cleaned out the carbon fast and safely.
 
Never heard of the saw dust trick, In the 60's we used to feed our old non turbo Cats a handfull of Bon-Ami kitchen cleanser in the intake when oil use got too high (over 4 GALLONS a day) to cut the glaze off the cylinders until we could get around to doing an overhaul, it would drop oil use to about a gallon then it would slowly work it's way back up.
 
A guy i know who is in his late 60s and have been a car mechanic all his life pours a drinking bottle of carbonized drinking water into the carb at full throttle. It actually works, and the engine will take it. I was amazed by the volume it will handle without drowning, my consern is the higher pressure and the head gasket but he have not had problems with this, and they run alot smoother.
 
Clydes 31 P/U said:
Never heard of the saw dust trick, In the 60's we used to feed our old non turbo Cats a handfull of Bon-Ami kitchen cleanser in the intake when oil use got too high (over 4 GALLONS a day) to cut the glaze off the cylinders until we could get around to doing an overhaul, it would drop oil use to about a gallon then it would slowly work it's way back up.
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The way I understand it the first Chevy V8's glazed very fast and used excessive oil. The directive from GM was pour the Bon Ami down the carb and return the car to the customer.
 
Clydes 31 P/U said:
Never heard of the saw dust trick, In the 60's we used to feed our old non turbo Cats a handfull of Bon-Ami kitchen cleanser in the intake when oil use got too high (over 4 GALLONS a day) to cut the glaze off the cylinders until we could get around to doing an overhaul, it would drop oil use to about a gallon then it would slowly work it's way back up.
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I heard about the Bon-Ami trick from an old-time Diesel mechanic who was responsible for maintaining the emergency lighting plants around Capitol Hill. He cut his teeth on pump engines in the Oklahoma and Texas oil fields back in the 1940's & '50s.

Never tried it myself.
 
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