Decarbonising an engine with tap water... Myth?

[Clutchy]

I know it's a car in the video but would be the same for a bike right? Can anyone explain how this works to me or if this is a weird myth? Seems very weird and seeing as I've never heard of a manufacture recommending this at any service intervals i'm jubious as to what this does?


I don't want to do it to my car, just got me thinking and as we have some massively clever workshop peeps on this forum, it might create a interesting discussion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izvz18xgfA0
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[CaNsA]

Give it a whirl,

https://i.imgur.com/LC2XTNB.jpg

[Tungtvann]

Seems pretty crazy, but I've seen lots of testimonials from people who have tried it with good results.

[cb1rocket]

It's just the light mist of water that cleans it, nothing more. Generally taken through the air intake. Some turbo cars have this as standard with water injection spray that not only lowers the intake temperature but cleans the pistons too!
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[gavbriggs]

It works to clean the pistons very well when water gets into the combustion chamber of a v8 range rover!!!

Mind you that was from HGF tho!

[Polarbear]

I didn't believe you could clean a turbo charger with ground walnut shells.

You can.
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[DrDonnyBrago]

If you have a head gasket fail, coolant enters the combustion chamber and turns to steam. The pistons etc will look very clean as they have effectively been steam cleaned.

The idea of that method is that water is taken into the running engine, evaporates and the internals are steam cleaned in much the same way. Whether it is safe or not I have no idea. Other commercial methods I know of use various solvents (alcohols) etc rather than water. If it needed doing by a dealer, I suspect they'd remove the head and clean it mechanically.

I wouldn't do it to my car, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it did work at least a little bit.

[Rogerborg]

There's nothing in inherently suspicious about water injection. The Saab 99 Turbo used it as stock, for cooling rather than cleaning though.

It's the sort of thing I'd try just for the lulz.
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[Ben90]

I imagine distilled water would be better than tap or bottled as it will leave no dry residue.

There's also purpose made stuff, I think its called Revive, originally developed for jet engines but also sold as a lazy man's way of cleaning a coked up turbo diesel.
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[skatefreak]

Its actually recommended if you're running a car on vegetable oil to do this once in a while as the veg oil can leave a more deposits than derv/bio diesel.
The most popular method is using a wall paper stripper or other steam emitting device and just pipe the steam in via the air intake leaving the engine to run a little above idle running a litre or two of water through (can take a little while mind you).

Its worth noting that the engine should be brought up to temp first to avoid condensation within the engine and taken for a good rag after to ensure any moisture remaining is driven out of the system.

I can't see why it wouldn't work with a motorbike engine.
Try it out and let us know

-Jvr

Ps, using steam avoids contaminants/hard water causing issues/further build up (mmm, limescaly!).

[Tungtvann]

Using bottled water might be better then. We had to use bottled water in the kettle out in Afghanistan and it didn't have a single bit of limescale in it after years.

[stevo as b4]

I can't see it causing any harm if your sensible, but IMO it would have to be a pretty old high mileage bike engine to get into a state where such cleaning would make any difference.

Also I don't think it's as effective at cleaning carbon off the valve stems and the back of the valves as it is at cleaning the actual combustion chamber.

If you have a well maintained sportsbike engine that's done say 25k and been run on decent premium fuel, I don't think there will be much to clean inside the chambers unless it's been running stupidly rich or burning shit loads of oil?

A 100k mile engine maybe it would make a worthwhile difference though.

[Llama-Farmer]

Never knew it was good for cleaning. I know people who run water injection or methanol injection for cooling the intake air (read more power) on turbo cars.

Kinda makes sense though, but I can imagine some muppet will just shove a hosepipe in there and bend all the con rods.

Wouldn't have thought a bike would need it. Diesels are much more likely as they can burn badly and leave filthy stuff and when the turbo starts to go it'll burn even worse and often they'll have 200,000+ miles done on morrisons* diesel. (*other terrible filling stations are available).

[djrikki]

It works.

BUt also reminds me of this ...

https://www.audiforums.com/forum/off-topic-5/hey-guys-please-help-my-mods-gone-wrong-80267/

[Llama-Farmer]

[Tungtvann]

Or the guy who put NOS (the energy drink) in his GSXR.

[Teflon-Mike]

I haven't heard of any-one decarbourising a petrol engine since they stopped making them with push-rods, or selling petrol with lead in it, that might have made three kids in bradford slightly more mentally dissabled than they were, and replaced it with benzene derivatives that could give any-one cancer, instead!

How many people remember....
a) Petrol station forecourt attendants actually putting petrol into the tank for you?
b) asking if you want a shot of 'redex' with it?

And I thought I was a practitioner of arcane technology!
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[Robby]

I think I'm agreeing with Tef again. That's twice in one year, not good.

Your petrol engine doesn't need to be decoked. The only petrol engines that still get dirty inside are 2-strokes, and they go bang long before the carbon deposits cause a problem.

Next you'll be wanting an engine flush to clear sludge, and a magnet on the fuel line to reduce fuel burn.

[Teflon-Mike]

[panrider_uk]

[djrikki]

[The Artist]

I remember reading a very long thread on an engineering forum about water injection.

It seems it can be done but not just willy nilly. It has lots of benefits for performance, increases CR slightly, cools the air as it goes in so it is more dense as well as displacing a certain amount of air.

No mention of cleaning the inside of the engine though.

[djrikki]

It does clean a bit too - though when youre getting more ponies having a shiny cylinder wall isnt high on the check list

[jjdugen]

I, too was that petrol attendant, did it in the evenings after my actual job to save up or my first bike. What with the wages AND tips I soon had enough for my first Ducati. I used to fill up the cars, but made sure the loop of the pump line was emptied of the small amount of petrol into a can, by the end of the night I'd have nearly a gallon in there. Same with the oil, put a pint in, making sure that there was still a good amount in the bottom of the tin, that went into another handy can. We ran four bikes off the back of that job for a year or more.
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[Llama-Farmer]

Well it beats letting it run out all over the floor which is what everyone seems to do with the diesel these days. Nearly decked it when I went in to pay after filling my car the other day, people are just careless.