zoobyshoe said:
See AlsoIs a Water/Methanol Injection Kit the Tuning Aid You Need?AMFUltimate Methanol Injection Guide | Drifted.comMethanol - An Alternative FuelI ran across several YouTubes that claim, and apparently demonstrate, that you can clean carbon deposits from a car engine by simply spraying or pouring (very slowly) water into the intake when the engine is fully warmed and running.
I've never heard this from a reliable source and my reaction is that it is probably an urban legend, like removing rust with coca cola and aluminum foil. However, Eric The Car Guy, in the last video, is usually mainstream, so I'm not sure.
The principle is alleged to be that, upon hitting the hot piston, the water flashes to steam and dislodges the carbon deposits. And in the second video it asserts the idea for this came from examination of engines whose head gaskets had failed: the pistons onto which coolant had leaked were weirdly clean while the protected pistons were encrusted with carbon.
What is the real story on this?
First question is, which part of the engine this method substantially cleaned from carbon residue? As far as we know, the cylinder is almost fully retracted with the piston in it, aside from the exhaust manifold and exhaust pipe.
For engine using light fuel (petrol or gasoline) is most unlikely to have carbon deposit problem since, gaseous fuel readily combust with air, unlike viscous diesel.
Lubricant carbon deposit in lower part of the engine perhaps has consequent effect due to engine heat, in which by the piston ring and seal, water will not be able to access in there. And if ever water goes down to the bottom, the problem is it accumulates there.
Water in lubricant is undesirable, because consequently the 2 will form organic acid later on and acid as we know it, corrode metals.
Water in minimal portion in diesel combustion is good in atomisation of fuel. Since, water and fuel does not mix/emulsify. Tiny spherical droplets of water, will allow the fuel to stick on outer surface by density, thus increasing the area of contact with air in combustion, but some of the energy of the fuel burned is going to be used up converting water to steam, consequently reducing engine output as a result.
To your query, I would say, this is a Myth.
Last edited:
