Decarboning

[Halfnuts]

Any outboard motorboaters here familiar with a product called Seafoam used for decarboning outboards?  I read about it on the forums at iboats.com and gave it a try on my old Evinrude and it worked like everybody said.  Spray the stuff in the carb throat of a warm engine at idle until the engine floods out, then wait 1/2 hour or so during which you can remove plugs and spray more down plug hole if you're really anal about it.  Then start engine and all kinds of black carbon particles spew out the exhaust as the badly flooded engine coughs to life emitting clouds of white smoke. 

The product appears to be a mixture of something like gasoline or toluene or hexane and light oil which might be castor oil.  Makes a nice flame-thrower when sprayed over the flame from a zippo lighter (Do not attempt.  Professional driver, closed course.) 

Seems like something like this might work for a diesel, too.  Spray it down the intake throat, close the rack and restrict intake air to prevent run-away and continue spraying as choked engine slowlly dies for lack of oxygen.  Then restart after a half-hour or so.  You can also remove the plug in the pre-chamber and sluice it down directly.  At least on 2-stroke outboards that have carbon problems, this procedure works well and really improves starting/idling and slow speed operation where carbon fouling is often a problem.  With a diesel, who knows?

Halfnuts

[SHIPCHIEF]

Did someone say propane cleans a Lister too?
How is it applied? How long does it take? Do you have to stand next to the propane cut-off the whole while?
Scott E

[dkwflight]

Hi
Iv'e heard the same thing about automatic trans fluid and Marvel Mystry oil inthe fuel. Marvel has a lot of wintergreen oil in it, smells pretty good.
In Florida
Dennis

[KingSlug]

What about water and a spray bottle.  You take the engine to full speed with a/c off.  Start spraying a water in to intake, engine will bog down, back off water and wait for idle to return to full speed then start again.  Let the engine ingest a pint or two and you should be good.  I have used this trick on my 2.5l land rover when it was all carboned up, it seemed to work well.

KingSlug

[SHIPCHIEF]

I don't know about water, it's kinda expensive........

[Halfnuts]

Well, Scott, whatever floats your boat.  Sorry, couldn't resist that!   

I think that the advantage of using an oil based or oil containing concoction is that the oil has a good solvent effect.  The deposits in a diesel's head and exhaust system are characteristically dry and crusty, unlike those in a 2-stroke outboard which are oily.  I be thinkin' that the oil might do some things that a dry material like propane would not.  A water mist might work, too. 

I only mentioned this because the cleaning effect was so dramatic in heavily carboned outboard engines.

Halfnuts 

[Tom]

I've used the SeaFoam with an old IH 345 that sat for a while and had a sticky valve. It made an impressive cloud of smoke, but didn't resolve the problem. I don't think it is a good idea to use SeaFoam on our Listers though you may get a runaway or hydrolock it due to the much higher compression ratio. An interesting additive I've used (and it resolved the IH's sticky valve) is running a bit of acetone in the fuel. It improves MPG in diesel vehicles, cleans out the fuel system (often requiring a change of filters), combustion chamber and valves. Acetone has a similar molecular structure to acetylene.

[hotater]

In my more reckless days as a deputy sheriff in Florida,  de-carboning a patrol car was done with a stiff right leg and a stretch of remote black-top known as the Bloxam Cut-off......I twice left chunks of smoking iron and hot oil on the highway along with the carbon, but most of the time 35 miles of wide open would do a great job....if a wild hog didn't ruin your whole night!!!
  I once borrowed a traffic guy's radar gun and 'shot' a road sign with it during such a run..... 154 MPH!!!

[GuyFawkes]

In my more reckless days as a deputy sheriff in Florida,  de-carboning a patrol car was done with a stiff right leg and a stretch of remote black-top known as the Bloxam Cut-off......I twice left chunks of smoking iron and hot oil on the highway along with the carbon, but most of the time 35 miles of wide open would do a great job....if a wild hog didn't ruin your whole night!!!
  I once borrowed a traffic guy's radar gun and 'shot' a road sign with it during such a run..... 154 MPH!!!

my folks used to run a garage for a while, old ladies would come in with morris thousands with the same problem, never been out of second gear, take em out and thrash em for half an hour worked wonders

[akghound]

I have used Sea Foam as a diesel suppliment in a attempt to clean out the carbon build up left from burning WVO. I really don't believe that it helped the carbon stiuation at all. (Neither did water injection.) In fact I couldn't find anything that would clean out the carbon buildup. Working it at WOT under MAX load did the most good but I still ended up tearing her down and scrubbing the build up out. Now I prevent it by heating the WVO prior to the IP to at least 180*(As posted in another thread) Sea Foam added to my startup/shutdown diesel tank does prevent the rack in the IP from sticking due to some sort of buildup from the WVO. I would not be surprised if in fact Sea Foam helps prevent carbon build up in straight diesel use.
Ken Gardner

[Halfnuts]

Guy,

That's what the guys on the Mercedes diesel forum refer to as an "Italian tune-up."

Halfnuts

[Halfnuts]

Point of clarification.  There are two products, a spray can and a bottle.  I'm talking about the spray can.  Just adding the stuff to fuel from the bottle won't do much, IMHO.  What I was referring to is actually flooding the engine by spraying down the gullet while restricting the intake air to cause an over-rich condition until the engine stalls.  Like I say, it works on 2-stroke outboards.  Just an idea that might be worth trying.

Halfnuts

[akghound]

OK ... I was thinking of the stuff in the bottle not the spray. I have no experence with the spray stuff. Sorry about the confusion.
Ken Gardner

[BruceM]

Water injection is widely touted for this, and has the side benefit of reduced NO2 from reduced combustion temperature.  A micro drip into the intake manifold with engine at running speed would do the trick.  I'll be someone out there has already done this on a stationary engine.

[lev-l-lok]

List, we used to use grocery store produce dept. mister heads to spray intercoolers w/ distilled/ demineralized water for more boost w/ less detonation. These misters could be about the correct volume for a Lister/oid. An automotive screen washer may be enough pressure for one mister, if not try a fuel injection fuel pump, considerably higher pressure and for the intermitant use of this app. it should live for quite a while.

Paul