Oven cleaner will disolve most of it so it has no real substance left. Oven cleaner is designed to dissolve carbon and works surprisingly well in this application.
That being said the next Time I do this I will be getting a walnut shell blaster. The time it takes to clean the carbon with solvents is too much. The walnut shells do a better job in a fraction of the time.
Seriously, fuck this job when manually scraping and soaking.
I’m considering doing the same, curious to see what setup you go with.
Yes CV showed me that and I have found it works better then anything. I dont know about the walnut blasting. I saw that approch and it just seemed to be like a big mess
The key to walnut shell blasting is to vacuum the media as you go - blaster in one hand vacuum in other is the cheap way. The last guys that did my carbon clean left fucking walnut shell all over my engine bay and under the intake manifold, really ticked me off when I pulled it off and saw that. The BMW guys have fancy tools that fit in their valves perfectly and you can attach a vacuum to it.
Pretty much this:
What I ended up doing on mine was:
Oven cleaner on the 5 definitely closed cyls (two will be very visibly open, the other will kinda be down. I didn’t want to risk anything)
let it soak overnight
spray in some brake cleaner, agitate with a tootpick, let it soak for a few minutes
Vacuum it up
use small pieces of that blue shop paper towel and a toothpick to wipe out the rest
more brake cleaner
more wiping and vacuuming
repeat if necessary
bump the engine over and tape off the other cyls
heat up the block a little bit to make it easier for the oven cleaner to do it’s stuff
repeat above
I found the cleaning to be relaxing and therapeutic. Getting the screws at the back of the oil separator was way more annoying.
I have the vacuum attachment and nozzle for walnut blasting. PM if you are interested in it.
Yes u can get attachments that make very little mess. Basically a cap with 2 holes one shooting the shells in and the other sucking them out just as fast. Foreign auto will do it for a good price if anyone local needs it done. They have all the proper equipment.
the worst part about doing it is being hunched over under the hood for hours. being 6’2 its hard on my back. i wont do it again without a blaster.
One thing people don’t mention is simply doing things to make IM removal easier. Most of this is very much personal preference:
-Removing SAI will keep you from having to disconnect those lines from the SAI valves in the back…everyone who’s done this job knows exactly how much of a pain in the d*ck those things are.
-Doing the JHM coolant bypass for the intake manifold makes for one less thing to remove from the IM. I also replaced the coolant hose that was joined via hose barb, with a single (longer) line to give me a bit more slack and tidy things up behind the motor.
-Running the JHM intake spacers will force you to remove (or modify, but I wouldn’t go through it) the bracket holding the 3rd bolt on the oil separator. You now just have to two that secure it to the IM, and those are much easier to get to.
-Removing the IM flaps/actuators/vac lines means you no longer have to fight to get the IM to just barely clear the radiator support
-I took the lifting rings off the heads vs. removing/installing them every time the IM comes off. In the 5+ years I’ve had the car, I’ve used those rings to pull the motor once. In the grand scheme, I’d rather spend a few minutes reinstalling them for a specific purpose vs. mindlessly reinstalling them because every time because they ‘go there’.
The less time you spend removing the IM, the less your back will hurt by the time you actually start cleaning. (I can have my IM off in <30minutes these days). I used to let the valves soak overnight, but didn’t see much difference between soaking overnight and soaking for 15-20minutes. I just let the valves soak while I’m cleaning the others…get in, get out, be done with it.
CB clean with fuel (cheap) and a couple rounds of cleaning/scraping. The walnut shell solution would be great with the right attachment (like Euro has) as the shells are probably less damaging to the valve stem coating and valve seats at the head, but that’s just my thoughts on it, having never tried it.
I actually did a carbon clean a couple of weeks ago with the BMW tool that you mention. It fits the port Ok but you still get alot of walnut shells through the hole were the port separator sits.
You can purchase it from ECS
http://www.ecstuning.com/ES2165972/
http://www.ecstuning.com/ES2165971/
http://s28.postimg.org/ebhk0s8o9/IMG_1529.jpg
This is the cylinder 5 before
http://s8.postimg.org/fxenmtalt/IMG_1510.jpg
and after walnut shell blasting.
http://s4.postimg.org/w0ocfil09/IMG_1512.jpg
I used Nulon Carby Cleaner to break down the carbon for 5 minutes before blasting.
It killed my back the last time i did it.
This time i had the front of the car on a set of Rhino ramps and that was the perfect height for me.
Yes u can get attachments that make very little mess. Basically a cap with 2 holes one shooting the shells in and the other sucking them out just as fast. Foreign auto will do it for a good price if anyone local needs it done. They have all the proper equipment.
the worst part about doing it is being hunched over under the hood for hours. being 6’2 its hard on my back. i wont do it again without a blaster.
One thing people don’t mention is simply doing things to make IM removal easier. Most of this is very much personal preference:
-Removing SAI will keep you from having to disconnect those lines from the SAI valves in the back…everyone who’s done this job knows exactly how much of a pain in the d*ck those things are.
-Doing the JHM coolant bypass for the intake manifold makes for one less thing to remove from the IM. I also replaced the coolant hose that was joined via hose barb, with a single (longer) line to give me a bit more slack and tidy things up behind the motor.
-Running the JHM intake spacers will force you to remove (or modify, but I wouldn’t go through it) the bracket holding the 3rd bolt on the oil separator. You now just have to two that secure it to the IM, and those are much easier to get to.
-Removing the IM flaps/actuators/vac lines means you no longer have to fight to get the IM to just barely clear the radiator support
-I took the lifting rings off the heads vs. removing/installing them every time the IM comes off. In the 5+ years I’ve had the car, I’ve used those rings to pull the motor once. In the grand scheme, I’d rather spend a few minutes reinstalling them for a specific purpose vs. mindlessly reinstalling them because every time because they ‘go there’.
The less time you spend removing the IM, the less your back will hurt by the time you actually start cleaning. (I can have my IM off in <30minutes these days). I used to let the valves soak overnight, but didn’t see much difference between soaking overnight and soaking for 15-20minutes. I just let the valves soak while I’m cleaning the others…get in, get out, be done with it.
CB clean with fuel (cheap) and a couple rounds of cleaning/scraping. The walnut shell solution would be great with the right attachment (like Euro has) as the shells are probably less damaging to the valve stem coating and valve seats at the head, but that’s just my thoughts on it, having never tried it.
I actually did a carbon clean a couple of weeks ago with the BMW tool that you mention. It fits the port Ok but you still get alot of walnut shells through the hole were the port separator sits.
You can purchase it from ECS
http://www.ecstuning.com/ES2165972/
http://www.ecstuning.com/ES2165971/
http://s28.postimg.org/ebhk0s8o9/IMG_1529.jpg
This is the cylinder 5 before
http://s8.postimg.org/fxenmtalt/IMG_1510.jpg
and after walnut shell blasting.
http://s4.postimg.org/w0ocfil09/IMG_1512.jpg
I used Nulon Carby Cleaner to break down the carbon for 5 minutes before blasting.
It killed my back the last time i did it.
This time i had the front of the car on a set of Rhino ramps and that was the perfect height for me.
Tall people problems.
I had to sit on my engine to get at the sai lines and oil separator bolts because I couldn’t reach it easily hunched over from the front.
Tall people problems.
I had to sit on my engine to get at the sai lines and oil separator bolts because I couldn’t reach it easily hunched over from the front.
Afternoon all - I’ve started my carbon clean this weekend and I have some questions on some of these F-ing connectors… I have all my stuff ready - compressor, walnut shell blaster… but these connectors are pissing me off.
(1) The metal bands that that hold on some of the hoses - like to the vacuum hoses from the air intake - are those 1 time use? I tried to remove them gracefully - but that isn’t working real well…
(2) the hose from the air intake hose to the PVC system - its back behind the accordion air intake hose - the instructions say to squeeze the connector and pull it off - but I can’t seem to squeeze it right to get it to come off and I don’t want to break the connector. I’ve already broken the connector on the bottom of the cooling tank…
(3) I’m a bit concerned if I’m having problems with the hose above that I’ll have a bad time with the air guide hose on the back of the engine… any advice on specifically how to squeeze them to get the connectors to come off?
thanks for the help! I’m taking pictures of the procedure.
There’s a great thread on media blasting with walnut shells here: http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?t=104824
If they are the clamps that have a little boetie loop at the top. Yes those are one time use and they can be removed. I take a small screw driver put it in the hole and twist to bend the clamp over. From there open up the loop as much as you can. You will see the band of the clamp that connects to the clamp com off the barbs.
The squeeze clamps never like to come off. Spray them with some penitration lube make sure the clamp isnt cold because that will make it even less likely to come off. Squeeze on the area that has the squeeze points. From that point push in and twist and then start to pull back. You might have to do that a few times. But if you do it enough it will come off. The key is to push it on further to let the clamp open