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From: levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy)
Newsgroups: net.auto.tech
Subject: Re: Causes of pinging
Message-ID: <616@ttrdc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Dec-85 19:56:55 EST
Article-I.D.: ttrdc.616
Posted: Tue Dec  3 19:56:55 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Dec-85 07:48:12 EST
References: <1@vaxine.UUCP> <738@ihu1g.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T, Computer Systems Division, Skokie, IL
Lines: 44

In article <738@ihu1g.UUCP>, rls@ihu1g.UUCP (r.l. schieve) writes:
>.....
>> 5) carbon deposits on the head and the top of the piston GLOW and ignite the
>> new charge too soon.  This is a good reason to clean surfaces during a valve
>> job.  If you have a carb, you can battle this with an "internal steam clean"!
>> INTERNAL STEAM CLEAN:  get a pint or a quart of water in a pourable container.
>> Take the air cleaner cover off and get a good grip on the throttle.  The car
>> must be hot.  Rev the car up to 3 grand or so, and pour water down the barrel
>> of the carb, fast enough to slow the engine down, but not fast enough to stall
>> it out.  Use the throttle freely to keep it going.  If the car stalls and
>> floods, open the throttle and wait a few.  Sounds wild, but I have cured
>> (temporarily, at least) a few pingers this way.
>>
>......
>Has anyone else tried this???  I have never heard of doing this before
>and would like more than one opinion before drownding any engine I work
>on.
>				Rick Schieve

I'm curious--was distilled or ordinary tap water used?  The latter would leave
possibly abrasive mineral deposits behind as it flashed into steam.  And even
then it sounds risky--the cool water hitting hot engine parts (thermal and
mechanical shock--and what if a chunk of sparkplug insulator broke off and
started to bounce around in the cylinder?).  And if it were to kill the engine
(with puddles of water in the cylinders) the water might leak off into the
crankcase oil as the engine sat.  If carbon was knocked loose this way, and
the car had a catalytic converter, I surmise it could get clogged this way.

Yes, I was dumb enough to try this once myself; there was no apparent harm
but it didn't seem to help anything either.

I wonder if the original poster looked inside the cylinders after the "steam"
treatment to see if the carbon was actually reduced or removed?  Actually,
I wonder, is there a good way to do this without taking the head off?  Maybe
a "pinhead" bulb could be lowered into the sparkplug hole and the piston tops
viewed directly that way (piston tops seem to gather a good deal of carbon)
but I have never tried it.
-- 
 -------------------------------    Disclaimer:  The views contained herein are
|       dan levy | yvel nad      |  my own and are not at all those of my em-
|         an engihacker @        |  ployer or the administrator of any computer
| at&t computer systems division |  upon which I may hack.
|        skokie, illinois        |
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