how to clean carbon buildup on valves

Last time I took my intake manifold off I noticed some carbon buildup on the intake valve stems. What's the best way to clean this buildup off and what's the best cleaner to use? I read the lawsuit information about zmax and I'm scared to use just anything off of the shelf at an autoparts store. I bet zmax is still on the shelves at all autoparts stores. It makes me so mad. I know someone who put that in their car and said it gave them better gas mileage though.

Best way I know is to use Berryman's B-12 Chemtool, but make sure the valves are closed. I'm talking about cleaning them directly, not via the fuel tank. **** the liquid back out after.

Assuming you've already cleaned the goop out of the head's intake ports with B12 what I would do (well, this is what I did) is run the decarbon procedure that's listed on shotimes with a can of Seafoam carbon cleaner formula. Make sure to get the carbon cleaner formula, all the different formulas come in the same cans with almost identical labels. At NAPA they had several multi purpose cans next to a few cans of carbon cleaner and you really need to compare the labels.

Anyhow, decarbon procedure with the seafoam. Then feed your car a steady diet of redline SI-1 complete fuel system cleaner. Start with a full bottle in a full tank of gas then use a 1/10 a bottle per fillup.

The carbon that was on my valves was just too hard to physically remove with the valves installed in the head. Using those cleaners should allow things to clean up nicely as you start packing on a few thousand miles. Oh, and the Amsoil oil you're using should help. Since oil fumes get sucked in the PCV the synthetic oil fumes will tend to clean rather than turn to coke IMHO.

Any oil or blow-by gasses that gets sucked up into the valve area will coke up when the motor is shut off and heat soak sets in. The synthetics have a higher vapor point and will evaporate less. This means less oil is sucked up in the first place but there is still the blow-by.

If your rings are free of carbon you will get less blow-by gasses and less oil going past the them. Auto-RX will clean this problem up.

Bizzy

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I was wondering this same thing yesterday while doing my valve lash. I was thinking of spraying enought berrymans into the head on the ones with thier valves closed and letting it soak all day. I don't have any way to **** it back out, but the litte bit per valve shouldn't cause problems if it got sucked into the engine when trying to start would it? I'm only talking like maybe 1/4 oz per valve. If I had a really long syringe I'd **** it out, is there anything like that I can get at the Home Depot?

I'm also thinking about that decarbon procedure cause I looked down into my cylinders with a long flexy light and the tops of the pistons are black as ****. The guy that had the car before me always ran around in higher gears/low RPM, but I've been working on fixing that I have noticed that since switching to synthetic my intake is getting a film to it, but there are no real black deposits on the head or intake except for the valves.

So I suppose I'll do that decarbon proceedure with that Seafoam stuff.

I'm old fashioned. I rev the motor and spray water in there.

netviper:
I was wondering this same thing yesterday while doing my valve lash. I was thinking of spraying enought berrymans into the head on the ones with thier valves closed and letting it soak all day.

I did that with B12. Then I sucked it out with a vacuum pump. That hard thin layer of bumpy stuff on the valves, the B12 didn't touch it. I even tried scraping it after soaking it in B12 with a stick. The B12 works great for the loose sticky stuff but for the hard stuff don't waste your time. Just do the decarbon and then feed a regular diet of a quality injector cleaner like Redline SI-1. I've heard Lucas UCL (Upper cylinder lubricant) and Schaeffer Neutra are good as well and I think they can be had cheaper depending on where you live. In any case the decarbon procedure should knock some of the hard stuff off and the steady bath of a dilute SI-1 mixture should clean those valves up real nice given enough time and miles.

By just cleaning the intake manifold and getting the loose sticky stuff out of the head's intake runners you're already getting 95% of the performance improving benefits. Nothing wrong with a slow and steady cleanup to get that last 5%.

One way to get the thick hard stuff off the valves is to tape a piecs of 1/2" brass hobby tubing on a vacuum cleaner hose. As the tube scrapes it off, up the tube it goes. The brass won't scratch the valve, but it's hard enough to get most of the crud. Thin stuff is removed with long wooden Q tips, or the good ol' rag on a stick routine.

Perry Toledo,Ohio

sdpatt

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Any more than a few drops of intake cleaner in the cylinders will cause the engine to act like it is very flooded the first time you try to start it. Given enough solvent in the cylinders, it may take as much as a several minutes of cranking with the throttle fully open (injectors off) to get some combustion happening.