Sea foam to clean carbon build up?

[Jay18]

I've seen a couple of videos of people using seafoam to clean the insides on the engine, but I'm not sure if it's any good for the engine?

People say it's brilliant and cleans the engine right out giving back the power the engine should have and a smoother idle

They seem to remove the servo vacuum line and dip it in a cup, the engine then sucks it in a bit at a time, but it does seem to make the engine smoke like mad...

I have also read that it can cause loss of compression as the carbon build up on the piston rings can be all that's keeping the compression up

Other people have done the same thing with water which in my opinion seems like a stupid thing to do...

With the amount of carbon build up on my IAC valve I'm guessing the inlet manifold, ports, valves, pistons, exhaust manifold, EGR are all covered in the stuff, so surely it could do with some sort of clean out to help her run better?

[Anton]

Reddex and an Italian tune-up seemed to work for me.

[ROBBIE]

Met a bloke one time with a 19xud turbo that had water injectors, to squirt a bit of water into each cylinder which apparently cleaned the carbon deposits.

[ScottieJ]

Best way to keep an engine clean......................

Regular oil changes with good oil.

I don't use any of that crap, if you have a big sludge build up anywhere it's possibly going to free it off for it to get stuck somewhere else, maybe even blocking something and causing more damage in the worst case scenario.

[Jay18]

I was thinking of putting some redex in the tank but I read somewhere you can spray a bit in the throttle body? Or carb if an SJ...

It's not very often I floor it I usually drive it fairly calm but occasionally give it some go when I remember I've got a lot more power than I used to with the SJ haha

Thing is the inlet manifold needs a good clean as well so I would think spraying some in the inlet using a spray bottle with the engine running might work?

Scottie, I'm sure you seen the pics of the old gunky oil in my engine? Thing is it's not been looked after at all in its past life, so I want to clean it out so that I can then keep it clean with regular oil changes using good oil and just keep it maintained..

I plan to do a couple more engine oil flushes to get the rest of the gunk out but the inlet definitely needs cleaning out, so once that's done the oil catch can should stop anymore oil going in the inlet and a new PCV valve should help too

[ScottieJ]

if it was me I would take the inlet off and clean it all.....then any build up doesn't end up somewhere else in your engine

A few oil changes with decent oil every 1000 miles or so will soon clean up everything else.

[Jay18]

Might have to do it that way, could do with cleaning the EGR valve out as well, got a feeling it might be sticking, will see what happens today when I go pick the car up and see if the O2 sensors have stopped it from stumbling..

[Jordi]

Oil change once / twice a year. Engine flush it once a year. Seems spot on.

So long as it is properly and regularly maintained shouldn't need loads of concoctions to clean them out.

[Edweird]

Water injectors are used in some engines for more power. The heat from the burning fuel causes the water to boil and expend into steam, giving you more expansion in the cylinders on the power stroke. Never heard of them being used to clean the inside of the engine.

[Anton]

They're also used for heat management in extreme turbo builds.