HI everyone, I just read a post where there was alot of debate about wether to de-carb your motor or not. There were mixed feelings about it. I'd like to clear the air a little. The carbon build-up you get is going to do damage to your motor. The water passing thru your motor cools it. But believe it or not, the fuel going into the combustion chamber helps to cool the piston also. When the fuel burns, the heat increases rapidly. Now once the fuel has burned, we have a small amount of carbon that sticks to the piston. As it builds up, it puts a thicker coat of carbon on the piston. After time the piston with this coat on, gets slowly hotter and hotter. The piston does not cool as effectively. Did you know that when you heat metal it expands? The piston is made of metal, and it expands and contracts constantly while the engine is running. Now lets put a coat of carbon on it. Over time lets keep adding more and more. The piston gets slowly hotter and hotter, when this happens, it expands, more and more. The carbon also gets in behind the rings, pushing them out a little more. Eventually this carbon build up allows the piston and rings to heat up enough to cause friction in the cylinder. Friction bad! Scores the piston and cylinders. Overall your best option is to de-carbonize your motor. I would say to use a product that your manufacturer offers. This process should be started before you get a substantial build up. If you have a large build-up of carbon, it is most likely that you already have the beginning of a failure. Carbon remover works, but if it builds up and gets hard, it may take quite a few times to get it clean. A heavy crust, requires work and time to clean it. If it is really bad, you may have to remove the pistons and rings and clean them, but if you use the carbon remover early, and regularly, it will keep your engine clean and running longer. <br /><br />If you used a carbon cleaner and you engine failed shortly after, your engine was most likely not far from failing anyway. <br /><br />As far as so called snake oils, I would agree, some work and some are garbage, The manufacturers of your motor don't test the other guys products, why not? my guess is that if they tested one product from one guy, what would the other guy say? why test his, why not test mine, it's better? The manufacturers would spend a lot of $ testing other guys stuff. Result, we would have to pay for that. Using snake oils, and knowing the results, comes from those of you/us that try them. If they work, we tell others, if they don't, we tell also. We all know that we use the snake oils at our own risk.
