Yes I have heard of this and have done this in the past. WARNING:
This may drastically shorten the life of your engine. Not because of
the water, but because of the removal of the carbon deposits. These
deposits, although ugly in appearance, actually increase the sealing of
the rings on old tired engines. Yes, adding water while it is running
will remove the carbon from the valves, it also will remove it from the
piston and rings, and along the head gasket. The removal of the carbon
from the rings will increase the blow-by, reduce the compression, and in
the worst case, will eventually cause the piston to melt when under a
heavy load. I know, because that's what mine did !!
I used this trick on my old and tired 65 Alpine. I had removed the
head to replace the leaking gasket, when I saw just how much carbon was
built up in this thing. A couple of weeks later, I decided that I was
going to do a complete valve job on the car, but I wanted to remove as
much of the carbon as possible. I was going to use the chemical
additives to do it, when I learned of the water trick. So I got the car
up to temperature, and coke can filled with water, and slowly poured it
in to the Solex carb. I had to open the throttle a bit when I did this
to keep it running. Do NOT just dump it in, that could cause the
cylinder to "hydraulic" the rods...i.e. compress and bend them !
When I pulled the head off the next day, it really was MUCH cleaner.
There was basically no carbon left. It was all over my driveway, in a
wet black sooty mess at the back of the car. I rebuilt the head, which
it really needed (warped and burned valves...). After starting it back
up, I check the compression, and it had only gone up a bit. I expected
more. The extra air was now bleeding past the clean pistons and rings.
About two weeks later, I was driving up a hill, floored in third with a
fairly heavy load on the engine.....when BLAMO. #3 piston melted away
on the exhaust side of the piston. I believe that if I had left the
carbon in there, that this would not have happened.
THEREFORE: Use this water trick with caution. If the engine is in
pretty good shape, it's probably safe. If it burns as much oil as it
does gas, like mine did, then do NOT do it.
Rich
>----------
>From: Michael Fisher[SMTP:fisher@tomahawk.dst.battelle.org]
>Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 1997 12:06 AM
>To: alpines@autox.team.net
>Subject: Valves
>
>I was doing a quick tune-up last night and setting the timing when I had a
>rather loud backfire and then lost power in cylinder three. As this was at
>10:30 last night, I quit!
>
>Tonight when I get home I plan to pull the valve cover and go exploring. A
>friend at work thinks I have an intake valve stuck open either from a broken
>spring or a carbon deposit on the seat. He also said a method of dealing
>with
>the carbon deposit is to steam clean the engine while running, i.e. pour
>water
>into the carburettor. He cautioned against this as it is easy to put to much
>water in and consequently destroy the engine. Has anybody heard of this
>before
>and if so how much water do you use? I am not going to do this, but just
>wanted to know.
>
>
>--
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---
>
>Mike Fisher
>
>fisher@tomahawk.dst.battelle.org "The leader has a sense of humor. He
>is
> not a stuffed shirt. He can laugh at
>614/424-3620 himself. He has a humble spirit."
>614/424-3918 (FAX)
> If I knew what I was doing, it
>wouldn't
>Battelle be research.
>505 King Avenue
>Columbus, OH 43201-2693 "In science we can't let some guy from
> Podunk have the same vote as Fermi."
>
>'93 Volvo 940 Turbo Wagon (for mom and the kids)
>'85 Jetta GLI (to get me to work)
>'68 Sunbeam Alpine Series V B395017314 (just for fun)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---
>
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