Getting rid of carbon deposits

John,

I have used a product on my Jeep called "Sea Foam". It does a great job on deposits and is safe. Depending on your level of deposits it will cause enormous amounts of smoke. Your neighbors will not love you and when you drive it people will think your car is a roach. But it does work. It is available at NAPA and I am sure all the usual parts stores.

http://www.seafoamsales.com/

Have fun !
Jeff

Many years ago I was looking at an engine in a wrecking yard to buy for another project, but compression was a little low in a couple of cylinders. The mechanic in the yard who was going to fire it up for me suggested that it was most likely carbon deposits keeping the valves from sealing properly.

He started the engine; then he took a Coke bottle filled with water, put his thumb over the opening, then shook it to dribble/spray water down the carb throat while revving the engine. The engine almost died a couple of times, but he kept revving it and dumping water down the carb until the bottle (18-20oz) was empty. I took another compression test and all cylinders were good. That proved to be a good engine for many years.

Or, take it out to an ORR event and run at WOT for 90 miles! That outta do it!

Actually water injection is the best. It steam cleans the combustion chamber. It isn't usually carbon deposits on the valve seats that causes the problem, the cabon deposits get hard and chip the seats.

If you could keep the engine running long enough the valves tend to reseat themselves.

If they are missing chunks of metal, then only remachining them will fix it.

Thanks for the help guys. I have heard about the water injection from a couple of other people as well. I think that will be the first thing I try. I am getting dangerously close to getting this thing on the road. I can't wait.