DIY Carbon Cleaning, now we've started!!!

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great write up, how much would this job cost through a garage as i don’t know much about cars beside the basics.

Does anyone know any good independent garages for BHP testing and servicing etc around the Richmond Surrey area..

Thanks,

Iano

Mrc are approx 800 quid for carbon clean. As you can see it's pure elbow grease so 99% labour.

[alex020869]

Well done. Good to know that someone with some mechanical knowledge can tackle these types of jobs. They're not as scary as the dealer would have you believe. Looks like time and patience is the key but you would be better to answer that. lol

Good work there.

Alex

[ianot]

Hi,

I have three questions:

1) if you get the carbon buildup removed from the engine how do you stop it from building up again…
2) if buying an RS4 from an Audi dealer, is it reasonable to ask them to do this job before buying the car
3) I presume the carbon buildup removal would result in a better running engine thus improving the MPG

Thanks,

Iano

[ShaneyB]

1) You can't AFAIK. Best way to keep it down is to drive it harder so city driving isn't ideal.
2) Good luck with that, doubt they would do it as it's around 11 hours labour
3) Yes amongst other things.

[DazN]

Hi,

I have three questions:

1) if you get the carbon buildup removed from the engine how do you stop it from building up again…
you can't prevent it but regular oil changes, good fuel (V power) and giving it some beans helps

2) if buying an RS4 from an Audi dealer, is it reasonable to ask them to do this job before buying the car
no and you will struggle to find a garage that will do it as it's not a fault as such, it's just something modern engines do

3) I presume the carbon buildup removal would result in a better running engine thus improving the MPG
yes but I think you'll find that as the car runs better you'll thrash it more resulting in lower MPG!!

Thanks,

Iano

[andre3k]

A nice write-up & thanks for sharing buddy

Whether it's a natural phenomena or not, that kind of buildup simply cannot be good. Another thing to add to my growing list of things to do !

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2) if buying an RS4 from an Audi dealer, is it reasonable to ask them to do this job before buying the car

Also you can't really tell until you crack open the manifold anyway so not reasonable to ask.

[edge]

awaiting the Dyno results

[2manytoys]

You can see carbon build up with a bore scope. Either through the spark plug hole (top of valves) or through the inlet of the manifold and down a runner.

As for the question of it returning again, that's a given, how fast is the real question. In my case it was worn valve stem seals so the problem returned faster and faster as the problem got worse. In the end the carbon was coming back in a few thousand miles.

We were able to track the condition through timing (logged through Vagcom). As the problem got worse the timing was being pulled back (and less reliable as an indicator; the kick at 5500 was less consistent and happened less often even in mild air temperature)

[DazN]

awaiting the Dyno results

Was supposed to dyno again yesterday but a small plane crashed into a house near Awesome GTi and the roads were closed so I didn't make it. Might see if I can get into Unit 20 next week.

[P_G]

Now that's what I call an excuse!

[richieg888]

First of all thanks for the pics !

Guys I plan to have my RS4 Carbon Cleaned too. I there any documented steps on how to go about it?
Do we have to change anything when we do the cleaning?

Is it necessary to do a port and polish when I have the car go thru carbon cleaning? I asked my tuner local Shop here in the Philippines. My friend who is the owner said if we do the carbon cleaning we might as well do the port and polish since the Intake Manifold is out anyways...

Any thoughts?

Richie

[Rick_RS4]

i see you cleaned the ports on the inlet manifold but did you clean inside the bits you cant see if so how? i think it can be opened up.

with the open valves did you rock the car in gear to close them? (to work on them)

when you scraped the gunk off how did you get bits out that fall on the top of the valve? i see you have a compressed airline is this necessary? or will a vaccume do lol?

going to tackle this and fit the jhm manifold spacers at the same time.



now call me stupid but when i had a 1.8t i fitted a catch tank is this not possible to help or does the vapour get circulated internally?

[DazN]

The manifold that came off is a rough cast so there wasn't a great deal of carbon on it, just the openings where you can see and clean anyway.

Yes there were 4-5 valves closed so we cleaned those, then put the car in 4th and pushed it forwards to close the remaining valves.

We manually cleaned it by scraping it all out, the airline we had was just to blast everything out but a small vacuum would be the perfect tool for the job.

Good luck!!

[Rick_RS4]

The manifold that came off is a rough cast so there wasn't a great deal of carbon on it, just the openings where you can see and clean anyway.

Yes there were 4-5 valves closed so we cleaned those, then put the car in 4th and pushed it forwards to close the remaining valves.

We manually cleaned it by scraping it all out, the airline we had was just to blast everything out but a small vacuum would be the perfect tool for the job.

Good luck!!

ok great thanks for the reply, i read somewhere (cant find the thread) that they had the inlet mani ported while it was off, it made a noticable difference