Carbon clean? Bang for buck?

[harrier]

Seems I wasn't clear enough; what I was suggesting was a regular Terraclean MIGHT prevent (or reduce) the carbon build up. You can hear the engine run smoother and smell the exhaust improvement as the neat ionised fuel under pressure is run through. Cleaning is clearly occuring and anything that lets the engine breathe better might slow the carbon build up. The carbon shifted disappears as CO2 - I wasn't suggesting for a moment you could hope for or want anything to lift off great lumps of baked on deposits.

Anyway, back to jonytec's post - has any of this helped you decide on carbon clean, remap or both?

[PetrolDave]

Seems I wasn't clear enough; what I was suggesting was a regular Terraclean MIGHT prevent (or reduce) the carbon build up. You can hear the engine run smoother and smell the exhaust improvement as the neat ionised fuel under pressure is run through. Cleaning is clearly occuring and anything that lets the engine breathe better might slow the carbon build up.

Surely once the inlet manifold becomes "dry" again (when the cleaning stops) carbon buildup will restart again at the same rate as before?

Terraclean HAS been tried by RS4 owners in previous years and shown to have little immediate benefit and no long term benefit.

Save your cash for regular Italian tunes - that will achieve at least as much, if not more, and make you smile instead of cringe at the bill

[pule333]

Seems I wasn't clear enough; what I was suggesting was a regular Terraclean MIGHT prevent (or reduce) the carbon build up. You can hear the engine run smoother and smell the exhaust improvement as the neat ionised fuel under pressure is run through. Cleaning is clearly occuring and anything that lets the engine breathe better might slow the carbon build up.

Surely once the inlet manifold becomes "dry" again (when the cleaning stops) carbon buildup will restart again at the same rate as before?

Terraclean HAS been tried by RS4 owners in previous years and shown to have little immediate benefit and no long term benefit.

Save your cash for regular Italian tunes - that will achieve at least as much, if not more, and make you smile instead of cringe at the bill

would you elaborate on this "Italian tune" is this exactly what I think it is or something a bit more...?

[marc1]

Drive it hard through the rev range.

[TobyRS4]

A large dose of WOT!

[Covkiller]

Italian Tune = Wring it out when you can.
And when on the Autobahn, fill up with Aral 102 and wring it out until you're empty and then repeat until your deaf !

[iduff]

Don't forget the first stage of the Italian Tune-Up:

1) Examine rearview mirrors to confirm lack of any REO presence.
2) Punch it!

[harrier]

In reply to Petroldave, I am not so dismissive of Terracleaning as my RS4 B7's CO went from 0.199% pre to 0.010% thirty two days post cleaning and more relevantly to carbon cleaning, particularly in the short term, Hydrocarbons went from 54ppm pre to 14ppm post! If engine fuel combustion is more efficient, then won't there be less petrol/carbon from the re-breathing tubes to coke it up, but hey what do I know?

Emissions test results pre clean 11-06-13

Emissions test results post clean 13-07-13

[FaisalJ]

Terraclean/EngineCarbonClean may well clean out some stuff post combustion...the process involves pumping oxygen and hydrogen into the intake which will no doubt result in a hotter and more efficient combustion, allowing gunk to be fired out of the exhaust while the engine is being rev'd furiously.

However, our carbon build up issue is pre-combustion, in the intake manifold. Have a look through my thread and the video. We tested it on a dyno, borescoped a golf before and after the clean, and even ended up pulling the manifold off the RS4...EngineCarbonClean did not clean out the carbon.

[rs4pat]

Terraclean/EngineCarbonClean may well clean out some stuff post combustion...the process involves pumping oxygen and hydrogen into the intake which will no doubt result in a hotter and more efficient combustion, allowing gunk to be fired out of the exhaust while the engine is being rev'd furiously.

However, our carbon build up issue is pre-combustion, in the intake manifold. Have a look through my thread and the video. We tested it on a dyno, borescoped a golf before and after the clean, and even ended up pulling the manifold off the RS4...EngineCarbonClean did not clean out the carbon.

off topic but i like your new sig faisal

[PetrolDave]

Terraclean/EngineCarbonClean may well clean out some stuff post combustion...the process involves pumping oxygen and hydrogen into the intake which will no doubt result in a hotter and more efficient combustion, allowing gunk to be fired out of the exhaust while the engine is being rev'd furiously.

However, our carbon build up issue is pre-combustion, in the intake manifold. Have a look through my thread and the video. We tested it on a dyno, borescoped a golf before and after the clean, and even ended up pulling the manifold off the RS4...EngineCarbonClean did not clean out the carbon.

+1

A cleaner burn will mean less carbon is being generated in the short term but will have no effect on removing the carbon that is already the in the intake manifold.

Terraclean, and other similar schemes, are not a method of doing a carbon clean - the only way is to take the intake manifold off and use good old fashioned elbow grease.

[TobyRS4]

Terraclean/EngineCarbonClean may well clean out some stuff post combustion...the process involves pumping oxygen and hydrogen into the intake which will no doubt result in a hotter and more efficient combustion, allowing gunk to be fired out of the exhaust while the engine is being rev'd furiously.

However, our carbon build up issue is pre-combustion, in the intake manifold. Have a look through my thread and the video. We tested it on a dyno, borescoped a golf before and after the clean, and even ended up pulling the manifold off the RS4...EngineCarbonClean did not clean out the carbon.

off topic but i like your new sig faisal

Yeh me too

undecided on terracleans, although id make sure whoever is doing it is properly clued up, MRC noted to me on service they thought mine may have been done at some stage as the air filter was damaged which implies not done correctly, either way if it had been done their notes on the carbon build up were that it hadn't appeared to touch it.

then again we go round in a big circle to the Carbon clean skeptics that say did it clear it but it has built back up again so............

[harrier]

So, any decision yet on carbon clean or re-map or both?

[jonytek]

Sorry guys I've been away for the past week and just catching up now.

I'm thinking that the first stop will be a health check and dyno run at MRC and then looking at options off the back of their recommendations. The clean will be put on hold unless it's recommend and will look more into an exhaust and remap. I'm not going to ask about exhausts though, I imagine that would ignite its own opioniated debate.

thanks for the help.

[MikeFish]

If your car is not outputting around 410bhp (assuming standard) then I'm fairly sure MRC will recommend a carbon clean to get the number up to normal. And unless it has had a recent carbon clean then it won't be making these numbers. Which brings us back to the original question; to clean or not to clean?