my head is at alaniz right now and i figured in the mean time since my pistons are nice and exposed is there any way i can safely remove the carbon deposits on the top of the pistons? without effecting anything?

 

crank the pistons to about middle so they are all level, then fill up the cylinders with some good ol ATF and let it sit for as long as you can. or if you dont have ATF, u can use seafoam or something, basically just fill it up and let it soak, eventually it will all run through the rings, so if you have time, just fill it up again and let it soak some more, then of course drain out the oil pan when your done.

 

how much carbon is on those things?..if you clean them you may lose some compresion,hehe..j/k

 

only 52,000 on the engine. not much i just figured i would clean them up as best i could while i had the head off. btw. i think my spoon head gasket and .025-.030 off the head will more then make up for any comp lost

thanks for the advice

i covered the pistons that are exposed while at tdc and scrubed them after letting them soak. i like this better then allowing broken loose carbon to seap into the pistons and maybe damage my rings or something. so i'll be doing 2 at a time.


Modified by vtecmike1 at 3:07 AM 4/28/2004

 

Dont even bother if you are totally devoted to get the each and every piece of those carbon. Often time, people do a half **** job and create a hot spot on the surface

 

so i gave it a shot. i soaked the exposed pistons in atf over night then i scrubed with an old sock and got as much as i could. the rest i took a very small flat head screw driver and VERY VERY carefully scraped the carbon deposits off. keeping the blade at a very light angle as to not scratch the piston. about 10 minutes per piston and i have 2 done and no scratchs on the pistons. i tapped off the other 2 while i did this as to not get any deposites in the other clyinders. heres some pics of the difference it made. not bad for 50,000 miles on these pistons. there is some heat discoloration but 0 carbon deposites left its like brand new pistons lol. almost.

 

good work man, did you have before shots?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BolivianDc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">good work man, did you have before shots?</TD></TR></TABLE>

look at the two middle pistons which he did not do yet.

 

ya it turned out really well. dunno why clyinder 1 has so much heat discoloration. but oh well. the other 2 pistons should be done tomorow. and the head should be here by next week. 50,000 miles of carbon deposites gone makes me kinda happy lol. since the head will be cleaner then new its like i took off almost all my miles. lol. clyinder walls still have factory hone marks so there in tip top shape and without the carbon in there its practically new