I've been reading about using water to effectively clean the carbon off of the piston heads. Sounds kinda dangerous to me. My truck pings if I don't use high octane. I know that this is because the owner before me just ran regular gas for 160,000 miles. I had another thought also. If I get the pistons clean, run 87 in it then won't I kinda be right back where I started. I do get great gas mileage with the 93 anyways.

 

It is safe.

 

not to be that guy but have u verified ur timing? i dont know much about the water thing but i love seafoam. anyhow just my 2 cents. good luck

 

the most common mistake is that people pour too much water in...the safest way is just a drop at a time, its pretty easy to put in too much water, and once you do that theres some costly repairs.

 

Oil and water don't mix...
Carbon and oil float on water, sure.
How the heck does this clean your engine?

 

the water gets injected into the combustion chamber, when the gasoline fires it turns the water into steam, and the steam cleans the piston heads

 

seafoam = much safer

 

x2!!!

 

so if you have a bad head gasket and it leaks water in the cylinders it should clean the pistons or a piston?

 

^^Yes

Thats how I determined I had a bad HG and once I took it apart, which cylinder it was leaking into.

3 cylinders were all carbony, number 4 was clean as a whistle

 

they're both effective

Seafoam has extra chemicals added to help break down the deposits and pull them off the pistons and cyl heads, but it also has oils and lubricants in it so it's not as harsh as just plain water. Those chemicals and lubricants is why it smokes so bad when you run it through the engine; it's not the freed up carbon that causes the smoke contrary to popular belief.

Water get sucked into the combustion chamber, causes a little higher compression because water doesn't compress or burn, and that split second of extra compression helps to break some of the deposits free. Then on the ignition stroke the water is vaporized into steam, which further helps to break free and clean up the deposits and flush them out of the combustion chamber.

I've done both, and they both seemed to work for the most part. If you don't want to spend the $10 on a can of Seafoam, you can drip water into a vacuum line on the throttle body to introduce it into the system (I would suggest you at least use distilled water, because if you use tap water you may be adding other contaminants into the engine as you're taking others out in the process). A slow drip is NOT going to hydrolock your engine. You might be surprised at just how much water you have to suck into a motor to hydro lock it. And that little drip (if done for maybe 5 minutes or so) isn't going to completely clean off your cylinder walls of oil and cause damage, simply because it's in such small doses. But one thing that may make you want to consider using Seafoam over water is those extra chemicals that help to break down the deposits. When you use water, those broken free deposits aren't really going to get "broken down" so to speak. In fact, depending on how bad the deposits are, they may break off into large enough pieces to actually get caught in the catalytic converter and reduce it's flow and efficiency, which is going to lead to higher emissions, a weaker feeling engine since there's more restriction in the exhaust, and eventually an overheating and failing catalytic converter. Those extra chemicals in Seafoam are going to break down those deposits that break free and let them flow through the exhaust and come out the tip. That's one of the things I did notice different between using both methods. Using the Seafoam on the one vehicle ended with a ton of black sooty-looking fluid to come all the way out of the exhaust and drip onto the ground. Using plain water, not so much. A little, but not as much as with the Seafoam.



But that's just my $0.02 from my knowledge and experience, so take that how you will.

 

About a tablespoon.

Be careful, is all I say.

 

^^^ have you ever blown a head gasket? Dumps a heck of alot more than just a tablespoon of coolant into your engine and most of the time will still run.

 

People running water injection sometime run as much as a half gal or more per tank of gas if that helps any.

 

clerks cartoon?

 

Plus, under vacuum the water is going to "boil off" and turn into vapor much easier than if you were running W.O.T. (when most hydrolocks occur)