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Cylinder Head Carbon Build Up Sea Foam Service Limitations

Frankenstein_VW

Shop Owner / Technician
Location
Washington, NJ
FSI CARBON BUILD UP from a vehicle with under 60k and Upgraded Turbo System, this cylinder head showed "Mild" Build up compared to other vehicles we have serviced

Un-Cleaned Valves Removed from Cylinder Head





Sea Foam Cleaning on Two Valves while they were still in the Cylinder Head VS. Un-cleaned



These Two Valves were Sea Foamed while still in the head, as you can see its still difficult to clean the back sides



Sea Foam Clean Ports while head was still fully assembled VS. Un Cleaned Ports





As you can see from the pictures a Sea Foam Treatment Service to clean the cylinder head / valves only works to an extent ! Cylinder head is currently being steam cleaned, all the valves will be fully cleaned and re installed with new Valve Guide Seals.
 

Frankenstein_VW

Shop Owner / Technician
Location
Washington, NJ
Well this shows seafoam can clean to an extent but is not an all god carbon build solution as some make it out to be

Exactly ! We do not recommend any sort of Sea Foam Service while the cylinder head is still secured to the short block, as it can allow for large chunks of carbon to both fall into the cylinder as well as get caught in the valve sealing surface with could lead to a valve being stuck slightly open or even worse bending a valve !

:frown:
 

julito04

I plead the fif.
Location
STL
Car(s)
08 WRX Limited
So.. I guess you would not recommend this for a high mileage car..
 

Frankenstein_VW

Shop Owner / Technician
Location
Washington, NJ
Depending on Carbon Deposit build ups the only true way to remedy the situation is to dis-assemble the head and fully clean the entire assembly and re-install the valves with new seals.

Do you have any pictures of your build up with Motul ? We have been debating switching over oils to a Motul Product.
 

JaySki

Ready to race!
Location
Metro Detroit
i guess ia m sticking w/ motul

Your Motul isn't going to make much of a difference in this case...

Carbon build up on the Intake valves is due to the mere nature of our Direct Inject engines.. Since the fuel is directly injected into the combustion chamber, it doesn't pass by the intake valves as most cars.
That leaves only Air and blow by (Oil, gas, water vapor) to hit the hot intake valves and burning/building up. Gas and additives in the gas generally are what prevent this blow by from building up on the valves as it mixes with air and passes the intake valves to the combustion chamber.

Has nothing to really do with what type of oil you are using...
 

JamDawg

Go Kart Champion
Location
Atlanta
Car(s)
09 GTI 4 DOOR
Nice to know, good pictures,

Thanks you Sir for this thread :clap:

I'm assuming the TSI is the exact same way?
 
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