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Carbon Buildup????

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Old Jun 10, 2010 | 10:39 PM
  #21  
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Originally Posted by ~Joshua
You can mix it a little stronger. But I wouldn't expect results from one bottle. You should use a bottle in the next several tanks to truly clean the injectors. Techron won't cure combustion chamber carbon though. Just mild intake runner and intake valve cleaning.

Like I said earlier... I faithfully used Chevron, always added bottles of Techron at double strength, added a catch can, sucked Seafoam into the running engine through the pcv inlet on the manifold and had plumes of smoke. And look at the pictures of the carbon buildup.

True carbon issues are described below.

Does your car ping slightly (or heavily) under hard acceleration? If you can hear it audibly and you are using premium gas... that means the fuel is pre-igniting from a combination of higher compression from the carbon buildup taking up space in the chambers and potential temperature hotspots at the tip of a mini carbon spike. (I found some in mine) If so, then you should find a person with hptuners who can ride along with their laptop and see the spark knock occuring. If that's the case I would highly recommend physical removal of the carbon. It would be a good time to upgrade your cylinder heads and add a hotter camshaft.

The fact that you have a slight stumble at idle or very slow speed I wouldn't say that's from carbon. I'd say it's a weak ignition system from plugs or wires and/or fueling issues most notably a fuel injector (or more) being partially clogged. If you want the best for injector cleaning I would recommend Lucas injector cleaner. I've had great success using it for a motorcycle that had injector clogging from stale gas.

Just like Techron, the key is to cycle through several tanks to lessen the issue. And at that point you should still periodicly invest in a bottle or two for maintenance.

Hope this helps...
Thx man for the informative reply, my idling issue is definitely not the pinging (maybe a little), but more of a slight stumble at idle. The 2nd owner of the car owned it for 5 yrs and only put 500 miles on it over that period. This was probably worse on some components than if he would have put a 100k on it over that time period. I have a busted CV Joint boot right now so I am waiting for it to come in and will run some techron and the Lucas Injector after that. Definitely changing the plugs and wires as from your description that seems to be the culprit.
Thx again and keep that chrome shinning as I am sure you will.....DAMN that is sharp!
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Old Aug 2, 2010 | 10:33 PM
  #22  
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Finally got around to changing the plugs...went with NGK TR55 and Taylor 8MM Spiro Pros. Spent about 1.5 hours, first time working on this thing....enjoyed it. Still slight stumble at idle though, I have ran a couple bottles of Chevron w/Techron Injector Cleaner through to no avail. Plan on cleaning the throttle body this week sometime, hopefully that will help.

I will post picks of the spark plugs tomorrow, maybe some of you can eyeball any abnormalities. Noticed that plug 2 and 4 had somewhat of a white residue on them. BTW, I was expecting AC plugs in her, but they were Densos I was told by previous owner that they had never been changed....are these stock plugs?
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Old Aug 3, 2010 | 05:32 AM
  #23  
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Denso, yes they are stock. My 02 had them as well. I run FP60 in every tank of fuel to keep carbon in check. Have had the heads off and while there is some carbon, I found it to be soft and easier to remove and generally there is less of it.
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Old Aug 3, 2010 | 02:01 PM
  #24  
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Good luck, think about an oil catch can.

Elite Engineering is a good company to work with, and I recommend them.
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Old Aug 3, 2010 | 08:15 PM
  #25  
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Photos of the plugs

#1

#1


#2

#2


#3

#3


#4

#4


#5

#5


#6

#6


#7

#7


#8

#8
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Old Aug 3, 2010 | 10:16 PM
  #26  
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Default Added Plug Pics

Ttt
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Old Dec 4, 2010 | 10:14 PM
  #27  
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I see a lot of folks recommending a LS6 PCV upgrade to the LS1 cars, while it seems like a good idea up front, the LS6 had just as bad (if not worse) track record of oil usage and oily manifolds than any LS1.

It also doesn't take into account the vacuum hose attaching the front of the passenger side valve cover to the port on the throttle body. Shouldn't that be bypassed as well?
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Old Dec 6, 2010 | 08:19 PM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Chevy Guy
I see a lot of folks recommending a LS6 PCV upgrade to the LS1 cars, while it seems like a good idea up front, the LS6 had just as bad (if not worse) track record of oil usage and oily manifolds than any LS1.

It also doesn't take into account the vacuum hose attaching the front of the passenger side valve cover to the port on the throttle body. Shouldn't that be bypassed as well?
I check that hose frequently and it shows no sign of oil. I use a long cotton swab to check. It stays clean for some readon. And yes, I swapped to the valley cover w/PCV.
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