watching Pole Barn Garage on You Tube. Fellow is working on 1974 Dodge Monaco. About half way through the video he uses steam cleaning trick. He pours bottled water down the throat of the carburetor with engine running and he claims this breaks up the carbon on the valves and pistons. Has anyone tried this? Does it work? Paul
Anyone hear of "steam cleaning trick"?
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3C's & a D?
Senior Member
Sounds like a smart guy. How'd it work out for him?
I don't know. He didn't remove the heads so I couldn't see the valves or pistons. He also tried something called Motor Purr which I never heard of or tried. Paul
Howdy. Now I'm an old guy and when I was a young guy 40+ years ago I was advised to do this, by an old guy, to an engine of unknown origins and running poorly. First get the engine hot and get a half pint of extremely cold water and drizzle the water into the engine at high RPM, don't let it stall. A whole bunch of smoke should come out the exhaust. It will "steam clean" the inside, removing built up carbon. The same guy told me when you have a ticking lifter to drain out a quart of oil and add a quart of transmission fluid and run the engine to free up a collapsed lifter once noise goes away change the oil and filter. And yes it works.
bronze turbine
Active Member
That's an old-timer's trick. It might do some good. Engine should be running at about high-idle speed. Just trickle the water in so you don't stall the engine. And don't hydro-lock it!
Never did see pure water, BUT I did witness atf and water, about half and half mixed by shaking the Coke bottle before it was drizzled into the carb with the engine at about 2500rpm, not killing the motor in the process. Was alleged to get carbon out of the combustion chamber. Smoked a lot, but after a short drive, the smoke was gone.
MANY of these orientations tended to be fueled by what might be available locally, rather than going to a formal auto supply for supplies. ATF was everywhere at filling stations and such (which also did light mechanical work (as tune-ups) back then. Pure water might have been for the people "out of town", whereas the atf + water could have been for the "town people" who did not want to spend the $1.50/bottle for Berryman's B-12 additive. To me, the atf + water would be a safer mix!
ATF in the motor oil was alleged to work as a cleaner due to its lighter viscosity and the fact it had a different betch of detergents in it than normal motor oil did. In the 1960s, the best motor oil was not nearly as good as the cheapest motor oil now, as to detergency. Aside from the detergency, the 1qt of atf thinned the norma motor oil, too.
Back then, "borescopes" were not around so no way to look inside to see how much carbon was gone. The old "vapor injectors" kind of operated on the same principle. Alcohol and water were in the container together and the mixture was metered into the car as it ran. Was supposed to increase power and mpg, but the people who I saw have them on their cars back then didn't keep them long. Such a mixture was needed on the '62 Olds Jetfire V-8s as it was factory turbo'd with a 10.0 CR. They called it "Turbocharger Fluid".
Check out the "Chris Fixx" YouTube videos on fuel system cleaners. Borescope images.
CBODY67
MANY of these orientations tended to be fueled by what might be available locally, rather than going to a formal auto supply for supplies. ATF was everywhere at filling stations and such (which also did light mechanical work (as tune-ups) back then. Pure water might have been for the people "out of town", whereas the atf + water could have been for the "town people" who did not want to spend the $1.50/bottle for Berryman's B-12 additive. To me, the atf + water would be a safer mix!
ATF in the motor oil was alleged to work as a cleaner due to its lighter viscosity and the fact it had a different betch of detergents in it than normal motor oil did. In the 1960s, the best motor oil was not nearly as good as the cheapest motor oil now, as to detergency. Aside from the detergency, the 1qt of atf thinned the norma motor oil, too.
Back then, "borescopes" were not around so no way to look inside to see how much carbon was gone. The old "vapor injectors" kind of operated on the same principle. Alcohol and water were in the container together and the mixture was metered into the car as it ran. Was supposed to increase power and mpg, but the people who I saw have them on their cars back then didn't keep them long. Such a mixture was needed on the '62 Olds Jetfire V-8s as it was factory turbo'd with a 10.0 CR. They called it "Turbocharger Fluid".
Check out the "Chris Fixx" YouTube videos on fuel system cleaners. Borescope images.
CBODY67
Mr C
Senior Member
Very old school and it works. Look up Uncle Tony's Garage...he talks about this technique.
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
Yes, I use it, yes, I recently mentioned it within the last couple weeks, NO I WOULDN'T POUR LIQUID WATER INTO THE CARBURETOR, HEAVEN FORBID! I use a fine MIST SPRAY, and slowly, steadily mist the carburetor at ~ 1100-1200 rpm after the engine has warmed up thoroughly for 3-4 minutes, then take the car out to the highway, run it good and hard to blow anything broken loose but larger than molecular out.
I did so last weekend, and with some good Chevron gas in the tank, Gertrude is running smart, though I have a nuisance issue with fuel/air delivery appearing occasionally still. I suspect the carburetor, which has been on the engine for 4 years now, and might need some small attention.
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Gerald Morris
Senior Member
I used the ATF in the crankcase trick decades ago when still running my 351 Cleveland Disgustangs. It would stop the lifter ticking. I would probably add a light motor oil to the crankcase now to achieve the same thing. Old style ATF is mostly just 10W mineral oil anyway. Marvel Mystery oil also is reputed to do the trick for stuck lifters. Same stuff basically....
mrfury68
Senior Member
These are old school tricks that do work. When I started in the neighborhood Exxon station 45 years ago we would do this to cars that didn’t get run a lot or go on the open road very often if ever. It was always fun road testing them after doing the procedure. I distinctly remember a ‘65 Olds Cutlass sedan that had a 425 V8. That car was fast! Purred like a kitten when I got back to the station. The owner of the station was a great guy and never charged a lot for this service.
live4theking
Old Man with a Hat
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We did this to my first 68 NYer in the 90's. The factory Holley was going bad and popping power valves left and right so it had been running rich for sometime. One of the guys I worked with said to warm the car up and then he slowly dumped about 30oz of water down the carb while I kept it running. Left some large black spots on a brand new cement driveway.
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
Soooo RIGHT! Folks need to realize that any sizeable DROPLET of water has the same impact that a comparable sized chunk of METAL has. WHAM! CRACK! BOOM! A fine hose nozzle does alright. A good mist head does even better. Use the sort of mist nozzle that restaurants and such use to cool al fresco diners on the patio. Such resembles light drizzle or heavy fog, which will be particularized similarly to petrol in the intake, producing STEAM. Liquid water can produce the same results as buckshot or BBs....
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Gerald; I've been using an empty spray bottle of Shout pre laundry treatment to spray a mixture of Marvel Mystery Oil and Seafoam in the carburetor with the car running. Maybe I'll use the same method only filling the Shout bottle with water . Paul
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
That should do fine. I've used spray bottles too. Spray a good quart through, over a period of 4-5 minutes. Then, take it out running again. Now I have my mist heads which can be attached to the garden hose.
67nykr
Active Member
During the 1980s, Holley was actively involved in the water injection market. The Holley water injection systems were designed to improve engine performance by reducing inlet air temperature and suppressing detonation, particularly in boosted engines. The fundamental principle of water injection involves introducing a fine mist of water, or a water/methanol mixture, into the air intake. The mist rapidly vaporizes, absorbing heat from the intake charge and lowering the air temperature. This cooler, denser air-fuel mixture (you can't compress a liquid) allows for higher cylinder pressures without risking pre-ignition or detonation, which in turn permits more aggressive timing for increased horsepower. I believe they also claimed it kept your engine cleaner.
Another way to go about it is to pull the vacuum hose off the distributor and plunk it into a cup of water or whatever you're using. I did this just the other day with Seafoam and let it "drink" a couple ounces then pulled the wire off the ballast resistor to stall the engine. I let it sit a couple days in that state then started it up. It smoked somewhat initially while I let it sit and warm up then the smoke went away. But when I took it for a drive, it would smoke when I'd get heavy on the throttle for the first couple minutes of the drive. I have no idea yet if it did any good, but the fact that it would only smoke during heavy throttle means....it either was pooled in the intake and was only being drawn in under load...or some junk was actually being removed. BTW it's a brand new shinny aluminum intake so there wouldn't have been any carbon in that.
67nykr
Active Member
Years ago I used seafoam in my 1988 corsica 4cyl 5 sp. Used a big vacuum hose and let it suck it in, then gave it a good dose to stall it out. poured the remainder in the tank. Left it sit for a while then took it for a drive. I no longer had to drop down to 3rd gear to climb the one hill. I was able to keep it in 5th the whole way to the top.
BrooklynBeer
New Member
I do this with Berryman B12. Bottle down the throat, bottle in the tank. If I have an old engine in a car I suspect lacked oil changes I change the oil out to junk detergent 30W and drive it 10 miles. Pull in the garage and at idle only, add a can of B12 to the oil and let idle for 30 minutes and change the oil. Be amazed what comes out.
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