Decarbonizer

[pmhowe]

On Christech's Oldsmobile restoration site ( a superb site; everyone should read) , he refers to a "Decarbonizer". What is that? What does it do? (I have removed the head from some old cars and removed the carbon, but didn't know it could be done automatically.) How does it work?

 

Thanks,

Phil

[61polara]

With the engine running, pull a vacuum line that runs directly to the intake and stick it into a bottle of water.  Pull it out when the engine starts to die, so to keep it running.  The water will clean out the carbon.

[Hans1]

I in the old days,  we took a long neck bottle,  filled with water, removed air cleaner and operated throttle by hand at moderate speed , just poured water into carb (down draft )  and if engine started to stall completely stopped water and revved engine, then started with water again.

 

With an up draft carb  we used my mom's clothes sprinkler ( a cork on a sprinkler head stuck into a bottle of water, she used it to sprinkle clothes when was ironing )  as  motor struggled to run we had to race  the engine a lot to keep it going.

 

I never knew how full  of carbon the muffler was.   only once did we just shoot the soot out an exhaust pipe.  

 

It's fun remembering things we have not done since last century. 

[Guest]

GM shops used to pour a can of "Cleens" down the carb on every tune up un the 60's and early 70's.  Most of the mechanics where I worked said half a coke bottle of water would do the same thing and save you $3.00.

[Tim Wolfe]

My 1930 Chryslers have a "carbosolve" unit that was installed at the factory. It used a small can of chemical mounted on the firewall, just before you shut the engine off- you pulled a valve under the dash and a vacuum line sucked the fluid into the intake manifold. This would stall the engine and flood the valves with the chemical. It would loosen the carbon and the next time you started the car, it would blow the carbon out the exhaust.  I had a concours judge deduct points from my car because I had it on my car, the following year I took my manual along and proved it was factory installed.  I have the original sales sheets for the system and the chemical. Very rare to see it still on a car..

[spencer yarrow]

Or you could try this, it was sent to me by a friend hard to read but I think you get the idea.

[chistech]

It was a factory installed feature (not an option) on 32’ Olds and the unit used a “special “ fluid sold by AC. My friend has nicknamed it snake oil. With the Olds, you reached over to the passenger side firewall with your right foot and with the motor running at a moderate rpm, you would depress a small button (it resembles a tiny foot dimmer switch) until the car stalled. Then as was said, the next morning you would start it up and blow out the carbon. Here is a picture from the internet that shows the decarbonizer mounted on the firewall, tied into the manifold with the curly copper tubing. It is missing the can of special fluid that went on the top, above the jar, and was held in place by the spring bail wire. At the same time, the can was pierced releasing the fluid down into the jar.

[retiredmechanic74]

GM has or had a product called CarbonX they had us use this product while the cars were still under warranty (and after). After you got the car to normal opper. temp. You would slowly poor the 2/3rds of the content into the carb while the engine was running and rocking the throttle plate up and down to keep it from stalling. When you got down to the last 1/3rd you where to poor it down quickly and cause the engine to stall out. Then wait 20 minutes and restart the engine, it really did it's job. But water worked as well.

[lump]

When I was a kid I FINALLY got a job in a corner gas station, pumping gas, washing windshields, checking under the hood, etc, etc. (Remember those days?)

 

Anyway, there was one mechanic who worked there part time (and full time as a mechanic in a local Chevrolet dealership). All the older employees there told me that this one guy was special; much better than any other mechanics there. (Frankly,. I was so young and knew so little myself, I was in no position to know if that was true). 

 

So anyway, one night a lady pulled up to the pumps. I walked out and she asked me to listen to a worrisome knock in her engine. It was a deep cast-iron sounding hollow knock, and I feared the worst for her. But I walked into the service bays, and asked ol Clint if he would come out and check out this lady's problem. He put down his tools, came out and stuck his head under the hood and listened to the knock. Quietly I said to him, "It's a rod knocking, isn't it?" He stood up, looked at me for a minute, and then told the lady that he did NOT think it was a rod. He went back inside, and returned with a quart of transmission fluid. He held the throttle rod to rev the engine higher, and then proceeded to pour in that trans fluid, almost stalling the engine several times. The lady was horrified, and you never SAW such a cloud of white smoke. It blinded every driver at that intersection. Then Clint told her to let him drive it while she waited. He pulled out on the street, stomped the throttle to the floor and held it there till he was out of sight. The white cloud this time was even bigger than before, if that is possible. Soon, he came driving back to the pumps, where the lady and I waited with our mouths hanging open. He revved the engine several times for her....but the knock was gone! He told her it was just a carbon build up. She paid for the tranny fluid, and drove away, still in shock. Wow, the memories of a teenage pump jockey. 

Edited January 23, 2018 by lump (see edit history)

[cheezestaak2000]

On 1/22/2018 at 11:20 AM, retiredmechanic74 said:

GM has or had a product called CarbonX they had us use this product while the cars were still under warranty (and after). After you got the car to normal opper. temp. You would slowly poor the 2/3rds of the content into the carb while the engine was running and rocking the throttle plate up and down to keep it from stalling. When you got down to the last 1/3rd you where to poor it down quickly and cause the engine to stall out. Then wait 20 minutes and restart the engine, it really did it's job. But water worked as well.

was that the same as GM top engine cleaner? that stuff worked really well at freeing up the often stuck rings in my chevy vega.i didn't pour it into the carb, i took the spark plugs out, poured a little in, and let it set for a couple hours.

 

Edited February 2, 2018 by cheezestaak2000 (see edit history)

[retiredmechanic74]

6 hours ago, cheezestaak2000 said:

was that the same as GM top engine cleaner? that stuff worked really well at freeing up the often stuck rings in my chevy vega.i didn't pour it into the carb, i took the spark plugs out, poured a little in, and let it set for a couple hours.

 

You could say, it was a watered down version of CarbonX. That was way back then when they took pride in their products.

[mtnchev]

Guys, there is one thing that should be kept in mind when pouring any fluid into a running engine: that fluids are not compressable.  The effective compression in an engine can be raised to dangerous levels by dumping water in the carburetor while running.  I've seen several head gaskets blown by doing this, one blew a piece of the gasket completely out of the engine.  Older cars used lower compression levels and may not be so likely to have problems, but some cars in the 70s have compression levels high enough to cause concern.

 

 Properly metered, water injected into an engine can make a sizeable power increase, but unmetered can cause problems.  In WWII several fighter planes used water injection to increase power, especially at higher altitudes. There has been many cars that used some kind of fluid injection, the 1962 and1963 Olds Jetfires are the latest that I remember.  If you think that you have a carbon build up problem, I would consider putting a modern Injector cleaner in the gas tank. This insures that the additive flow will be metered whether you are running fuel injection or a carburetor.  These cleaning fluid seem to work fairly well.  I have seen several fuel injected cars (which are prone to carbon fouled injectors, causing engine misfires) returned to running smoothly this way.

Larry

[captndan]

On 1/19/2018 at 9:41 AM, Tim Wolfe said:

My 1930 Chryslers have a "carbosolve" unit that was installed at the factory. It used a small can of chemical mounted on the firewall, just before you shut the engine off- you pulled a valve under the dash and a vacuum line sucked the fluid into the intake manifold. This would stall the engine and flood the valves with the chemical. It would loosen the carbon and the next time you started the car, it would blow the carbon out the exhaust.  I had a concours judge deduct points from my car because I had it on my car, the following year I took my manual along and proved it was factory installed.  I have the original sales sheets for the system and the chemical. Very rare to see it still on a car..

Please please post a picture of this device.  I think my 26 has one and I never knew what it was.  Thanks

[JACK M]

When Outboard Marine Corporation was still in business they sold a product called Engine Tuner. Might still be available.

It came in squirt cans or Gallon cans.

One would pour or squirt the stuff down the throat of the carburetor when hot and shut the engine off while it was still smoking.

Let it sit over night and warm it up again in the morning. Man what a difference.

I sold a lot of that stuff to local auto shops. I only had to prove the stuff once and they would buy gallons after that.

You wouldn't want to get this stuff on your hands as it would burn you.

Edited February 3, 2018 by JACK M (see edit history)

[Terry Bond]

I still have a few cans of this stuff!  Bought a case a while back to display in my old auto parts store recreation. Neat looking but I never tried it and have no idea what it contains.

Terry

[chistech]

Just to let everyone know. I would like to find an original can. I have a new remanufactured can now. Hopefully the PDF can be opened so people will know what I'm looking for.

 

Remo Decarbonizer (1).pdf