Dissolving carbon buildup from pistons - Cleaning piston ring grooves engine rebuild compression

Cleaning horrible carbon buildup from the pistons and ring grooves. I had tried many things including scraping, soaking, etc. I tried various products including seafoam and Marvel Mystery Oil MMO Soak with no success. I finally tried this Berryman's Chemtool which worked great.

Rebuilding my Saturn 1.9 DOHC engine with new rings, bearings, seals, etc. due to a low compression in cylinder 3 situation. The engine was old and it was time for an overhaul.

[_Hertz]

You can also use Simple Green and warm it up to about 120 degrees F using a heater and then soak your parts in it overnight. The carbon that remains will be easy to remove with a toothbrush or rag. Smells great too!

[Flightstar]

That's very impressive stuff to work that quickly. I always say that if you crack the can and sniff it, and Don't get instant hemorrhaging from the nose. eyes and your skin falls off and you start pissing blood. Then the stuff is just no good. The nastier the better.

[paulshamblin]

I used diesel fuel on mine. Much cheaper. Probably not quite as good but got the job done. Love that sound of the first fire of a fresh rebuild.

[buckshottwo]

Did about 10 years of small engine work. We used cleaner like that. There were two kinds available at the time...don't remember the names but the one which had. A small parts basket seem to be a lot stronger. After you soaked the parts for 10 min, you spray it with carb cleaner. Believe it or not the carb cleaner from Walmart' in the blue can' is a lot better than other more expensive stuff at parts stores. Anyway' the carbon crud just ran rite off.

[michaelpeterson]

I learned this trick years ago it absolutely works make sure you keep your hands out of this it’s very strong...

[screenshot]

That's the correct chemical. If solution is fresh, soak overnight and it should come out clean without mechanical scraping. BTW, using an old ring to remove carbon can also remove metal. Try to avoid that.

[jefffuehr]

it's a good thing that you made this video. maybe now people will realize that there is no such thing as a "miracle bottle" of combustion cleaner that you can simply pick up at autozone, and pour it into your motor, and expect to see results like that.

[jobseeker]

You should be brushing with a nylon toothbrush....on some parts a copper brush can be used. This helps a LOT.

[PatrickBaptist]

Auto Zone has a piston groove cleaner on their loaner tool program just $25 and you get it all back when you bring the tool back.
I used a rotary wheel brush to clean most of the carbon off I just couldn't get the grooves all clean.

[kyral]

I used the berrymans chemdip after watching this video. it works but it will not remove a thick build up so its best to use a brass bruss and clean it off as best you can first then dip it. I found that towards the end i was mostly dipping the piston to weaken the carbon in the ring grooves then scraping with a broken piston ring like suggested (most time consuming part of cleaning the piston)

[techo]

Spray can of cheap no name oven cleaner works for me every time. Just spray it on and work it in the grooves and stained areas with a paint brush for a couple of minutes and rinse. All done (actually many pistons done) for a couple of bucks a can.

[firebearva]

Gloves, eye protection and a brush. Scraping can mar parts . I have used Chem-Dip and it worked well for me.

[Mrrunner]

You need to try Super clean, just spray the pistons, let them sit for 15 min then use a tooth brush.Repeat the process until all the carbon is gone.The carbon just seems to melt off! It's only $7.99 in Canada

[FrozenHaxor]

Pour the contents of that can into an ultrasonic cleaner and clean in that.

Profit.

[dougankrum]

...Good deal....Berrymans is about the last supplier of anything that works....and they used to be better, but the EPA made them remove a few of the ingredients that made it work for works pretty well for carb's....a gallon of that stuff is waaaay over $30 here in dis-continued product is Gunk was terrific for aluminum, and other 'soft' metals that you couldn't put in the heated caustic soda tanks that were for cast-iron blocks... Gunk Hydro-seal was the only cleaner recommended by Harley-Davidson for cleaning pistons and other carboned-up stuff....and you know how old Harleys were, right..?

[electric-rideshare]

Thanks DoSumpthin.. Berrymans worked great on dissolving carbon on some valves out of a Jeep I am rebuilding upper valvetrain

[sporsterini]

Just run you a sink full of very hot water and some dish washing liquid. Let the parts soak for awhile. Run another sink full of hot water. Use some SOS pads and they will come clean and shiny. I've been doing this for years and it works every time. The great thing is, it's so cheap and your parts get washed in the process. Ready for assembly.

[brianzero]

Use BBQ grill cleaner, found at Lowes, Home Depot or any hardware store. That stuff will turn the carbon deposits to liquid, that you can wash off. This is the zero labor method.

[MrUfishpt]

Oven Cleaner works very well.  Spray, let soak for 30 minutes, scrub with brush, and you should be good to go.  Do it all the time.   Use gloves.

[Kaliver]

Crystal Draino with a little bit of water and Aluminum Foil balls in a bucket works great!