If you put too much in the engine you can hydrolock it and bust something. You can't use a water hose to do it. You have to use a spray bottle or something like that. Too much can cause problems. I have never seen a modern engine carbon up that was running correctly.

Perry

 

The worst engines to carbon up was the 360 Mopar engines made around 76,77,78. The wonderful Electronic Leanburns TeeHee. The 360 would get clogged up in the intake manifold crossover. This is when they started taking the lead out of gas. They were awful. Most of the 318's in the area where I live were not using the Electronic Leanburn ingition during the time. They say the Calforina engines were the worst.

But no the newer engines do not carbon up.

The post was orginially about how to knock the carbon off the spark plugs.

 

That really brings me back. I think those crossovers clogged up a lot on lots of engines since all the exhaust from one side went through that little hole to warm up the intake when it was being choked at the same time. I vagely remember the 360 but do remember the old 318 ha ha .

 

Well I tell how well I remember them, I've still got a big ole SK screwdriver with a beat up handel that I used, which was the tool of choice back then.

 

No, just keeping it simple in an overly general manner. Probably not my best use of words in retrospect.

Air compresses. The fuel within that air is atomized. Too much water (that doesn't compress) will cause major problems versus atomized fuel, which does compress.

Stewart

 

Right, running water through an intake won't hurt the engine because there isn't enough of it and it is partially atomized by the time it hits the cylinder and it can help with softening carbon (you might want to do it right before you change your oil). The problem can come when you have a cracked head or block or bad gasket and the water seeps in there while it is shut off. When I was a kid I experimented with my Chevy 283 by putting a garden hose in the carb, pinning the rpms at 5 grand, and adding water until it died. The venturis atomized the water along with the fuel and the manifold distributed it also. It took a lot of water but never pinged while doing that and ran great for years after that. I did change the oil right away. I know, this is the same guy that ran his engine dry for a minute but people fear things they know nothing about (which might be a good thing).

 

I had a Dodge Caravan that blew a head gasket and it sucked in alot of coolant. Well that Cylinder was clean as a whistle after than from all the water being atomized. I don't recommend it though. I am sure it put some wear and tear on the rings.

Perry

 

I doubt it there was any ring wear that fast as they are very hard but water mixed with oil is hard on the crank.