Piston soak, scoping the cylinder before and after
 

A quart of Kreen is on it's way to me, as is a USB boroscope that will fit down the spark plug hole. Idea is after Christmas I will scope out the top of the pistons with the camera to get a before image/video, do the Kreen soak, then scope it again after to see what difference it made. I'm burning a bit of oil, so hoping this will help. When this is all done I'll post up the pics and vids.

Please post back with the results.

Motor has some interesting info on upper engine decarbonization.

MOTOR Magazine Article | MOTOR Information Systems

Nice read, thanks. I will for sure post up all my procedures, pics, and results!

So:

In the middle of trying to collect data on oil consumption. I'd prefer to know how much oil I am burning up prior, then compare post a soak, so I know if it had a hand in making that better. So far, at 1,300 miles, I haven't appeared to burn any oil. IT is a bit over top mark thanks to using a smaller filter and going 5 qts (accidentally) instead of the 4.5 indicated, but still doesn't appear that I have burned up much of any yet.

And look what came in the other day:

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That last one is a $26 Chinese clone of Techstream that many have used and rave about. So I will be scoping my cylinders sometime in the next several weeks, then soaking with Kreen (that came in a few days ago), then scoping again. And, I'll be checking out my new Techstream similar software.

A quick test video of my borescope below. Looks like it will work well, $19.99!! Going to get mirrors for it for $15 more, so I can drop into the valves and take a look.

Very cool! I'm looking forward to your update!

This weekend I plan to scope the cylinders. Not sure what will really be able to be gleaned from it, but we will probably see a bunch of black. Then I'll do the soak, and see if it at least makes a difference on the top of the cylinders. Probably will, but not sure that will mean much. I'll have to decide if I want to remove the valve cover and scope down to the valves before and after...

Please post back with your findings.

Got my set of mirrors for the scope in today: 30, 45, and 90 degree. What is great is that they screw on to the end, rather than slip on or those that are pick style. That means I have no fear of loosing them in the block. So, I am thinking I will scope my valves as well. Now I just have to find that laptop.... grrr.

Had setbacks for various reasons, but finally got a working 32 bit XP based laptop, loaded the software and scanned my Camry with it (works great), and can now plan my activities. I'll post a new thread up with the scoping results. I ordered another quart of Kreen from Kanolabs, so when that comes in I plan to:

- lift the valve cover and scope the top of the pistons and down into the valves before the soak
- replace cover, soak all four plug holes over night, and dump a quart of Kreen into the oil
- blow out the plug holes the next day, tighten all up and run for ~ 500 miles (1 week)
- remove cover again and re-scope to see what differences are there

Nice!

OK, scoped the tops of the pistons and took a look inside the valve cover today, then set in a Kreen soak. Tomorrow I will blow out the Kreen from the cylinders, then scope the piston heads again to see what effect it had. Then I will put about .5 quart into the oil and a pint into the gas tank and run it for 500 miles or more, then open it all back up and see what we see.




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Very cool! I'm really looking forward to how this comes out. Thanks so much for keeping us all informed!
Can't wait for the results!

Because one of the ignition coil wire ends broke, I am on ice on it until the repair kit comes in later this week. But I did crank over the cylinders this morning to blow out solvent, which I think had just soaked right out of the cylinder (I did not put much as the can called for 1 oz only). I scoped them again this morning and they look the same to me. I'll process video tonight after work and get a better look, but I think the real money will be after the oil add (putting the Kreen in the oil). Not really important to me what the tops of the pistons are, as long as the rings get de-crudded.

Sadly my borescope does not seen to be able to bend enough to get great views inside there, and the angle attachment is sort of sucky, but I'll try it again later :)

Dumped some Kreen in the oil and in the gas today. Will drive it all next week (about 500 miles), then will check the valve cover and piston heads again, and post up.

Just FYI - the car sat for 2 weeks and I had done a heavy soak on the pistons. Had a hell of a time cranking it over once I had it all buttoned up. Started making me think I had screwed something up with my coil repair. But in the end it fired up, ran rough for several seconds, then went smooth. We'll see how it rides with the oil and gas all sovlented up.

Again, keep us posted and thanks for sharing.

Ran for a little over 400 miles with a bit over half quart of Kreen in oil, rest in gas. The can calls for a full quart to run for about 30 minutes then do an oil change, so I changed the oil, put in a full quart to abot 3 quarts oil, and drove to a family function (about an hour drive). Drained and refilled with Mobil1 0-20. I scoped cylinder 3 and saw shiny metal on some places :). I did not dump as much Kreen in the gas as was called for, but think I will buy more. I'll post the video later. Tomorrow, if I am not snowed out, I will lift the valve cover to see if there is any notable difference after this oil experiment.

Cylinder 3 after some Kreen treatment. Not as much as was specified should be placed in gas tank, so will buy more and put in the pint per 5 gallons as recommended, run a full tank down, then scope again. 400 miles of .5 quart Kreen in oil, drain/refill, 1 quart Kreen in oil for 50 miles, drain/refill.

Thanks for sharing. Keep up the good work and us posted.
It seems hard to see a lot of difference from here so far.

Thanks, and yeah, not much de-carbonizing that is apparent. But, I did not put in the full amount specified (in the gas tank) and there are a lot of miles on it, so would have been something to see a big difference on the top of the piston. I am more interested in the oil run, as I exceeded the can spec for that. I am very interested in watching for any drop in oil consumption or any bumps in mpg. Theoretically my rings are now in better shape so we will see. If it wasn't for the fact it was 14 degrees F this morning, snowing, with howling winds (going to be that way for some time now the weather folks say) I would take that valve cover off and look for any visible differences there. But that will have to wait for the weather to accommodate me!

I understand about the weather! It's -5 here now and the wind is howling! I've been meaning to change the wipers and replace a tail light bulb but I value my fingers!
Thanks as always for posting back and we look forward to the update.

I analyzed my last fuel consumption, and it was right at 29 mpg, which is normal for my driving. There does not seem to be an increase in mileage after this initial experiment. The can states the engine cleaner improves performance, so we will see. So far still too new in the OCI to note any oil consumption differences.

I have two more quarts in transit to me, and think that it warrants an additional treatment due to the mileage on the engine (a bit over 184k now). I'll run the recommended amount in the gas tank (a quart to 10 gallons of gas), as soon as it arrives (when I get to about half tank I'll drop in the Kreen then run it down close to E) and when I get down to the end of my OCI in about 6 weeks or so will run another quart through the oil. If the weather ever gets good enough I will pop my valve cover off to look at the top of the engine, but it seems to be snow/rain through this next weekend, so I may just wait until the next OCI/treatment.

Thanks for the update! Keep us posted!
Again, thanks!

Received my 2 new quarts of Kreen, and just dumped a quart into the half filled tank of gas (recommended ratio), so will run down that amount and scope the cylinders again this weekend. In several weeks I'll add the other quart to the oil again and repeat that soak.

I really hope you get some nice results!

Finished up my half tank run with 1 quart of Kreen in the tank. Can't say I notice any real difference on the top of the piston head. Below is #3 again, after running about 6 gallons of gas through the engine (1 quart to 10 gallons gas as per the can instructions. My warning light goes off with about 4 gallons in the tank remaining).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtXuipUj3sc

Also lifted my valve cover to get a look at any difference I may have seen on the top of the engine after my 1 hour run with 1 quart Kreen in the oil. Again, not sure I see much difference.


I am about 1,100 miles into my OCI and my dipstick was in between the two dots, so whatever that amounts to as "low" (maybe .5 quart). I topped it back up to the top dot.

My plugs were nice and dry so my new gasket is doing its job (the old gasket was allowing some oil down in there and the plugs were coming out with some oil on them).

The top of the engine, in JPG view

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Looks pretty good under the valve cover. Keep it going!