I'm an old motorhead. 83 yrs old to be exact and I was using this method when I worked at a Pontiac dealership back in the early '60s. Yep, it works! As a matter of fact there would be carbon blow out of the tailpipe that you could feel and see. The only thing a person has to be aware of is that some of the carbon can become lodged on the valve seats and cause a temporary misfire on some cylinders. This will work itself out with a short drive. I've had some engines that would not idle after this procedure until after a short drive to clear the valves again. Thanks for keeping this old "fix" going.
I use the main vacuum hose from the matter cylinder... allows it to take a little. Works great. Do not fully submerge the house in the water, allow small sips
It's OK cuz because I have heard of this treatment before and when I did it on a warm engin I just adjusted the idel up higher than like 1400 cuz I was lazy but about two cups of water .
I'm 75 and my dad taught me this trick when I was about ten. We used it on tractors and farm equipment. I still use it on older cars. Thanks for the refresher
I'm also 75, and an old railroad engineer who lived next to me when I was just a kid, showed me this trick when I first started working on cars . . . 'Ol Smitty was a genius when it came to old school tricks and tips, he is probably the guy I learned the most from way back then. I miss him at times, absolutely the salt of the earth kinda guy.
Back in the early 2000's I had a Chevy Astro van that was missing on one cylinder, I took it to a repair shop and they told me that it had a blown head gasket on that cylinder and that it would cost around $1000 to repair it. As I was leaving shop one of the guys that I had known for years told me that it was not the head gasket he told me to take it home and run ATF down the air intake and then follow it up with water. I ran close to quart of ATF through it and then a quart of water. After a short drive the miss went away. I drove that van for another 5 or 6 years and it ran great and it never missed again.
@@onmyworkbench7000 If your head gasket is leaking the piston will be literally steam cleaned in that cylinder. Therefore the process makes no sense to fix a worn head gasket. You may have had heavily carboned valves.
@Romas65 Atf means automatic transmission fluid or The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives since this is about vehicles I would say it's the Transmission he is talking about
here is a tip for you, replace the clean water with water from when you boil potatoes, it is full of starch and that reacts with the carbon and a chemical reaction occurs that removes all the carbon very quickly, some old bikers will remember cleaning two-stroke exhaust baffles in a bucket full of the potato water and potato peelings, leaving it soak overnight and in the morning the baffles were spotlessly clean,
I watched my daddy and his brothers do this when a car was running rough. It smoked a bit and leveled out and idled great. I miss the old carburetor engines. Simple and easy to work on.
Ya, pre-1980 cars might start running rough and leave you a bit frustrated, trying to troubleshoot an old worn-out carburetor or having to periodically file the points, but they would seldom come to an abrupt stop and leave you stranded on the highway as more modern cars sometimes do.
I am almost 80 and what we did in "the olden days" we would run about 5 quarts of water mixed with a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide. Get the engine hot and run this through a small vacuum tube into the intake at idle. The water would react with the hydrogen peroxide and burn the carbon off. I used it in my 40's cars to my 426 hemi drag car. I am about to use this on my Jeep and Furd F-150 eco boost. I relate these old time fixes with the old timers using natural trees and flowers to aid aches and pains compared with aspirin (same remedy you get from making tea from Aspen bark. Don't knock it until you try it.
Water doesn't react with Hydrogen peroxide and the heat in the engine will turn the H2O2 into more water. It will liberate a little extra oxygen but will also attack any metal/plastic in the manifold and head.
Haven't seen this in years. Worked pumping gas at a service station as a kid and saw one of the owners do this back in 64. He told me exactly what you said it would do. He then proceeded to tune the engine. This is back in the day when leaded gas was still being used. Thanks for sharing.
I used to do this on my cars back in the 70"s. I even installed the "Ol" JC Whitney water injection kit, (back when it was mail order). The complete kit was a Mason Jar with a valve on the lid (adjustment) a piece of hose and a T fitting for the PCV. Thanks for a ride down Memory Lane, Brother.
@@thomshere You too! Some of the other things I bought from JC were side pipes, windsheild repair kit, Disc brake dust sheilds (kept the Cragers clean)and the Universal Wheel Balance kit (which were circles filled with sand mounted behind the wheels). What items did you buy?
@@puttputt73 Yeah, I'm not exactly sure at what point in the intake stream they injected the water mist, but that's the deal, it helps ward off pre-ignition & detonation allowing the engines to run hard & produce power without self destructing. There were some old farm tractors that had water injection too I guess. The difference was that they ran straight water or water methanol mix in the cooling system and sucked it right out of there. So they would need to top up the radiator periodically and drain the cooling system if there wasn't a strong alcohol mix in them when not in use if the temps dropped to freezing conditions.
And when you said younger people don’t have interest I would say halfway true I’m 23 and only own two cars right now 63 impala ss and a 1969 Buick skylark both original engines so I promise to keep carburetors alive!! And tips like this
@@danharold3087 Around 1974 Chrysler built carburators that had a solonoid in them rather than a vacuum operated power valve. The solonoid was operated by the computer. It used an O2 sensor.
@@thomaswarford2920 Are you sure that wasn't in the 80s A friend had one and the wire would fall off the solenoid. A long time ago. Do not recall the MPG.
I used to use water, but later I used SeaFoam, the first half in the gas tank, and the other half down the carb then shut it off to cook Works a treat, but engines don't get carboned up like the old '60s-'70s engines. I used enough to stall the engine from a fast idle, let it sit 15 minutes, then go for a drive to finish blowing it out.
Im not too old,but about 20 years ago my dad showed me this trick and im huge on cars and i remember it blowing my mind. I thought my dad was crazy but sure enough it worked great and his truck ran better after he was done. I am more used to efi and have pondered on how to use it on an efi engine. Thank you for passing on to the next generation knowledge is priceless!
I had a diesel car which I accidentally ran through a volume of water deeper than I thought. the engine was hot at the time and stopped dead. I didn't try to restart it, got a tow home and stripped it all down, the water had been sucked into the air intake and filled the turbo as well as the cylinders, I stripped the glow plugs out and pushed the car back and forth in gear and water squirted out of each cylinder. I stripped, cleaned the turbo and put it back, drained the oil, changed the oil filter, topped up with fresh oil, ran the engine for 5 minutes, drained the oil and changed the oil filter again, put a new air filter on it and it ran like a dream for another 100K.
In the 60's i worked At a Chevy dealer . These were the days of leaded gas and low compression engines. We used to get older folks that came in with bad carbon knocks in their engines . They thought they had bad engine problems. Our mechanics would take them down back and use the water decarb treatment for 10 minutes and come back running like new !
***I had a cousin that was a mechanic all his working life in Florida and he built hot rod engines too. Well my aunt had a first year Ford Taurus that she mostly just drove around town and it ran like crap so he told her to bring it over and I saw him get the water hose, pull the air cleaner out and started putting a pretty good trickle of water down it with it running at a fairly high rpm and after he did that for a while her car ran like a new one and every once in a while she would take her car over and have him clean it out like that and as far I know that car would probably be running if she would not have passed away. So I saw it with my own eyes that it worked and you can't beat the price…lol***
Yeah cars that are driven too gently will always get all clogged up. I always lock my moms and grandmas cars in gear and let them wind up for a period i get the water burned out of the oil plugs all cleaned up.
I was taught the same method and transmission fluid in the oil trick as well!....I've known these two tricks since I was a boy and I'm 44 now and I've been working as a ASE master automotive technician at a dealership and guys younger than me look at me like I'm crazy...can't wait to show them this video today 👍🏼
@@adriandelreal9126 to understand the whole atf trick you need to know the history of oil. Using atf oil started back in the 50's-60's. Back then motor oil was more natural oil and atf oil was made from whale oil. Whale oil would clean and help remove deposits from that natural oil. In the early 70's whale oil was banned mainly because so was whale hunting. Around this time motor oil started changing to be petroleum made oil. It is bot recommended to use atf oil in your oil for a modern car or even one from the 90's. There is no detergents in atf oil however what it will do if you want to experiment is todays atf oil is a dispersant. What this does is it helps lift and disperse dirt and the sorts in small passageways and in an engine this will only help in the oil pickup, alleys(cant remember the actual term) anywhere there is a small passageway. Anyways if you have sludge build up the proper thing to do is to tear down the motor and clean it. Additives or any other trick are just temporary fixes. They will remove just enough that its not causing issues but it never get it perfect like it should be. So use the additives or do an engine flush to help make it last for a few months or so and then tear it down to do a proper cleaning.
@@adriandelreal9126 Automatic transmission fluid has good detergent properties. Put 50 to 100mls in a 9 litre sump and drive for 100 to 200 miles and change oil as normal. It does a very slow flush. Some people use diesel fuel instead (same amount).
My dad showed me this trick and told me about the history on it. Back in the days of the old checkered cab, these cars would develop a carbon knock from city life. Basically, they would never see high RPM, and thus would never get properly blown out from a good run. Their fix to this was to trickle water down the throat of the carburetor and throttling the engine until the knock went away. My dad also sometimes used transmission fluid to help lubricate the valves. The idea being that transmission fluid is a semisolid which will help polish as it passes through. Note: If using transmission fluid, a little goes a long way, too much may cause damage...lol. Great video, glad to see someone looking out for the younger generation. Thank you for sharing this valuable information.
I was taught this trick around 50 years ago by an old guy in my neighborhood who worked on cars. Back in the day they used to sell water injection kits so you could bump your timing without spark knock. It also had the side benefit of keeping the carbon out of the engine.
Same, learned this from an old dude in the 70's. I did it on a few vehicles, it seems to improve performance a bit. My Chevelle liked it the most. My 69 Road runner440 ci Hurst 4 sp. had a built motor, cam and polished ported heads, all it got me was too many tickets.
Back in the early 80s I used GM’s Top Engine Cleaner. That stuff would smoke-out the whole neighborhood! I was afraid of someone calling the Fire dept. I see it’s still available.. It worked on my POS Chevy Citation ‘iron duke 4’
We were using that trick back in '69 when my dad bought a garage. Never harmed an engine and we've pulled a few apart after the water treatment and they were extremely clean inside. Good to see someone still knows a few of these tricks.
I started working on cars back in 1997. We use to use a spray bottle and spray water into the throttle body or carburetor. We did this to eliminate any chances of to much water in the cylinder and bend something like a rod or valve.
@BehexagusTheGreat depends on how bad the carbon is. Mostly just a light spray. You don't want large chunks of carbon coming off and scratching cylinders, lodging into rings and or stuck between valves and seats, or fouling up the plugs.
.........................get the engine up to running temperature ,,, block the throttle slightly open [cloths-pin ] to get 2500 rpm steady ,,,,use the spray bottle method with ethylene glycol [ anti- freeze] ,,,,,,,,,It removes the surface layer or the fluffy light layer of carbon......won't budge that hard layer that bonded to the piston top..................
I am 73 and my father did the water trick many times. He used a small Coke bottle of 7 oz filled with water and as he raised the RPM, he would slowly empty it down the carburetor. It really worked. Thanks and take care.
I'm 56 and I use to do this as a kid. Works extremely well. The colder the water the bigger the chunks of carbon! But he's right it has a nice steam cleaning effect.
I’m 25 years old, I was told this trick when I was 16, thinking it was a prank I never did it till last year. Laid about 100 to 200ft of garden hose out in the sun to heat up, put my spray nozzle on mist and sprayed right by the intake. Worked like an absolute charm. But be aware, you can flood the motor if yours not careful and hydro lock it. (Ask me how I know)
Yes it does work I've do it a few times myself....and I was also looking for this comment about Is hydro locking because it can happen if you Is poor too much water...you can also hydro lock the engine by putting way too much fuel....it happens to hot rod's.
Yeah, you don't want to flood it, haha, ha ha ha. It does work though. Use a spray, misst bottle from a hairspray. Pump, Rev the motor up, keep it as high idle and spray it in there a little bit of time. Bring your fishing Rod. A couple of trout Mike be coming out the tailplate.
I use a hose connected to vacuum line with a valve and route it through window to control valve from drivers seat and then head er out the highway at cruise speed then apply the water...works best just takes more time
So how do you know? Kidding.. I like the spray nozzle method, and that's what I was thinking, something like a spray bottle or something to create a mist.👍
Yes Sir...I remember this trick as well. I also learned this from an old school mechanic in the 70's. Water is the best cleaner on aspirated engines. Good job Bobby for bringing this back!
This was honestly something I took for granted everyone knew. Then I mentioned it to someone the other day and they had no idea what I was talking about. I forget sometimes these things don’t get passed down
The gas back then was leaded for our old school engines. This was one of the major causes of carbon I imagine today's engines run somewhat cleaner so this water method was eventually forgotten.
@@davidzarr1832 Had nothing to do with leaded gas. Usually, our customers cars that just putted around during the carbureted emission hose nest era. Often do complete tune up's wires everything (they were due) still not much better cup of water or two down carb would smooth em back out all better. Didn't do it allot, but often and was a customer specific issue mostly.
One way to tell if this works: Pull some sparkplugs, and look at the carbon buildup around the bottom of the threads. (not necessarily the electrodes) Put the plugs back in, and try this. Afterwards, pull the same plugs again, and see if the plugs look any cleaner.
It works. Many years ago, my engine started knocking. I thought the engine was gone. A nice mechanic looked at it and said it was probably a piece of carbon stuck on the top of the piston. He used this technique, and the knock went away. It took 3 cups of water, but it worked. Live and learn!
Unrelated to engines but as a youngster, I learned to free up a stuck axle by bolting a heavy chain to it, and stretch it out and do a whip action with it. It works and I haven't seen or heard of anyone else that's done it in over 40 years.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. My grandfather told me that the water-injection on WW2 airplanes would clean the top end of an engine as well. They always knew who was really pushing the throttles!
In the 50's Popular Mechanics had a easy build for a water injection on a vacuum line to the carburetor to boost power and mileage. My friends and I all put it in and my mileage went from 16 to 18 mpg but all of our exhaust systems rusted out within 6 months
That's where I learned this trick too, cleaned out the pistons on my first car, Nissan Pulsar N12 front wheel drive, 1.5 litre 4 cylinder engine. I learned how to work on cars by reading every Popular Mechanics magazine I could find at every college library(TAFE) all across Sydney Australia late 80's early 90's. They had the Saturday Mechanic section at the back that answered all kinds of tech questions on car problems.
When I was a kid in the sixties my mother started up a hill and her car sputtered and quit. It just happened to be in front of a country garage. The mechanic and his sidekick came over, listened to the car, and the mechanic asked his helper what he thought. He said 'I think it needs a drink of water' and I thought 'what the hell'. He came over with a coke bottle of water and poured it down the carb while the car ran and the car stopped skipping and began running fine. I've never forgotten that.
I've had the honor of working on very old engines at a young age for the past thirty years. My neighbor Mr. Hall who passed some 20yrs ago showed me this on a GMC handibus we horse traded. I was very hesitant about his convictions, but damn it worked. I've been using this method since he showed me.
I am 57 and been doing this since I was a kid in the 70's to lawn mowers to make money doing Tune ups at my dad's shop, spark plugs come out perfectly clean, re gap them and carry on.. Then in the 80's when I became a certified mechanic and all the "snake oils" came out I just laughed at the salesmen who would try to sell me their junk., and grab a bottle of water and show them how much better it worked . Potato water works even better.
Ever notice how your vehicle runs better on a rainy day? That humidity helps an engine run more efficient. A little water in the engine like he did here won't hurt a thing.
Humid air is less dense than dry air, if the barometer and temperature are the same. But when it is raining it is also generally cooler and then the air may be denser. Cars run better with dense air and they perform better at sea level than at higher elevations.
@@ohane1yes but density altitude is not humidity. High Density altitude is like being at a higher elevation then you actually are. Yes the air is thinner then.
My grandmothers '70and Nova (230c.u.) was carboned up so bad you could shut it off at idle and it would continue running dieseling. I figured out this method by removing the air cleaner and getting a long piece of vacuum hose to put in a bucket of water connecting the hose to the air cleaner port. I started the car, set it up on fast idle and then put the hose into the water. The motor bogged down at first blowing white smoke, then the smoke turned black with a cloud about 20 feet in diameter blow out the tail pipe for a minute or so then back to white. At that time, I removed the hose from the water and let the engine clear out, reducing the fast idle. Let it run for a few more minutes and after that it ran PERFECT! Never had a problem after that.
I'm 56 years old and I remember seeing old shade tree mechanics do this water trick on their engines. The easiest way to do it is by pouring warm water into a spray bottle and slowly squirting the water from the spray bottle into the carburetor while pressing the throttle on the carburetor to increase the RPM.
Seen this done once when I was 10 years old in 1985.on a 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass supreme 350cid.... Rev the engine and poured water down carb. WOW, black smoke filled a huge industrial garage in seconds. Car ran perfect afterwards..
im 73 been using this method 50-+ years Caution in electronic controlled throttle body type autos I had the problem of ruining some of my electronic controls engine was decarbonized but caused a small problem. good tip for those who didnt know this trick. thanks
I learned this trick in the 80's and still do it. There is also another substance we use and alternate with the water. I start off with some brake fluid and then water, alternating until I'm happy. I learned that the brake fluid softens the muck and the water pops it loose and out...
I've done this several times I always do it it just before changing the oil. Had a fella tell me about this when I was about 19, tried it once been doing it ever since. On multiport fuel injection I just pull the brake booster hose
I pull the hose off the vacuum gauge and give my 87 f150 a cup or so of warm water monthly. Been doing this to my cars since the 1970s. I also use a little Marvel oil in the gas every other month or so.
I had an old school mechanic show me this trick 40 years ago. I actually witnessed him doing it! It actually blew my mind that he was pouring water into the carburetor!
In the 90s, my buddy showed me this trick.We didnt feed the water to it so slow. We used a garden hose. Make sure it is warmed up first, rev it to 3000 rpm, and feed it the water slowly. We used a piexe of cardboard 2 feet behind the exhaust pipe to see what came out, and judje when no more crap was coming out.
Watching from South Africa!!! Thank you, I just learned something I never knew about, I'm also an old school guy. Going to give it a try on my 54 year old car 👍
Wow South Africa. That’s a long way from here. I’m very honored and thank you for watching. Now I’m curious. Is there a big classic car culture in South Africa ?
@@frizzellracing There is a classic car culture but nothing as big as the states. I'm a fan of the American 50's & later cars. Got a 83 Transam(knight rider car). If I had Jay Leno's bank balance, I would have as many cars as he does 😀, love cars. I always watch information like yours on TH-cam, so please don't stop, there are lots of us around the world that still keep & enjoy older cars👍
Back in the 70s my Cadillac engine would carbon up and knock after riding around town for a few weeks.. I used a 16 oz bottle of half water and half transmission fluid mixed, then trickled in the carburetor at high idle.. It would blow smoke, steam & chunks of carbon for a couple of minutes , then it ran like brand new..🥃🤠👌
I had a 1981 Toyota Corolla that developed a misfire. My neighbour who is a retired mechanic told me to try the water trick. He told me that if I didn’t work that I lost nothing, except some of my time. I couldn’t believe how much smoke was coming out of the tail pipe, and after about 10 minutes are cleared up. It’s still raining a little rough even after the fact, so I took it on the freeway for about 10 to 15 minutes and it cleared right up. That little trick saved me a lot of money.
Totally legit, a droplet of water expands 1000x as it flashes to steam. In a closed loop system (tightly sealed combustion chamber) steam is a corrosive especially when an oxidizer is present.
Been a mechanic for 40 years and I remember my mentor when I got started in the business doing this all the time. He would also pour transmission fluid in the carb to unstick lifters.
Wow, this video just dislodged a number of memories but this reminded me of when I was visiting my girlfriend and her sisters husband, a dealership owner and mechanic, used this trick to de-carbon my girlfriends parents car. It ran like new after a few cups of water carefully poured through it. Thanks for the memories, this happened when I was 18 and I'm 60 now and I have actually used that trick on my old '76 Cutlass.
Yes you're absolutely right, you can feel the throttle difference. That's why we'd enjoy the benefits of a highway run because we'd notice the big improvement once back in the city. The highway run would always clear it out but you're doing it the much quicker way. You probably remember how some of us ran water injection base plates back in the day to help with all the knock and ping from our higher compression engines running lower octane fuels. You deserve an award though teaching people not to burn chemicals in their motor. Nobody needs to accidentally breathe any of that exhaust.
@@frizzellracing If you can't find one you could probably drill and tap your own spacer plate and then play around with different size nozzles threaded in. It gets exciting thinking about it because you start to wonder what else you might be able to inject through there... for a horsepower boost perhaps. Cheers!
45, been working on cars since I was 13. I figured this trick out on my own after rebuilding a few engines with blown head gaskets, the ones that had water infiltration were practically perfect, the cylinders, the rings, the valves, guides, exhaust ports, whole thing was as clean as the day it was built. Makes a hell of a difference.
I'm 57 years old when I was about 12 or 13 years old my own self my dad taught me the same trick and it works you should tell the tricks about mothballs in the gas tank to give you more octane and keep your valves running clean
Good for you,I'm an older guy too, and I know that trick, you never hear anyone doing this anymore, it's good to see someone doing this again, I will subscribe, If you ever did a head gasket you probably noticed that the cylinder that had the leak was clean as a whistle, the same thing is being done here, Thanks for sharing this old trick with the younger ones that may not have ever heard of it, Good Work
This is no surprise to me. As far as I know, the piston engine in the US Navy/Marines Corsair used in the south Pacific theatre, had water injection for escape situations. It provided a boost to HP and therefore more speed for escape if ammo ran out or they were overwhelmed. It makes the engine run very hot and could only be used for short duration, but I'll bet the combustion chambers and valves were squeaky-clean, though. Cheers.
I myself have used this trick on a vehicle I bought at auction from a sawmill. It never got over 10 mi an hour in a 30 years it ran at the Mill. I sold the truck shortly after getting it after doing this. The guy I sold it to tore the head off examine the interior of the engine and said it was as clean as a whistle there was no signs of carbon inside the engine his father insisted they tear it down and look at the inside of the heads. After I told them what I had done his father was very surprised to see how clean the engine was when they pulled the heads off
if your engine has started pinging and you've already checked your ignition timing and got a good tank of gas to no avail, then it is time for this trick. Carbon buildup in combustion chambers raise compression ratio. Higher compression can cause ping/knock, dieseling after shutdown. However I would put the cap back on the bottle and 3/16" hole in it to help insure I don't accidentally whoosh the engine and bend a rod.
I worked for Chevy in the ‘80s and we also used water and trans fluid to dissolve carbon, we also had what GM called Top Engine Cleaner which also worked great.
It works great, done this many times. Even if the windshield washer was connected to the engine, it was used while driving. However, there will be some water in the oil, so you should drive it really hot afterwards.
When I was younger my 1969 Camaro was running ruff popping up thru the carb a bit an old guy told me it could be carbon build up he told me to let the engine warm up and try to slowly pour a little transmission fluid down the carburetor so after trying everything else I thought I would try it and he was right it smoothed out the engine after it smoked white for a few minutes.
Great proof with the observation of clean pistons after a head gasket malfunction! It’s exactly correct! Another trick involving fuel/gas mileage is 4 oz or so of trans fluid in a full tank of gas, keeps the injectors lubed (if you have those) and actually adds a few miles per gallon efficiency
I worked at a marina back in the 90's. We would do this with older carbed inboard engines that were used to just putt putt around the lake. Also, OMC made a "tune up in a can" designed to remove carbon build up in small two stroke engines used for trolling motors. Worked great. I like using Berryman's or Seafoam with any mystery engine I get. Warm engine, pour the stuff in until things are really smoking, then shut it off and let it sit for 20 minutes. Once you start it up again, rev it really good and maybe go for a spin. Clouds of chunks will often shoot out the tailpipe.
Did this on a 1969 GMC. It was a low rpm motor all it's life, so I took a 12oz bottle of water, added 3 holes from a sewing needle, and emptied the bottle into the engine. Shut it off, waited 15 minutes, then ran it down the freeway for 20 miles. Felt like a new engine.
@@paulkwiatkowski1059 you might find a port on the intake tube, like for a pcv or vacuum, apply the water there, and then run it on the freeway as described
@paulkwiatkowski1059 you can also remove the air intake and pour directly into the throttle body. I haven't done it with water but I've used seafoam this way and it worked great. Just make sure to pour slow and find your throttle cable before you start so you can keep the rpms up
I learned that trick working with Andy Granatelli's Tune Up Masters in CA in the early 80s. We called it a 'Carbon Treatment', and Andy explained it to me as 'steam cleaning the combustion chamber (heads, valves, and piston tops) and blowing it out the exhaust.
I had a '71 F-100 with a 390 that was my daily driver, and my buddy (who's 12 years older than me) and I were tweaking it, and he says, "Let me show you something." He grabs the water hose outside of my shop, turns it on, and turns to me and says, "You trust me, right?" I said yeah. He has me start the truck, and he revs the throttle at the carburetor like this gentleman did and goes to dumping water straight into the carburetor from the hose. I was blown away. haha
I did this once with a car of mine. I started slowly inducting water into the throttle body. Little by little, I poured in more and more water. Eventually I got carried away and put in too much and blew the engine! I ended up pulling the motor and rebuilding it. One of the rods was broken in half. My point is, if you do this, be very careful. You really should use a spray bottle and spray in the water very slowly.
Recommend using a vacuum hose with a 1/8" barbed reducer as an orifice. This will eliminate ingesting too much water causing internal engine damage. I also use -32F washer fluid (methanol) to avoid drowning out the engine computer based fuel injected engines. HTH
I seen UTG do this to his mopar several years ago. Old service station in my hometown would do this as part of the services they provided. Lost knowledge nowadays,thanks for keeping old school alive!
An old Ford mechanic taught me "50/50 solution of brake fluid and distilled water" sprayed into the carb from a pump spray bottle at a fast idle. I have never tried this on a newer fuel-injected engine and don't have any reference to anyone that has.
good job on pointing out towards the end to make sure your motor is up to running temp before hand. Also,, its kind of important that the water you use is not cold,,, as you also pointed out.... the warmer the water the better. kudo's here from west virginia and keep on doing vids like this,, the young bucks who are interested will benefit
Yes Colt! I am now adding 3 oz of Marvel Mystery Oil to a full tank of gas, (22 gal) to my 2015 F-150, My Girls's 2015 Camaro RS and now my 67 Mustang Gt 460 Big Block. The Marvel Mystery also keeps the injectors clean and lubed too. Good Stuff! They run and Idle like brand new engines.
I used to do this when I did a lot of hot rodding and auto mechanic work in the '80s. I usually revved it a lot higher and poured the water in fast enough to start slowing the engine down. Another thing we'd do is take the vehicle out onto the highway and do several full throttle pulls in a low gear from low speed to near red line. We called that one the quick "Italian Tuneup." Ahh, the good ole days!
We learned to give an engine a drink of water back when I was in automotive school in the early 2000s, so the trick hasn't been completely forgotten. Run about a pint through and then take it out on the highway and give it the old full-throttle tuneup to get the combustion chamber temperatures up and loosen up anything that's left. The guys I learned this from were old-school mechanics that knew a lot of stuff that the rest of the world had probably forgotten. I found out that the REALLY old-school guys used to dump rice down the intake of a running engine to clean out carbon. That trick went out with the Model T, and I never had the courage to try it, but I never forgot it either. I've used the water trick more than once both on carbureted and fuel-injected engines.
@@mercld I have done it on fuel injected vehicles, feeding it tiny amounts of water through a vacuum hose, but you can do a lot of damage if you give the engine too big a slug of water. This is designed to remove carbon fouling. Most modern fuel injected engines won't foul combustion chambers up unless the engine is burning oil or something is really wrong. This is NOT periodic maintenance and if you have to do it on a regular basis, you have another problem.
I like how you took a sip of the water right before the demonstration. I've been using Seafoam (newer 2000s vehicle) - had heard about this but not seen this done before. I dribble the seafoam in a vacuum hose then let the last bit stall it out, or shut it off and sit a few minutes, then start and run it down the road (smoke).
Damn dude 83 that's fantastic I'm 65 also an old gearhead. Where can my brother's gas station, I'm at the age of 15 got my license I'm the first car I bought was the 68 SS Camaro with an l88 427 making 600 horsepower at this altitude Rock crusher transmission and a 5 1 3 gears.. oh yeah and at the time a junior in high school I work for John McClintock NHRA b Street national record holder. MPH/ ET. both. With the help of my brother Gene tuning the car. First time off the trailer and first pass, iTube became an NHRA record holder... It was 1976 That's a nice Galaxy by the way!! Keep the rubber side down
We mostly drove manual cars here in South Africa. I was taught to drive the car to around 3/4 of the rev range in second gear. Then you would change to 3rd and take the spead up to where it would be close to redline in second. Pull the manual choke open and change back to 2nd. The car would blow out clouds of black smoke out the back for a few seconds and stop smoking. Then you would change to 3rd and 4th as needed. Engine would run smooth after that.
A 50/50 water/ethanol mixture will do it and makes a great chemical intercooler for high compression engines on pump gas. You can buy a kit that does just that. It’s an old trick that is making a comeback.
Yes but water/meth needs to be tuned for, thus if/when you run out of liquid or your nozzle misfires, you're kind of screwed lol..I'm personally using a 35 wet shot of nitrous. I know my engine can take it with no issues, and it doesn't need a tune. Should clean carbon up well too.
@@jaynikk758 actually you dont need to tune for it, but if you want the most out of it then yes you need to tune for it. Adding it with out a tune will pull the power out put down, but it is a great safety fuse agaist predetonation. I wouldnt run a nitrous system with out it, what if your wet jet gets clogged? then your engine is screwed, would be better to run a meth injection system with your wet shot set up just as an added safety feature.
65 years young Pauly here- You bought back many memories of my youth being born a gear head and will die as one as I was building engines by the age of eleven and working on mechanical equipment even pryer I remember doing this succesfully on many of those vehicles, It's good to see some of these simple mechanical methods that were born out of being resourceful and applying good old fashion common sense which seems to be lacking in many of todays so called technicians, hopefully shows like this will help bring some change
When I was in high school back in 1979 jc Whitney sold water injection adapters for for carburetors and I can tell you it made a huge difference at the track
I'm an old motorhead. 83 yrs old to be exact and I was using this method when I worked at a Pontiac dealership back in the early '60s. Yep, it works! As a matter of fact there would be carbon blow out of the tailpipe that you could feel and see. The only thing a person has to be aware of is that some of the carbon can become lodged on the valve seats and cause a temporary misfire on some cylinders. This will work itself out with a short drive. I've had some engines that would not idle after this procedure until after a short drive to clear the valves again. Thanks for keeping this old "fix" going.
Anyone ever heard of using rice? I knew a ol guy who did it on many non catalytic converter equipped cars.
Good way break rings
Suburban Pontiac, Bellflower, Ca. Same time. Water works.
I use the main vacuum hose from the matter cylinder... allows it to take a little. Works great. Do not fully submerge the house in the water, allow small sips
It's OK cuz because I have heard of this treatment before and when I did it on a warm engin I just adjusted the idel up higher than like 1400 cuz I was lazy but about two cups of water .
WARNING: Tesla vehicle owners DO NOT use this method to improve the operation of your motor. You could get SHOCKING results!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
LOLOLOLOl
But if you do please video it. 😂 😂
Good one!
Guys who drive Teslas don't watch this channel - they're out shopping for purses.
I'm 63 and been using water to clean the carbon out since I was 15 works great
not needed these days, just buy a new car every 80ks... never lift hood, dont look at dash.. my newest truck is 02.. no computer..
nice the phone is good for something
Same here.
Me too seen it when I was a kid in the 70's
water wit soap
I'm 75 and my dad taught me this trick when I was about ten. We used it on tractors and farm equipment. I still use it on older cars. Thanks for the refresher
Thanks for watching
what about newer cars. i have a 2021 silverado 2.7 turbo and i want to keep the engine clean. i bought it used with 30000 miles on it
I'm also 75, and an old railroad engineer who lived next to me when I was just a kid, showed me this trick when I first started working on cars . . . 'Ol Smitty was a genius when it came to old school tricks and tips, he is probably the guy I learned the most from way back then. I miss him at times, absolutely the salt of the earth kinda guy.
Back in the early 2000's I had a Chevy Astro van that was missing on one cylinder, I took it to a repair shop and they told me that it had a blown head gasket on that cylinder and that it would cost around $1000 to repair it. As I was leaving shop one of the guys that I had known for years told me that it was not the head gasket he told me to take it home and run ATF down the air intake and then follow it up with water. I ran close to quart of ATF through it and then a quart of water. After a short drive the miss went away. I drove that van for another 5 or 6 years and it ran great and it never missed again.
@@onmyworkbench7000 If your head gasket is leaking the piston will be literally steam cleaned in that cylinder. Therefore the process makes no sense to fix a worn head gasket. You may have had heavily carboned valves.
@@heystarfish100 I left out the part where my friend told me that it was not the head gasket and to do the ATF and water.
What's ATF? The federal agents? 😅
@@Romas65 ATF = *_Automatic Transmission Fluid_*
@Romas65 Atf means automatic transmission fluid or The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives since this is about vehicles I would say it's the Transmission he is talking about
here is a tip for you, replace the clean water with water from when you boil potatoes, it is full of starch and that reacts with the carbon and a chemical reaction occurs that removes all the carbon very quickly, some old bikers will remember cleaning two-stroke exhaust baffles in a bucket full of the potato water and potato peelings, leaving it soak overnight and in the morning the baffles were spotlessly clean,
Never heard that one before. Thanks. And thank you for watching
I was told this years ago, tried to test it scientifically and discovered it was about as useful as pouring treacle into the engine.
Don't recommend.
I have to try that with my GT550. :D
@@fuselpeter5393 I wouldn't. When the starch heats up it turns to sugar and just adds to the carbon.
@@fuselpeter5393 I had a GT250. Man I miss that bike.
I watched my daddy and his brothers do this when a car was running rough. It smoked a bit and leveled out and idled great. I miss the old carburetor engines. Simple and easy to work on.
Yes, I'm hearing you brother.
I have a 72, a 73 , 74 and a 75 car. all running carburators 👍🏻 f**k electric.
@@kkrc999 One piece at a time, huh?
Ya, pre-1980 cars might start running rough and leave you a bit frustrated, trying to troubleshoot an old worn-out carburetor or having to periodically file the points, but they would seldom come to an abrupt stop and leave you stranded on the highway as more modern cars sometimes do.
Electronic fuel and ignition management is why engines commonly go 300,000 miles today. Servicing these systems isn't for dummies.
Does it work with throttle body intakes?
I am almost 80 and what we did in "the olden days" we would run about 5 quarts of water mixed with a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide. Get the engine hot and run this through a small vacuum tube into the intake at idle. The water would react with the hydrogen peroxide and burn the carbon off. I used it in my 40's cars to my 426 hemi drag car. I am about to use this on my Jeep and Furd F-150 eco boost. I relate these old time fixes with the old timers using natural trees and flowers to aid aches and pains compared with aspirin (same remedy you get from making tea from Aspen bark. Don't knock it until you try it.
Let us know when on the 150
Isn't it like mud? Wouldn't it just gunk up the catalytic converter on a modern car?
Water doesn't react with Hydrogen peroxide and the heat in the engine will turn the H2O2 into more water. It will liberate a little extra oxygen but will also attack any metal/plastic in the manifold and head.
Peroxide will deteriorate the aluminum pistons, though.
Willow bark. FYI
Thank you for teaching us these old-school tricks that almost nobody talks about anymore.
Thank you for watching
Haven't seen this in years. Worked pumping gas at a service station as a kid and saw one of the owners do this back in 64. He told me exactly what you said it would do. He then proceeded to tune the engine. This is back in the day when leaded gas was still being used. Thanks for sharing.
I used to do this on my cars back in the 70"s. I even installed the "Ol" JC Whitney water injection kit, (back when it was mail order). The complete kit was a Mason Jar with a valve on the lid (adjustment) a piece of hose and a T fitting for the PCV. Thanks for a ride down Memory Lane, Brother.
Thank you for sharing and thank you for watching
There was an advertised horsepower advantage, never ran one but was always curious.
Man I miss the old JC Whitney catalogs! It was like a dream book for me when I was a kid about 10 years old and up.
Ha, I had forgot about those. I put one on my 78 GMC pick up!
@@thomshere You too! Some of the other things I bought from JC were side pipes, windsheild repair kit, Disc brake dust sheilds (kept the Cragers clean)and the Universal Wheel Balance kit (which were circles filled with sand mounted behind the wheels). What items did you buy?
My dad was a B36 mechanic in the Air Force. Those six big radials on that plane used water injection for keeping them clean inside.
The water injection gave the motors more torque for take off also......that was the main reason
Nope , water injection helps to prevent preignition and detonation. Allowing the engine to make more power.
@@paulberkland5700yep!
@@429thunderjet2 Right, evaporation of the water in the manifold sorta works like an intercooler, cooling the intake charge so you can use more boost.
@@puttputt73 Yeah, I'm not exactly sure at what point in the intake stream they injected the water mist, but that's the deal, it helps ward off pre-ignition & detonation allowing the engines to run hard & produce power without self destructing.
There were some old farm tractors that had water injection too I guess.
The difference was that they ran straight water or water methanol mix in the cooling system and sucked it right out of there. So they would need to top up the radiator periodically and drain the cooling system if there wasn't a strong alcohol mix in them when not in use if the temps dropped to freezing conditions.
My Dad was a Navy Aviation Mechanic in WW2 and Korea. He shared lots of Old school tricks of the trades with me. All good proven practical methods!
It's awesome that you're sharing this I'm 64 and I learned about this from older guys when I was a teenager
And when you said younger people don’t have interest I would say halfway true I’m 23 and only own two cars right now 63 impala ss and a 1969 Buick skylark both original engines so I promise to keep carburetors alive!! And tips like this
Thunderhead 289 is doing some interesting work on combing carbs with O2 sensors to make them run better. More MPG and less apt to carbon up.
@@danharold3087 Around 1974 Chrysler built carburators that had a solonoid in them rather than a vacuum operated power valve. The solonoid was operated by the computer. It used an O2 sensor.
@@thomaswarford2920 Are you sure that wasn't in the 80s A friend had one and the wire would fall off the solenoid. A long time ago. Do not recall the MPG.
I cherish the days when I unexpectantly get a dose of useful knowledge. So very grateful you took the time to share. God Bless you, sir!
Thank you for the kind words and thank you for watching.
He's telling the TRUTH. I was taught tricks like this by my late uncles and it works 💪.
My uncle also taught me this trick he was a old school stock car racer
If you've got more tricks i'd love to hear them! i'm new to the world of tricks
I grew up in the 50s and 60s and everyone knew the water trick.
Same. Old school rules on old school engines.
I used to use water, but later I used SeaFoam, the first half in the gas tank, and the other half down the carb then shut it off to cook Works a treat, but engines don't get carboned up like the old '60s-'70s engines. I used enough to stall the engine from a fast idle, let it sit 15 minutes, then go for a drive to finish blowing it out.
@@ljprep6250 oh ya I forgot about seafoam. That is the shit
@@Rabbit.760amsoil power foam works even better
@@Rabbit.760MMO!
Im not too old,but about 20 years ago my dad showed me this trick and im huge on cars and i remember it blowing my mind. I thought my dad was crazy but sure enough it worked great and his truck ran better after he was done. I am more used to efi and have pondered on how to use it on an efi engine. Thank you for passing on to the next generation knowledge is priceless!
I had a diesel car which I accidentally ran through a volume of water deeper than I thought. the engine was hot at the time and stopped dead. I didn't try to restart it, got a tow home and stripped it all down, the water had been sucked into the air intake and filled the turbo as well as the cylinders, I stripped the glow plugs out and pushed the car back and forth in gear and water squirted out of each cylinder. I stripped, cleaned the turbo and put it back, drained the oil, changed the oil filter, topped up with fresh oil, ran the engine for 5 minutes, drained the oil and changed the oil filter again, put a new air filter on it and it ran like a dream for another 100K.
In the 60's i worked At a Chevy dealer . These were the days of leaded gas and low compression engines. We used to get older folks that came in with bad carbon knocks in their engines . They thought they had bad engine problems. Our mechanics would take them down back and use the water decarb treatment for 10 minutes and come back running like new !
Thank you for watching
This sounds like a Florida comment. We were still doing it in the 90s. I worked with a bunch of old timers though. I learned invaluable lessons.
@@frizzellracinghello sir,
Does a guy want to do this on a warm or hot engine or a cold engine.
Thanks 😊please let me know..
@@frizzellracingAnd what about a truck that has fuel injection???
@@harvdog5669hot engine.
***I had a cousin that was a mechanic all his working life in Florida and he built hot rod engines too. Well my aunt had a first year Ford Taurus that she mostly just drove around town and it ran like crap so he told her to bring it over and I saw him get the water hose, pull the air cleaner out and started putting a pretty good trickle of water down it with it running at a fairly high rpm and after he did that for a while her car ran like a new one and every once in a while she would take her car over and have him clean it out like that and as far I know that car would probably be running if she would not have passed away. So I saw it with my own eyes that it worked and you can't beat the price…lol***
Yeah cars that are driven too gently will always get all clogged up. I always lock my moms and grandmas cars in gear and let them wind up for a period i get the water burned out of the oil plugs all cleaned up.
Holy crap
Fuel injected cars DON'T carbon up like that. Spark plugs will last up to 100,000 miles in a newer EFI engine, because they DON'T carbon up like that.
I was taught the same method and transmission fluid in the oil trick as well!....I've known these two tricks since I was a boy and I'm 44 now and I've been working as a ASE master automotive technician at a dealership and guys younger than me look at me like I'm crazy...can't wait to show them this video today 👍🏼
Transmission fluid in oil tell me more
@@adriandelreal9126 to understand the whole atf trick you need to know the history of oil. Using atf oil started back in the 50's-60's. Back then motor oil was more natural oil and atf oil was made from whale oil. Whale oil would clean and help remove deposits from that natural oil. In the early 70's whale oil was banned mainly because so was whale hunting. Around this time motor oil started changing to be petroleum made oil. It is bot recommended to use atf oil in your oil for a modern car or even one from the 90's. There is no detergents in atf oil however what it will do if you want to experiment is todays atf oil is a dispersant. What this does is it helps lift and disperse dirt and the sorts in small passageways and in an engine this will only help in the oil pickup, alleys(cant remember the actual term) anywhere there is a small passageway. Anyways if you have sludge build up the proper thing to do is to tear down the motor and clean it. Additives or any other trick are just temporary fixes. They will remove just enough that its not causing issues but it never get it perfect like it should be. So use the additives or do an engine flush to help make it last for a few months or so and then tear it down to do a proper cleaning.
@@adriandelreal9126
Automatic transmission fluid has good detergent properties.
Put 50 to 100mls in a 9 litre sump and drive for 100 to 200 miles and change oil as normal.
It does a very slow flush.
Some people use diesel fuel instead (same amount).
would this work on modern Turbo engines, too? I have a Ford Eco-Boost. 95000km 8yrs old.
Nothing wrong with hanging out with older folks. We can learn a lot from them.
@@kevincampbell8298 yep, old motors/old folks...it's a good match. We're all plugging away to keep the old rigs running like they were made to 👍
Old guys know stuff. What kind of stuff? Stuff that you need to know.
My dad showed me this trick and told me about the history on it. Back in the days of the old checkered cab, these cars would develop a carbon knock from city life. Basically, they would never see high RPM, and thus would never get properly blown out from a good run. Their fix to this was to trickle water down the throat of the carburetor and throttling the engine until the knock went away. My dad also sometimes used transmission fluid to help lubricate the valves. The idea being that transmission fluid is a semisolid which will help polish as it passes through. Note: If using transmission fluid, a little goes a long way, too much may cause damage...lol. Great video, glad to see someone looking out for the younger generation. Thank you for sharing this valuable information.
I was taught this trick around 50 years ago by an old guy in my neighborhood who worked on cars. Back in the day they used to sell water injection kits so you could bump your timing without spark knock. It also had the side benefit of keeping the carbon out of the engine.
They still sell the injection kits today if you look for them.
Same, learned this from an old dude in the 70's. I did it on a few vehicles, it seems to improve performance a bit.
My Chevelle liked it the most. My 69 Road runner440 ci Hurst 4 sp. had a built motor, cam and polished ported heads, all it got me was too many tickets.
@chefgiovanni them hotrods will cost you money one way or another Thank you for watching
Back in the early 80s I used GM’s Top Engine Cleaner. That stuff would smoke-out the whole neighborhood! I was afraid of someone calling the Fire dept. I see it’s still available.. It worked on my POS Chevy Citation ‘iron duke 4’
I had water injection on my 70 Chevelle SS. At times I would add a little model airplane fuel(alcohol) into the water for a little more pep.
We were using that trick back in '69 when my dad bought a garage. Never harmed an engine and we've pulled a few apart after the water treatment and they were extremely clean inside. Good to see someone still knows a few of these tricks.
I started working on cars back in 1997. We use to use a spray bottle and spray water into the throttle body or carburetor. We did this to eliminate any chances of to much water in the cylinder and bend something like a rod or valve.
How frequently do you spray, roughly? Constant spray, or intermittent?
@BehexagusTheGreat depends on how bad the carbon is. Mostly just a light spray. You don't want large chunks of carbon coming off and scratching cylinders, lodging into rings and or stuck between valves and seats, or fouling up the plugs.
.........................get the engine up to running temperature ,,, block the throttle slightly open [cloths-pin ] to get 2500 rpm steady ,,,,use the spray bottle method with ethylene glycol [ anti- freeze] ,,,,,,,,,It removes the surface layer or the fluffy light layer of carbon......won't budge that hard layer that bonded to the piston top..................
Is it the same for more modern diesel engines?
I am 73 and my father did the water trick many times. He used a small Coke bottle of 7 oz filled with water and as he raised the RPM, he would slowly empty it down the carburetor.
It really worked. Thanks and take care.
Thank you for watching
I'm 56 and I use to do this as a kid. Works extremely well. The colder the water the bigger the chunks of carbon!
But he's right it has a nice steam cleaning effect.
I’m 25 years old, I was told this trick when I was 16, thinking it was a prank I never did it till last year. Laid about 100 to 200ft of garden hose out in the sun to heat up, put my spray nozzle on mist and sprayed right by the intake. Worked like an absolute charm. But be aware, you can flood the motor if yours not careful and hydro lock it. (Ask me how I know)
Yes it does work I've do it a few times myself....and I was also looking for this comment about Is hydro locking because it can happen if you Is poor too much water...you can also hydro lock the engine by putting way too much fuel....it happens to hot rod's.
And to mowers to
Yeah, you don't want to flood it, haha, ha ha ha. It does work though. Use a spray, misst bottle from a hairspray. Pump, Rev the motor up, keep it as high idle and spray it in there a little bit of time. Bring your fishing Rod. A couple of trout Mike be coming out the tailplate.
I use a hose connected to vacuum line with a valve and route it through window to control valve from drivers seat and then head er out the highway at cruise speed then apply the water...works best just takes more time
So how do you know? Kidding.. I like the spray nozzle method, and that's what I was thinking, something like a spray bottle or something to create a mist.👍
Yes Sir...I remember this trick as well. I also learned this from an old school mechanic in the 70's. Water is the best cleaner on aspirated engines. Good job Bobby for bringing this back!
This was honestly something I took for granted everyone knew. Then I mentioned it to someone the other day and they had no idea what I was talking about. I forget sometimes these things don’t get passed down
The gas back then was leaded for our old school engines. This was one of the major causes of carbon
I imagine today's engines run somewhat cleaner so this water method was eventually forgotten.
@@davidzarr1832 Had nothing to do with leaded gas. Usually, our customers cars that just putted around during the carbureted emission hose nest era. Often do complete tune up's wires everything (they were due) still not much better cup of water or two down carb would smooth em back out all better. Didn't do it allot, but often and was a customer specific issue mostly.
I knew an ol' guy who would use Uncle Ben's rice.
I'm 65 and this is the first I've heard of this. Was always a Seafoam believer. Gonna do the H2O next time
One way to tell if this works: Pull some sparkplugs, and look at the carbon buildup around the bottom of the threads. (not necessarily the electrodes) Put the plugs back in, and try this. Afterwards, pull the same plugs again, and see if the plugs look any cleaner.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,besides carbon particles out and under the tailpipe , pullin a spark plug should reveal clean electrodes.......
You CAN see the piston itself at TDC. Or use a endoscopic camera.
Hell, if it pings and runs on before the treatment, and it doesn't afterwords, that's all the proof one should need.
@@InHellWaiting Exactly - a borescope will tell the tale - before and after.
I love it! My dad always said that water is the best way to clean your engine.
Thank you for bringing back that memory.
Thank you for watching
It works. Many years ago, my engine started knocking. I thought the engine was gone. A nice mechanic looked at it and said it was probably a piece of carbon stuck on the top of the piston. He used this technique, and the knock went away. It took 3 cups of water, but it worked. Live and learn!
Unrelated to engines but as a youngster, I learned to free up a stuck axle by bolting a heavy chain to it, and stretch it out and do a whip action with it. It works and I haven't seen or heard of anyone else that's done it in over 40 years.
What a great idea. A new one on me.
I've seen axels pulled using an old third member on a chain. You need to be pretty stout for that method.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. My grandfather told me that the water-injection on WW2 airplanes would clean the top end of an engine as well. They always knew who was really pushing the throttles!
Water was used as emergency power. Greatly raises compression.
Popular Mechanics had a article about this in the 80s.
In the 50's Popular Mechanics had a easy build for a water injection on a vacuum line to the carburetor to boost power and mileage. My friends and I all put it in and my mileage went from 16 to 18 mpg but all of our exhaust systems rusted out within 6 months
Man, Popular Mechanics magazine was the absolute greatest magazine of all time, at least as far as I am concerned anyways!!!
Haha @@dw9666
That's where I learned this trick too, cleaned out the pistons on my first car, Nissan Pulsar N12 front wheel drive, 1.5 litre 4 cylinder engine. I learned how to work on cars by reading every Popular Mechanics magazine I could find at every college library(TAFE) all across Sydney Australia late 80's early 90's. They had the Saturday Mechanic section at the back that answered all kinds of tech questions on car problems.
When I was a kid in the sixties my mother started up a hill and her car sputtered and quit. It just happened to be in front of a country garage. The mechanic and his sidekick came over, listened to the car, and the mechanic asked his helper what he thought. He said 'I think it needs a drink of water' and I thought 'what the hell'. He came over with a coke bottle of water and poured it down the carb while the car ran and the car stopped skipping and began running fine. I've never forgotten that.
I've had the honor of working on very old engines at a young age for the past thirty years. My neighbor Mr. Hall who passed some 20yrs ago showed me this on a GMC handibus we horse traded. I was very hesitant about his convictions, but damn it worked. I've been using this method since he showed me.
I am 57 and been doing this since I was a kid in the 70's to lawn mowers to make money doing Tune ups at my dad's shop, spark plugs come out perfectly clean, re gap them and carry on.. Then in the 80's when I became a certified mechanic and all the "snake oils" came out I just laughed at the salesmen who would try to sell me their junk., and grab a bottle of water and show them how much better it worked . Potato water works even better.
what about vinegar water?
You're rite I did the same thing and the plugs would be a lot cleaner definitely tell the difference! 🤷♂️👍
Potatoe water? Throw a few potatoes in water then use that water?
@@JayLupe
Water from boiling sliced or cubed potatoes. The starch and steam combination works great.
Explain the process when doing it to lawnmowers....how much water?
It's physics. Water bonds with carbon to form hydrocarbon. Plus the heat helps it release and expel it out the exhaust.
Ever notice how your vehicle runs better on a rainy day? That humidity helps an engine run more efficient. A little water in the engine like he did here won't hurt a thing.
OMG I'm 62 years old fool and I noticed that too never even though about it as the humidity was actually helping.
Humid air is less dense than dry air, if the barometer and temperature are the same. But when it is raining it is also generally cooler and then the air may be denser. Cars run better with dense air and they perform better at sea level than at higher elevations.
Mine runs worse
1st, Go Chiefs. 2nd... nope! It's prolly cooler where you live when it rains. DA is the term racers use to measure air density. Humidity is bad.
@@ohane1yes but density altitude is not humidity. High Density altitude is like being at a higher elevation then you actually are. Yes the air is thinner then.
Used this method several times. Tuned up a 71 torino,still ran rough.
Ran water through it and it smoothed right out. Definitely a great trick.
My grandmothers '70and Nova (230c.u.) was carboned up so bad you could shut it off at idle and it would continue running dieseling. I figured out this method by removing the air cleaner and getting a long piece of vacuum hose to put in a bucket of water connecting the hose to the air cleaner port. I started the car, set it up on fast idle and then put the hose into the water. The motor bogged down at first blowing white smoke, then the smoke turned black with a cloud about 20 feet in diameter blow out the tail pipe for a minute or so then back to white. At that time, I removed the hose from the water and let the engine clear out, reducing the fast idle. Let it run for a few more minutes and after that it ran PERFECT! Never had a problem after that.
@@davidlibby5430 it’s a great way to clean one out.
I'm 56 years old and I remember seeing old shade tree mechanics do this water trick on their engines. The easiest way to do it is by pouring warm water into a spray bottle and slowly squirting the water from the spray bottle into the carburetor while pressing the throttle on the carburetor to increase the RPM.
That was part of our standard tune up procedure at Tune Up Masters in the 80’s. We did it under load on the dyno.
Seen this done once when I was 10 years old in 1985.on a 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass supreme 350cid.... Rev the engine and poured water down carb. WOW, black smoke filled a huge industrial garage in seconds. Car ran perfect afterwards..
Yes sir. Thank you for
Watching
im 73 been using this method 50-+ years Caution in electronic controlled throttle body type autos I had the problem of ruining some of my electronic controls engine was decarbonized but caused a small problem. good tip for those who didnt know this trick. thanks
Thank you for watching
This absolutely works. I would have people walk upon me and see me doing this and they're jaws would drop. I think I learned it from Smokey Yunick.
I learned this trick in the 80's and still do it. There is also another substance we use and alternate with the water. I start off with some brake fluid and then water, alternating until I'm happy. I learned that the brake fluid softens the muck and the water pops it loose and out...
I’ve seen that done as well but I seen it with transmission fluid. Same idea.
Old school rules 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
@@frizzellracingSticky valves
I remember being taught this by High School Automotive Instructors back in the early to mid 90s.
Yup. In TBI engines!
I've done this several times I always do it it just before changing the oil. Had a fella tell me about this when I was about 19, tried it once been doing it ever since. On multiport fuel injection I just pull the brake booster hose
I pull the hose off the vacuum gauge and give my 87 f150 a cup or so of warm water monthly. Been doing this to my cars since the 1970s. I also use a little Marvel oil in the gas every other month or so.
I had an old school mechanic show me this trick 40 years ago. I actually witnessed him doing it! It actually blew my mind that he was pouring water into the carburetor!
In the 90s, my buddy showed me this trick.We didnt feed the water to it so slow. We used a garden hose. Make sure it is warmed up first, rev it to 3000 rpm, and feed it the water slowly. We used a piexe of cardboard 2 feet behind the exhaust pipe to see what came out, and judje when no more crap was coming out.
I have done the same. I used a spray nozzle on the hose set to a mist. It worked great!
Watching from South Africa!!! Thank you, I just learned something I never knew about, I'm also an old school guy. Going to give it a try on my 54 year old car 👍
Wow South Africa. That’s a long way from here. I’m very honored and thank you for watching.
Now I’m curious. Is there a big classic car culture in South Africa ?
@@frizzellracing There is a classic car culture but nothing as big as the states. I'm a fan of the American 50's & later cars. Got a 83 Transam(knight rider car). If I had Jay Leno's bank balance, I would have as many cars as he does 😀, love cars. I always watch information like yours on TH-cam, so please don't stop, there are lots of us around the world that still keep & enjoy older cars👍
Back in the 70s my Cadillac engine would carbon up and knock after riding around town for a few weeks.. I used a 16 oz bottle of half water and half transmission fluid mixed, then trickled in the carburetor at high idle.. It would blow smoke, steam & chunks of carbon for a couple of minutes , then it ran like brand new..🥃🤠👌
Yes sir. Thank you for watching
In 78 was working at an ARCO, the mech did this to a Buick 225, the black smoke could not come out any thicker. I was amazed
I had a 1981 Toyota Corolla that developed a misfire. My neighbour who is a retired mechanic told me to try the water trick. He told me that if I didn’t work that I lost nothing, except some of my time. I couldn’t believe how much smoke was coming out of the tail pipe, and after about 10 minutes are cleared up. It’s still raining a little rough even after the fact, so I took it on the freeway for about 10 to 15 minutes and it cleared right up. That little trick saved me a lot of money.
It does work. A lot of people try to hate on it but the little trick does work. Thank you for watching
Totally legit, a droplet of water expands 1000x as it flashes to steam. In a closed loop system (tightly sealed combustion chamber) steam is a corrosive especially when an oxidizer is present.
Even better, 1700 times the volume!
It’s only when it becomes superheated steam that it expands that much fellas
Been a mechanic for 40 years and I remember my mentor when I got started in the business doing this all the time. He would also pour transmission fluid in the carb to unstick lifters.
Transmission fluid works well also. Thanks for watching
You would have to pour the transmission fluid into the engine oil to clean the lifters.
@@heystarfish100 Now that I think about it I believe you may be correct. That was over 30 years ago.
@@frizzellracing, how about Marvel Mystery Oil?
@heystarfish100 how about some Marvel Mystery oil in the crankcase to unstick lifters?
Wow, this video just dislodged a number of memories but this reminded me of when I was visiting my girlfriend and her sisters husband, a dealership owner and mechanic, used this trick to de-carbon my girlfriends parents car. It ran like new after a few cups of water carefully poured through it. Thanks for the memories, this happened when I was 18 and I'm 60 now and I have actually used that trick on my old '76 Cutlass.
Awesome thank you for watching
Yes you're absolutely right, you can feel the throttle difference. That's why we'd enjoy the benefits of a highway run because we'd notice the big improvement once back in the city. The highway run would always clear it out but you're doing it the much quicker way. You probably remember how some of us ran water injection base plates back in the day to help with all the knock and ping from our higher compression engines running lower octane fuels.
You deserve an award though teaching people not to burn chemicals in their motor. Nobody needs to accidentally breathe any of that exhaust.
Thank you for the kind words. I’d like to actually find one of those old water injection setups to play with. Thank you for watching
@@frizzellracing If you can't find one you could probably drill and tap your own spacer plate and then play around with different size nozzles threaded in. It gets exciting thinking about it because you start to wonder what else you might be able to inject through there... for a horsepower boost perhaps. Cheers!
45, been working on cars since I was 13. I figured this trick out on my own after rebuilding a few engines with blown head gaskets, the ones that had water infiltration were practically perfect, the cylinders, the rings, the valves, guides, exhaust ports, whole thing was as clean as the day it was built.
Makes a hell of a difference.
I'm 57 years old when I was about 12 or 13 years old my own self my dad taught me the same trick and it works you should tell the tricks about mothballs in the gas tank to give you more octane and keep your valves running clean
Good for you,I'm an older guy too, and I know that trick, you never hear anyone doing this anymore, it's good to see someone doing this again, I will subscribe, If you ever did a head gasket you probably noticed that the cylinder that had the leak was clean as a whistle, the same thing is being done here, Thanks for sharing this old trick with the younger ones that may not have ever heard of it, Good Work
Thank you very much.
If you have a catalytic converter you will kiss it goodbye doing this otherwise its a great trick for older cars
This is no surprise to me. As far as I know, the piston engine in the US Navy/Marines Corsair used in the south Pacific theatre, had water injection for escape situations. It provided a boost to HP and therefore more speed for escape if ammo ran out or they were overwhelmed. It makes the engine run very hot and could only be used for short duration, but I'll bet the combustion chambers and valves were squeaky-clean, though. Cheers.
Cheap nitros oxide
I myself have used this trick on a vehicle I bought at auction from a sawmill. It never got over 10 mi an hour in a 30 years it ran at the Mill. I sold the truck shortly after getting it after doing this. The guy I sold it to tore the head off examine the interior of the engine and said it was as clean as a whistle there was no signs of carbon inside the engine his father insisted they tear it down and look at the inside of the heads. After I told them what I had done his father was very surprised to see how clean the engine was when they pulled the heads off
Awesome story. It works great. Thank you for watching
if your engine has started pinging and you've already checked your ignition timing and got a good tank of gas to no avail, then it is time for this trick. Carbon buildup in combustion chambers raise compression ratio. Higher compression can cause ping/knock, dieseling after shutdown. However I would put the cap back on the bottle and 3/16" hole in it to help insure I don't accidentally whoosh the engine and bend a rod.
I worked for Chevy in the ‘80s and we also used water and trans fluid to dissolve carbon, we also had what GM called Top Engine Cleaner which also worked great.
It works great, done this many times. Even if the windshield washer was connected to the engine, it was used while driving. However, there will be some water in the oil, so you should drive it really hot afterwards.
When I was younger my 1969 Camaro was running ruff popping up thru the carb a bit an old guy told me it could be carbon build up he told me to let the engine warm up and try to slowly pour a little transmission fluid down the carburetor so after trying everything else I thought I would try it and he was right it smoothed out the engine after it smoked white for a few minutes.
Great proof with the observation of clean pistons after a head gasket malfunction! It’s exactly correct!
Another trick involving fuel/gas mileage is 4 oz or so of trans fluid in a full tank of gas, keeps the injectors lubed (if you have those) and actually adds a few miles per gallon efficiency
Had a 66 ford galaxy that was dieseling on shut down gave it the water carbon treatment, it worked.
I worked at a marina back in the 90's. We would do this with older carbed inboard engines that were used to just putt putt around the lake. Also, OMC made a "tune up in a can" designed to remove carbon build up in small two stroke engines used for trolling motors. Worked great.
I like using Berryman's or Seafoam with any mystery engine I get. Warm engine, pour the stuff in until things are really smoking, then shut it off and let it sit for 20 minutes. Once you start it up again, rev it really good and maybe go for a spin. Clouds of chunks will often shoot out the tailpipe.
Yup water is all I ever used . I’m old and the old guys taught me that
Did this on a 1969 GMC. It was a low rpm motor all it's life, so I took a 12oz bottle of water, added 3 holes from a sewing needle, and emptied the bottle into the engine. Shut it off, waited 15 minutes, then ran it down the freeway for 20 miles. Felt like a new engine.
It’s amazing how simple things work. Thank you for watching
@@frizzellracing good day sir.. what would the method be if you have a newer vehicle and no regular carburator ?
@@paulkwiatkowski1059 you might find a port on the intake tube, like for a pcv or vacuum, apply the water there, and then run it on the freeway as described
Thank you @@garywarren3600
@paulkwiatkowski1059 you can also remove the air intake and pour directly into the throttle body. I haven't done it with water but I've used seafoam this way and it worked great. Just make sure to pour slow and find your throttle cable before you start so you can keep the rpms up
I learned that trick working with Andy Granatelli's Tune Up Masters in CA in the early 80s. We called it a 'Carbon Treatment', and Andy explained it to me as 'steam cleaning the combustion chamber (heads, valves, and piston tops) and blowing it out the exhaust.
I had a '71 F-100 with a 390 that was my daily driver, and my buddy (who's 12 years older than me) and I were tweaking it, and he says, "Let me show you something." He grabs the water hose outside of my shop, turns it on, and turns to me and says, "You trust me, right?" I said yeah. He has me start the truck, and he revs the throttle at the carburetor like this gentleman did and goes to dumping water straight into the carburetor from the hose. I was blown away. haha
Born 87 garage head here. Dad a mechanic an pappy was a body guy. We've done water cleaning b4 many times. ❤from Pa
I did this once with a car of mine. I started slowly inducting water into the throttle body. Little by little, I poured in more and more water. Eventually I got carried away and put in too much and blew the engine! I ended up pulling the motor and rebuilding it. One of the rods was broken in half. My point is, if you do this, be very careful. You really should use a spray bottle and spray in the water very slowly.
Recommend using a vacuum hose with a 1/8" barbed reducer as an orifice. This will eliminate ingesting too much water causing internal engine damage. I also use -32F washer fluid (methanol) to avoid drowning out the engine computer based fuel injected engines. HTH
I seen UTG do this to his mopar several years ago. Old service station in my hometown would do this as part of the services they provided. Lost knowledge nowadays,thanks for keeping old school alive!
Thank you for watching.
An old Ford mechanic taught me "50/50 solution of brake fluid and distilled water" sprayed into the carb from a pump spray bottle at a fast idle. I have never tried this on a newer fuel-injected engine and don't have any reference to anyone that has.
Finally a good relaxed TH-cam video that's instructional
I try. 😂
good job on pointing out towards the end to make sure your motor is up to running temp before hand. Also,, its kind of important that the water you use is not cold,,, as you also pointed out.... the warmer the water the better.
kudo's here from west virginia and keep on doing vids like this,, the young bucks who are interested will benefit
I always used/use Marvel Mystery Oil in my gas instead. No carbon issues in my ‘65 Mustang nor my 1970 El Camino 454 SS.
Yes Colt! I am now adding 3 oz of Marvel Mystery Oil to a full tank of gas, (22 gal) to my 2015 F-150, My Girls's 2015 Camaro RS and now my 67 Mustang Gt 460 Big Block. The Marvel Mystery also keeps the injectors clean and lubed too. Good Stuff! They run and Idle like brand new engines.
@@robertclymer6948 So 2 oz of MMO to every 5 gallon of gas per MMO instructions. I've been doing this in my 2014 Nissan & '63 Marauder. 😉
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I used to do this when I did a lot of hot rodding and auto mechanic work in the '80s. I usually revved it a lot higher and poured the water in fast enough to start slowing the engine down. Another thing we'd do is take the vehicle out onto the highway and do several full throttle pulls in a low gear from low speed to near red line. We called that one the quick "Italian Tuneup." Ahh, the good ole days!
this method works on fuel injection.
I did this on my 2011 Silverado 5.3 and 2006 Kawasaki Z1000.
modern engines still follow the same principles.
We learned to give an engine a drink of water back when I was in automotive school in the early 2000s, so the trick hasn't been completely forgotten. Run about a pint through and then take it out on the highway and give it the old full-throttle tuneup to get the combustion chamber temperatures up and loosen up anything that's left. The guys I learned this from were old-school mechanics that knew a lot of stuff that the rest of the world had probably forgotten. I found out that the REALLY old-school guys used to dump rice down the intake of a running engine to clean out carbon. That trick went out with the Model T, and I never had the courage to try it, but I never forgot it either. I've used the water trick more than once both on carbureted and fuel-injected engines.
Rice? that seems a recipe for disaster, but ok
Does it work the same on a fuel injection vehicle?
Thats what i wanna know before i do my wifes 2002 jeep liberty. And where do u put it in at?@@mercld
@@mercld I have done it on fuel injected vehicles, feeding it tiny amounts of water through a vacuum hose, but you can do a lot of damage if you give the engine too big a slug of water. This is designed to remove carbon fouling. Most modern fuel injected engines won't foul combustion chambers up unless the engine is burning oil or something is really wrong. This is NOT periodic maintenance and if you have to do it on a regular basis, you have another problem.
Does this work on a diesel car?
Thanks for the video. Another trick old timers would use to clean the carbon was to add a gallon of diesel fuel to a full tank of gas.
I like how you took a sip of the water right before the demonstration. I've been using Seafoam (newer 2000s vehicle) - had heard about this but not seen this done before. I dribble the seafoam in a vacuum hose then let the last bit stall it out, or shut it off and sit a few minutes, then start and run it down the road (smoke).
YOU GOT IT !
Damn dude 83 that's fantastic I'm 65 also an old gearhead. Where can my brother's gas station, I'm at the age of 15 got my license I'm the first car I bought was the 68 SS Camaro with an l88 427 making 600 horsepower at this altitude Rock crusher transmission and a 5 1 3 gears.. oh yeah and at the time a junior in high school I work for John McClintock NHRA b Street national record holder. MPH/ ET. both.
With the help of my brother Gene tuning the car. First time off the trailer and first pass, iTube became an NHRA record holder... It was 1976
That's a nice Galaxy by the way!! Keep the rubber side down
Done this to my uh1 c model gunship quite often
We mostly drove manual cars here in South Africa. I was taught to drive the car to around 3/4 of the rev range in second gear. Then you would change to 3rd and take the spead up to where it would be close to redline in second. Pull the manual choke open and change back to 2nd. The car would blow out clouds of black smoke out the back for a few seconds and stop smoking. Then you would change to 3rd and 4th as needed. Engine would run smooth after that.
Stomp on accelerator flooring it in passing gear. That was carbon clearing in my day.
Yep. Mash the gas and "blow it out".
nailed it !
We used to run a tank of good ole real purple premium fuel back in the day and hit the highway!
That was called "Italian tune-up" in the 70s no offense intended.
'passing gear' 😄
A 50/50 water/ethanol mixture will do it and makes a great chemical intercooler for high compression engines on pump gas. You can buy a kit that does just that. It’s an old trick that is making a comeback.
Yes but water/meth needs to be tuned for, thus if/when you run out of liquid or your nozzle misfires, you're kind of screwed lol..I'm personally using a 35 wet shot of nitrous. I know my engine can take it with no issues, and it doesn't need a tune. Should clean carbon up well too.
yeah and some of the old indy cars used the water alky injection to make power
@@jaynikk758 actually you dont need to tune for it, but if you want the most out of it then yes you need to tune for it. Adding it with out a tune will pull the power out put down, but it is a great safety fuse agaist predetonation. I wouldnt run a nitrous system with out it, what if your wet jet gets clogged? then your engine is screwed, would be better to run a meth injection system with your wet shot set up just as an added safety feature.
@@Twolife yes it is, Old tech but works amazing. The new systems are much better though, alot better control over the spay volume and pattern.
This wouldnt make the engine rev higher because the extra fuel?
65 years young Pauly here- You bought back many memories of my youth being born a gear head and will die as one as I was building engines by the age of eleven and working on mechanical equipment even pryer I remember doing this succesfully on many of those vehicles, It's good to see some of these simple mechanical methods that were born out of being resourceful and applying good old fashion common sense which seems to be lacking in many of todays so called technicians, hopefully shows like this will help bring some change
Thank you so much for the kind words. That is why I do videos like this, hopefully to keep the old simple knowledge around. Thank you for watching
When I was in high school back in 1979 jc Whitney sold water injection adapters for for carburetors and I can tell you it made a huge difference at the track