Intake Valves and Carbon

Carbon deposits on intake valves and intake ports, are the enemy of engine performance with respect to: drivability, horsepower generation and performance.   Your engine is a pump and the intake valve is like a faucet that opens and closes to let air into your engine.  When the valve opens, the more air that can get in the better.  The intake valve lives in a particularly hostile environment.  Oil must lubricate its shaft and every time it closes, that valve must form a perfect seal.  Engineers have battled intake valve deposits since the invention of the internal combustion engine.  Early engines built up intake valve carbon deposits  as they aged, from the lubricating oil leaking past the valve seals.  As the oil reached the hot end of the valve,  it would heat up, forming solid deposits toward the head of the valve.  Improved engine oils, sealing technology and detergents added to fuel, reduced this problem.

Tightened emission standards and fuel economy demands contributed to the next era of intake valve carbon deposits. Carburetors were replaced with fuel injectors. Crankcase blow by was routed back into the engine and exhaust gases were sent back through the intake. The hydrocarbons laid down through the intake system, were no longer washed away by  fuel distributed by a carburetor.  The fuel injector sprayed the back of the intake valve and  carbon deposits absorbed the fuel like a sponge - resulting in  poor performance.

 

Nu-Tech’s Intake Air System Maintenance and Inspection is designed to prevent intake system deposit buildup.  This procedure provides a thorough inspection and cleaning of your engine’s air intake system. A cleaning detergent is flushed through the air intake from the throttle plate past the intake valve and is then combusted and processed out the exhaust system. Regular treatments will keep your vehicle performing as it should, by keeping deposits to a minimum. Unfortunately, the latest technology, direct fuel injection, has actually increased the rate of intake valve deposit formation. The fuel injector on many new engines sprays fuel directly onto the top of the piston rather than the intake valve. There is no longer any fuel washing the back of that valve. The rate of deposit build up is significant.  Intake cleaning is now more important than ever.  At Nu-Tech we recommend our Intake Air System Maintenance and Inspection process at least every 25,000 kilometres. We feel that attacking these deposits at regular intervals will prevent any reduction in performance and efficiency.  Your manufacturer’s maintenance schedule won’t likely include this procedure.  If left too long, however, these deposits will require physical removal - a much more expensive procedure.