Terraclean

[VR6 Lee 0]

Anyone ever used the service? Heard some really good reviews about the service

 

 

http://www.terraclean.co.uk/home

[Jim Bowen 1]

Came up on here a while ago. Was a user had the kit iirc and was offering the service.

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

He didn't get a particularly warm welcome from memory. I personally would just prefer to use V Power or something else of that ilk. Horses for courses though.

[axcel01uk 0]

I had mine done a while back by a forum user called banana man he was a top bloke and had all the kit at his home so had a nice cupper and a chat whilst he done it, took about 50 mins. bit of a journey for you though. See this thread http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?t=74505&page=7

 

My car felt smoother and more responsive after and no ill effects whatsoever.

[VR6 Lee 0]

Interesting. Fancy doing it on the VW cc

[Jim Bowen 1]

My engine did over 200,000miles before the headgasket went, i took it apart and wasn't really that dirty inside, exhaust valves and pistons had the most carbon build up, but i couldn't see it harming performance that much.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Exactly, it's just placebo. The real test would be a before and after dyno test!

[davidwort 0]

Exactly, it's just placebo. The real test would be a before and after dyno test!

sadly(suspiciously) there's not much trace of that on the web, but anyone that's invested in the kit gets really funny when you question it...

[Kevin Bacon 5]

As we all know, engines are just air pumps with a dash of fuel added and burned at the right time. Unless compression is greatly reduced or someone has blocked the intake ports with some parsnips, I really cannot see how cleaning piston crowns and valves with a chemical is going to make it run better!!

 

It's the same with air filters, exhausts, brake pads etc. Your mind expects improvements and indeed tricks you into thinking you're getting some, and then of course 3 days later you're used to the 'change' and can't remember what it was like originally!

[Jon_vr6 1]

Yeah like not driving your car for two weeks, driving it and it feels rapid

[VR6 Lee 0]

Yeah like not driving your car for two weeks, driving it and it feels rapid

 

Never had that feeling.. Only when it has had a service then you get in it and go... Well fast

[axcel01uk 0]

I forgot to mention that the guy I used, Banana Man, was obviously trained in the Jedi arts. This meant he was able to successfully use a jedi mind trick to make me think the slight engine hesitation that had been bugging me for months prior to getting the treatment done had disappeared. It was only 3 days later I realised what had happened. If only I wasn't such a weak minded fool.

 

In all seriousness though don't get it done expecting huge increases in performance as it doesn't provide that, but imo it was money well spent and it completely cured my engine hesitation issue and I can only reaffirm that the car was more responsive and it did feel smoother. After owning the car for 5 years and knowing her inside and out it was easy to notice. I had tried cheaper off the shelf fuel injection cleaners prior to Terra Clean with no luck.

 

However, you might want to consider that I did get mine done at a discount, most places now days charge over £100 to do it. If my car was running nicely already would I get it done ? tricky decision, it is quite a lot to shell out.

[Mike16v 10]

I'm a TerraClean dealer (and Corrado owner) based in East Kent. People are always skeptical about new products promising all kinds of things. I know before and after dyno tests have been done, all be it not on a Corrado. I'll try to find the results and post on here. The improvements in exhaust emissions can also be demonstrated. Some of you may have seen TV ads running during the recent series of Wheeler Dealers on Discovery. Any claims made on TV ads are carefully considered before they are aired. Anyway, I'd be happy to put my money where my mouth is and offer a TerraClean to forum member. If you don't notice a real improvement, there would be no charge. Would have to be a VR though because I haven't found a way to easily connect to the valvers fuel injection system. Also happy to answer any questions. I haven't pushed this too much on the forum because I didn't join for personal gain (other than help with my Corrado).

Edited June 4, 2014 by Mike16v
typo

[Mike16v 10]

I'm a TerraClean dealer (and Corrado owner) based in East Kent. People are always skeptical about new products promising all kinds of things. I know before and after dyno tests have been done, all be it not on a Corrado. I'll try to find the results and post on here. The improvements in exhaust emissions can also be demonstrated. Some of you may have seen TV ads running during the recent series of Wheeler Dealers on Discovery. Any claims made on TV ads are carefully considered before they are aired. Anyway, I'd be happy to put my money where my mouth is and offer a TerraClean to forum member. If you don't notice a real improvement, there would be no charge. Would have to be a VR though because I haven't found a way to easily connect to the valvers fuel injection system. Also happy to answer any questions. I haven't pushed this too much on the forum because I didn't join for personal gain (other than help with my Corrado).

 

Hopefully, here are the dyno results, before / after...

 

 

Ford Focus 2.0 Tdci before Terraclean

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]78764[/ATTACH]

 

Ford Focus after Terraclean

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]78765[/ATTACH]

[Mike16v 10]

...and BMW M5

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]78766[/ATTACH]

[Mike16v 10]

and Mini Cooper...

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]78767[/ATTACH]

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I still don't believe those kind of gains can be found just from running a cleaner through the injectors / engine and people have every right to be sceptical. Those dyno plots have no context either. None of us were there to witness these miraculous results in person and those graphs can easily be faked or manipulated. Engine mappers have been doing precisely that for years. Especially the M5. You can find 15hp just in coast down corrections or doing it on a very cold day.

 

This is one of those grey products where the consumer cannot prove either way what the chemical is doing, so have to rely on blind faith. Redex has been mind tricking people for years but it's just an upper cylinder lubricant. "Continued use will keep your engine running at it's best". Yeah right. Continued use fills their pockets more like.

 

I agree that injector cleaning can keep an engine running optimally, but you don't see those kind of gains. I suspect these 'cleaned' engines were in a very poor state of tune to begin with, especially the TDI. Everyone knows their intakes get completely bunged up with EGR crud, so gains in diesels are to be expected.

 

It'll take more than to convince me I'm afraid :)

[davidwort 0]

A few more thoughts, if it really does shift deposits and EGR crud I'd be wary of using it on a diesel with a DPF, and after having physically ground deposits off the back of valves refurbing an old cylinder head I'm surprised anything would shift that other than emery strip and a drill!

If all it's doing is improving injectors then an ultrasonic clean with injectors off the car may be a better investment, at least you get accurately measured results and visual spray pattern checks.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

They do say the cleaner is connected to the injection system, so it does imply a very powerful cleaning agent is run through the injectors. In a petrol engine, that can wake up lazy pintles that have aged and got coated in varnish, but with modern fuels and injectors, I'd be surprised if that's as much of a problem as it was 20 years ago.

 

Direct injection petrol and diesel injectors can benefit too as combustion waste can probably partially block the nozzles, but with the immense pressures involved, it'd be a small improvement I reckon.

 

Maybe that's their secret? They've found something in a bottle under the kitchen sink that can shift baked-on carbon from exhaust valves :)

 

I'm sorry to be so sceptical and I'm all for quick wins, but I just can't see this freeing off the kind of power shown, except in the diesel where it's especially bunged up, but a manual strip down and clean out would achieve the same results?

 

Anyway, if folk want to try it on an old engine, it can't hurt I suppose but I'll just be sticking to good quality fuels and regular maintenance :)

[Mike16v 10]

I still don't believe those kind of gains can be found just from running a cleaner through the injectors / engine and people have every right to be sceptical. Those dyno plots have no context either. None of us were there to witness these miraculous results in person and those graphs can easily be faked or manipulated. Engine mappers have been doing precisely that for years. Especially the M5. You can find 15hp just in coast down corrections or doing it on a very cold day.

 

This is one of those grey products where the consumer cannot prove either way what the chemical is doing, so have to rely on blind faith. Redex has been mind tricking people for years but it's just an upper cylinder lubricant. "Continued use will keep your engine running at it's best". Yeah right. Continued use fills their pockets more like.

 

I agree that injector cleaning can keep an engine running optimally, but you don't see those kind of gains. I suspect these 'cleaned' engines were in a very poor state of tune to begin with, especially the TDI. Everyone knows their intakes get completely bunged up with EGR crud, so gains in diesels are to be expected.

 

It'll take more than to convince me I'm afraid :)

 

 

Kevin, you say that the consumer cannot prove either way what the chemical is doing. That is my point, the consumer can do just that if they wish by having a before an after exhaust gas analysis done. The lowered emissions are proof of more efficient combustion.

 

Here is a clip from Wheeler Dealers that illustrates that point:

 

 

Another one by Frank Massey, although this one's a bit harder to sit through...

 

[Mike16v 10]

It might help to add an explanation of how the process was developed taken from the Terraclean website:

 

TerraClean is a technology developed by a group of scientists in Canada. They were commissioned by the Canadian government to develop a zero emissions engine. They did manage to achieve this goal, but the technology involved and the fuel used to achieve this would necessitate an increase to the price of the vehicles, due to the need to retro fit a "reactor" which molecularly alters the state of the fuel. That increase in cost coupled with the cosof the highly refined fuel, developed for the project, which would retail at over £ 40 per litre rendered the concept non-viable to introduce into the cars motorist drive.

 

All such engineering projects demand close attention to the condition of the test vehicles being used. The engineering inspections carried out in this project clearly demonstrated that the process was not only not developing carbon build up, usually associated with all internal combustion engines, in fact it was removing pre-existing carbon previously built up in the engines as well as other deposits which usually build up particularly from use of lower grade/quality fuels.

 

So whilst the Zero Emissions vehicle project was set aside the technology was taken in a different direction and the concept of TerraClean Decarbonisation equipment was developed. This has proven very successful with over 13,000 machines in operation in the North American market, mainly in franchised dealer workshops. Whilst quite new to the UK marketplace already the technology is proving its value to private owners and fleet operators alike, who are both saving money by reduced fuel costs and lowering their emissions. Essentially by taking a vehicle back to its level of cleanliness not long after being new the efficiency and performance are improved.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

And that is MY point. Lots of techno blurb that means nothing. "Fit a reactor to molecularly alter the state of the fuel....". Alter it's state to what exactly? Change petrol into rocket fuel, wine, water, bleach, what? Sounds like another one of those snake oil magnets they used to try and sell, which surprisingly no one bought!

 

They never just simply say, "We run this stuff through your injectors and cats and it just cleans them, that's it".

 

The Americans have added a 1 to 10 mix of paint thinners in their tanks to clean cats for decades. It doesn't actually do anything, but they convince themselves it does. Show me a dead cat (by measuring it's input and output temperatures held at 2000rpm) miraculously being fixed by running a chemical through it. I've yet to see it happen.

 

I appreciate you're sticking up for the business and trying to inform people, but it's still just sales pitch at the end of the day and if this system was so good, everyone would be doing it wouldn't they.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Kevin Bacon

[Mike16v 10]

I think the videos explain what the process consists if quite clearly, but some people like to know how and why things happen.

 

As I said, results can be readily verified with a before and after emissions test. Not opinion, not placebo effect, just cold, hard fact

[emu 0]

I need to add few words.

 

My very good friends father is a professor at very well known university in Poland. He's specializing in research which is all about making combustion engines more efficient and less pollution for environment. As a part of his research he and other phd peoples from same university they tested terraclean. I will say more, they even built their own system which is continuously updated and upgraded by new ideas.

 

I can't say you anything how its work and what chemicals they are using as its a secret and he just can't tell me.

 

I can tell you something about results and unfortunately they are not good. All systems works, one better one worst, all systems clean engines, specially valves and cats but results are so small it's not worth it. They test few cars a month and they make sure that every single test is performed exactly at same conditions. Every car has been rolling rolled, every engine has been checked using x-rays, very tiny cameras and other smart stuff.

 

I asked him about some results but he's not allowed to give up anything. All he told me is that he never seen more that 1% improvements. All cars they testing have minimum 60k miles on the clock.

Edited June 4, 2014 by emu

[Mike16v 10]

Emu, are you saying they have tested Terraclean specifically or other systems?