Kevin Bacon

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

I didn't watch the videos as I was at work.

The only fact is it might work on some really old and neglected engines but on the majority of looked after vehicles, it will do bugger all.

It's all a load of marketing bollocks, the cars they have been tested on were on 'cold start' so the co and hc's emissions are going to be up. Take ANY car to an mot station test it, then thrash it down the road for 10 mins and it will be as clean as a whistle. I've been a mechanic for 20yrs and Fortron had the same thing years ago, all it was is just a fancy injector cleaner.

So if you have a faulty injector you will see a 15-20bhp gain after the clean.

Exactly. Why do Marketing people think we're stupid?

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.

Cheers Kev. Not what I wanted to hear but I kind of knew in my heart of hearts that's what it be. Spoke to a mate earlier and he said it's not too bad a job to replace the valve guides, just sounds time consuming to me.

I would get yourself a spare head from ebay or here and refurb that one. Then you can just pick a weekend and swap the head over and have a look at the bores etc whilst you're there.

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 :)

The intermediate shaft is like a 3rd sanity check mark. In a normal cam belt engine, the crank turns the cams directly. Just 2 sprockets. In the VR6, there's 3 sprockets (crank > int shaft > cams), so you have to get all 3 timed up correctly or you'll always have a problem with the cams being a tooth out etc.

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 :)

They don't fit behind Solitudes or Speedos, but they do fit behind an 8x15 Compomotive MO with ET25 :)

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!

I can see a trend of people heading back to smaller wheels you know. The roads will never be smooth in this country and 17s, 18s, 19s+ just don't make sense.

Wasn't Parallax the baddie in The Green Lantern? :D

Good work Hasan! I do not approve of the use of adjustable wrenches when undoing cam sprocket bolts though :lol:

Is it the crank pulley mark that doesn't quite line up? That one isn't always bang on. It's more of a guide. The important marks are the intermediate shaft, cam tool slotting in easily and the notch on the crank sprocket (can't see in situ). If those 3 are all good and the crank pulley mark is a few mill off, I wouldn't worry. What I do is preload the chain (with a bolt and a washer pressing hard on the upper pad) and turn the motor over 4 times. If all still lines up properly, I go ahead and put it all back together.

Piper 264s eh? You'll have to let us know what they're like!

How OEM is that?!! Damn good work fella!

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

It's a tough call tbh. I like both wheels for different reasons, and I've never had 'bling' wheels before which is nice as people who aren't necessarily into cars have gone 'nice wheels' whereas the rota's seem to draw more comments as an overall look of the car ie: 'that thing looks evil mate!'

That is precisely why I sold my RH ZW1s. They were just too showy and drew too much attention away from the car. I think that's why CHs don't do anything for me. On the MK5 Edition 30 they look the nuts because it's the OEM wheel and forms the overall package. On a Corrado, they become the centre piece. Same with BBS RC. Mint on a MK4 Anniversary. Too showy on a Corrado. Just imo of course :)

Agree with Nick about solitudes! Super light wheels and those + Konis / H&Rs also made my Corrado feel super nimble!

They're all too dark and the bottom left 2 look pretty crusty, which is usually oil.

The first time we answered this wasn't enough for you then?

5 years is pretty shyte for a big name like Samco. They may replace a hose if it splits under warranty, but will they replace the engine after it's seized from losing all it's coolant? I doubt it.

I had the first set of Roose hoses - they've been in since March 2012 and are just as solid now as they ever were. I've lost count of the number of split Samcos I've seen, people just seem to accept it but you shouldn't! Buy cheap and you'll be buying twice...

 

Stone

But you can buy three times and still be cheaper than Samco :lol:

Up until recently, this G60 was not factory stock, it had 4pots, 17" alloys and Koni suspension... hardly straight out the tin

What, the £15K one?

Well that kind of ruins it's provenance then really. I would only pay that sort of money (well, £10K max) for a car like that *if* if was 100% never ever tampered with in any way.

Yeah, just don't dare express an opinion on it's price or it will irk a particular member ;)

Just get a new one from the dealer for the cost of it. i.e. peanuts. If they're obsolete, I think MK4 R32 seat grabs have the same fitting.

The ECU needs to see the load of a relay on it's signal line. Why are you so reluctant to hook up the relay? It's not exactly a big thing that takes up space.

Yeah most of what I learned about ME7 came from Vince and trial and error!

There are a dozen or so SAI maps in the ECU that need deleting, but the ECU still needs to see the relay connected. ME7 is very picky like that. Simply hiding the fault code doesn't wash with that.

SAI is weird, it can kick in when ever it feels it's necessary, even when the engine is hot! It's tied in with the idle speed as well, so sometimes the hot idle will be 1100rpm and the cold idle 700rpm! Odd.

Chris, there are 2 types of fuel trims. Short term and long term. Short term are fuel adjustments made on the fly to adapt to various conditions. Long term is the rolling average of adjustments made. Both are generally small numbers on a standard, healthy engine. Typically 3% for long term. The range of adjustment is +/- 25% I believe. If you start seeing fuel trims in the 15-25% region, you know you have issues! These trims are also just for idle and part throttle too. No full throttle stuff.

So as said above, without the SAI and evap,valve connected, it's not adapting. You will still get short term trims though.

Lol, bring on the cheese and ham :lol:

Yeah, there is, Stealth. £350+VAT is massively cheaper than £1134, but as you can't be arsed to drive up there, it's a moot point, even though he is the best Motronic mapper in the VW scene by far.

They don't come much cleaner than that, but £15K is ridiculous!

Unfortunately you always get car speculators coming out of the woodwork with stupid prices when they get wind of a particular model gaining interest.

A 3.2 crank in an AUE block will give you 2965cc, but the pistons will sit 6mm proud of the block at TDC, so custom work required.

I agree with Sean, it's not worth it, better off sticking a complete 3.2 in.