Hi Folks. Was chatting with my mechanic during an oil change. He has been straight forward and honest with me. Told him I was going to clean my throttle body one of these weekends in my 98 ls400 (79k miles). The mechanic is pitching me a BG Intake service. Anybody have experience with this?

Th you for the input.

Chip

 

bg44k? ive used it and didnt seem like it did anything.

what u could do effectively. is remove the top manifold and submerge it in a pool of brake cleaner.

 

Well on another car i had that done. Hook it up to some machine and blast the system. I say i did wonders for that car. It had lack of power and idled a bit high and had hesitation. Afterwards it ran like a top. Just use some type of stuff like 44k once or twice a year to maintain it.

 

It does work to an extent. I used it before on customers cars. It does help clean the carbon off the pistons and intake valves. Your best bet would to do it yourself and use a can of Seafoam. Also a trick I learned to clean injectors and to keep them clean is to throw a bottle of automatic transmission fluid in the gas tank when you fill up. The detergents in the ATF fluid will not harm any part of the fuel system and it will not foul out the oxygen sensors. It is cheap and it works wonders. I put in 1 quart per gas tank once a month or once every two months depending on the mileage.

James

 

ATF in the gas tank??? thats a first.

 

Here we go.

Using a quality gasoline as recommended by the manufacturer is the way to go. Not regular unleaded but premium...there is a reason why they engineered the car for optimum performance using that gasoline and calibrated it as such. Debate it all you want but it remains their method of operation.

From Texaco's site:

If the engine has lots of carbon deposits in the combustion chamber the engine isn't running optimally. Perform the recommended maintenance and use the proper gasoline. All these backyard solutions can be avoided in the first place.

 

NO
NO
NO
NO

The BG service is a waste of money!

 

Just to be clear folks, I'm not looking to clean the injectors. I was discussing manually cleaning my throttle body with the mechanic and he said the BG intake service would do that and more

 

Iv'e used lucas fuel injection cleaner, the first time I used a half bottle with a 3/4 tank of gas the quart bottle it sells for about 12.00 and put it in the reccomened every other tank THE TRANSMISSION FLUID IS GREAT FOR DIESEL I'M NOT SURE ABOUT GAS ENGINES. I talked to several shop who work on engine head and they all recommened the LUCAS which I have been using for about 15 years. my 91LS 400 has 245,000 and no problems except for the MAS sensor and altenator normal wear out things shocks etc. The only thing I do different is to use Mobil one in everything that uses oil and so far so good. I also put seafoam in my tank couldn't tell much difference.

 

I used Lucas fuel injector cleaner but have recently switched to using Redline SI-1 and Gumout Regane. They both contain high concentrations of PEA which probably the most effective ingredient to clean fuel injectors.

When I ran Lucas, I dumped a half a bottle with a little less than 1/2 of a tank. Lucas is great as an upper cylinder lube with mild cleaning ability.

As far as carbon build-ups on valves and pistons, I let the engine suck in plain ol' water.

 

Quote ""As far as carbon build-ups on valves and pistons, I let the engine suck in plain ol' water. Quote

Water injection was/is one of the cheapest and best ways to combat detonation and was used in piston fighters in WW2. It really cleans the top of the piston and cylinderhead by steam action when the piston fires .It makes crap gas behave more like higher octane as it resists detonation. I don't know if the back of the intake valve is helped but the exhaust valve is help by the process.
I don't think water will in any way help clean an intake manifold that is gunked up if injected into the throttle body.


































'''

 

Water injection lower temps and can help loosen light carbon but nothing worth wasting doing it .
Would you take a shower (with water) and not use soap , how much dirt (carbon) would actually be removed .
Sea foam away it needs detergent action.

 

Water injection cured my Toyota Camry's idle issue that Seafoam never did. I was an avid Seafoam user until it got expensive and the results were less than stellar. My results have been reflected by many of those who did the same on bobistheoilguy and countless other forums. I'll stick to water since it's free for me

 

This is an old skool trick that used to be used to back in the day. Alot of truckers still use this to clear out injectors.

 

Wait another know it all I have been an auto technician for over 15 years, went to college and have a degree in automotive technology and went to various other automotive tech courses and most likely wrenched on more cars than you will ever have. Of course a gas company is going to recommend a premium gas for your car because that is there bread and butter, they make more money off you when you buy the more expensive gas!

The reason why our cars take premium fuel is not because Lexus wants to keep our fuel system clean because we have a compression ratio of 10:1 and 10.5:1 which 90 and lower octane would cause detonation and could damage the engine. All the BS oil companies telling you how the higher octane fuels have more cleaning agents in them is just that, BS.

If you ever rebuilt an automatic transmission, then you would know when working with automatic transmission fluid, it keeps the grease and grime off of your hands because of the cleaning agents in it. I have used it in engines before with great results and with NO damage to the engine. Back yard my ***

ATF in the gas tank works when you dilute it in gasoline. Used it in customers cars and my own for thousands and thousands of miles with ZERO issues. Not one customer complaint or failure. Had a sticking injector on my 3.0 Toyota truck. I went through three tanks of gas with ATF in it and the sticking injector was sticking no more. I know this because the injector was making a loud clicking noise and the truck had a slight misfire. Misfire went away and so did the loud injector. You can grab anything you want off the internet until you have used it countless times, those internet links do not mean squat.

As for the carbon in the combustion chamber, all cars have a build up. You can maintain the crap out of your engine and still have carbon issues. Driving habits have a big role on carbon buildup. Water injection does work well to a certain extent. The BG stuff does work but it has nothing to do with cleaning the fuel injectors. Seafoam WORKS too! You have to know what you are doing. I have used all of these methods and many different makes of cars with zero failures. It may not fix the problem all the time depending how bad it is but to say they are "backyard" is ignorant unless you have worked in the field and know what you are talking about.

James