3.5 Ecoboost Carbon Buildup

[kinder]

Might as well run some Seafoam through things once in a while?

[JimiJak]

They run pig rich at wot. That's another advantage of blending e-85, tips stay clean and shiny. I wonder what effect it has, if any, on carbon buildup in the valves. Sounds like its time to have a tech break out the boroscope.

True...but even when the girlfriend putts around town, three days and they're filthy. More to it?

When the cats away the mice will play?

Hahaha, that's not it... She's a mpg nut. Lol

Might as well run some Seafoam through things once in a while?

Man, I hope not. Just rolled 3,000 miles on the truck. It's been doing it since day one... Sounds like most have this problem.

[SHODYOU]

Mine weren't too bad till I took the cats off... now I have to polish the tips every few days

[SwampRat]

Mine weren't too bad till I took the cats off... now I have to polish the tips every few days

One of the side benifits of having BLACK powder coated tips  .... you don't really notice it .   

[glock-coma]

I got a borescope from work yesterday and checked out my valves and intercooler for oil
Not sure which valves these are the camera was pretty hard to control through the throttle body.
It was pretty dirty. 33,000 miles.
I have video also of the intercooler but it was recorded in Avi format so it's giving my trouble uploading to you tube.

[SHOdded]

Nice pics, looking fwd to the video.  Was it a professional borescope that you used?

[glock-coma]

Yeah. It's used for fire sprinkler pipe internal inspections.
I had to take a screenshot when the video was playing.
I just posted the link for intercooler draining in shoboats original how to post.

[MeanKS]

thanks for the pics!

this carbon buildup thing is having me a little worried, especially after that video saying Ford itself is baffled and really doesn't know what to do or recommend.

what are you going to do about it?  please post after pics if you do some kind of treatment...

[Josephm]

BG already did a write up on a Sho they owned with pictures from theres valves.Its a good read and shows there product seem to keep it under control

[wasinger3000]

Ok, here a two videos of my intake valves. View 1 is of the cylinder closest to the driver. Second view2 is the cylinder closest to the PCV inlet on the manifold. ( one that would get all off the extra oil blow off). You can see that the valve is open.

2013 SHO, 18k miles. No catch can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8BeEW_2AAI&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViHLwWIN5J0&feature=youtu.be

[ShoBoat]

Cool vids, you can see the buildup. Interesting that you have nothing in the CAC but still have it on the valves. Is yours a 13 or 14?


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[wasinger3000]

It's a 13. I'd say the build up comes from the cylinder itself somehow. Because my intake tracts are all bone dry. No traces of oil at all. So I have no idea how it's building up except for coming back threw the intake port. If it was from the intake side you would see little trails of oil in the manifold. But there isn't a trace at all.

I do run lucas UCL. Not sure if it helps or hurts the carbon buildup. But I do get around 2-3 mpg better on the highway.

Sent using smoke signals.

[MDesign Performance]

It's a 13. I'd say the build up comes from the cylinder itself somehow. Because my intake tracts are all bone dry. No traces of oil at all. So I have no idea how it's building up except for coming back threw the intake port. If it was from the intake side you would see little trails of oil in the manifold. But there isn't a trace at all.

I do run lucas UCL. Not sure if it helps or hurts the carbon buildup. But I do get around 2-3 mpg better on the highway.

Sent using smoke signals.

Carbon build up is not directly correlated to oil being in the intercooler, the latter is just a symptom that usually is there when there is excessive buildup though is not always certain. With our direct injected fuel system the gasoline is sprayed directly onto of the piston whereas a regular fuel injection system sprays the gasoline through the intake valve openings which cleans the valves basically every time the car is running.

Only real way to solve this issue is to do intake valve/fuel system cleaning intervals, to use quality and higher octane fuel, and/or methanol injection which will clean the valves every time it is activated.

[wasinger3000]

It's a 13. I'd say the build up comes from the cylinder itself somehow. Because my intake tracts are all bone dry. No traces of oil at all. So I have no idea how it's building up except for coming back threw the intake port. If it was from the intake side you would see little trails of oil in the manifold. But there isn't a trace at all.

I do run lucas UCL. Not sure if it helps or hurts the carbon buildup. But I do get around 2-3 mpg better on the highway.

Sent using smoke signals.

Carbon build up is not directly correlated to oil being in the intercooler, the latter is just a symptom that usually is there when there is excessive buildup though is not always certain. With our direct injected fuel system the gasoline is sprayed directly onto of the piston whereas a regular fuel injection system sprays the gasoline through the intake valve openings which cleans the valves basically every time the car is running.

Only real way to solve this issue is to do intake valve/fuel system cleaning intervals, to use quality and higher octane fuel, and/or methanol injection which will clean the valves every time it is activated.

I'd like to spray some "deep creep" (made by sea foam) on the valves. Just afraid it will all come flying off at once.

Sent using smoke signals.

[MDesign Performance]

I would run some high quality fuel injector cleaner such as BG44, Lucas Fuel Injector Cleaner or Marvel Mystery Oil along with some high quality fuel to clean some of the crud before getting the majority of it out with something more potent.