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Long story short, I've got the V7 tune and run on 91 octane (the best I can get here). The car is an 09 with 40,000km.
The past few months I've been experiencing spark knock under load and on hard acceleration around 4000rpm in fourth. In my efforts to diagnose the spark knock I de-tuned the car which helped significantly, but the knock developed over time so I continued to diagnose the cause. I should note the car idles fine and plugs are excellent.
I dropped a scope into the cylinders and low and behold they are FULL of carbon deposits. I wasn't able to see the valves but I'm leaning towards what I saw on the cylinders to potentially be the cause of my spark knock.
Roads are awful where I live so I typically drive the car like an old man. Clearly this has contributed to the buildup. I'm exploring blow-by as a contributer for my carbon and have considered installing the vrp catch can, still waiting to check inside the lower intake manifold for oil before I take the leap.
In the mean time, I'm concerned with cleaning the carbon buildup on the pistons. I have access to some toluene that I'm planning to boost my octane with and drive the car long and hard to see if that helps, but can anyone offer any additional proven ideas to clean these buildup off the pistons?
If you don’t have access to BG44K, just pour two full cans of sea foam in the gas tank (50% filled) and just run the car crazy hard for 100 miles and you will burn out all the carbon. I have done both BG44K and seafoam. 44K is the best but it’s 2x the price and harder to get. Target carries seafoam now at like $7 a bottle, just buy two and put in half tank of gas to increase concentration and it will have the same effec, promise
Thanks for the feedback guys. Ive been watching videos where people scope before and after and I can't say I'm impressed at all. People on YouTube give props to these additives and honestly, I can't appreciate any real improvement being made from what I've seen to date.
I guess moving forward, I'll pull the intake and see if there's oil there. Just ordered bolts and gaskets, only $100 here in Canada 😂😂😂
That's the Mercedes tax I suppose.
I've also investigated hooking up a water mist system to the intake to inject water on the highway. Firstly I'll pull the intake though and see what it looks like as well as the valves if they're visible. Probably gonna have to order a catch can, which will likely involve pulling the intake again down the road 😃
My engine will probably need head bolts one day as it's an 09. I was hoping to not have to pull the gasket when doing the bolts but at this point it may be the best option if I can't burn it off.
Again, thanks for the support. I'll post back and keep this thread updated as I progress.
I suppose this serves as a PSA for not driving our cars easy 😂😂😂
2012 P31 C63 Coupe Trackrat, 2019 GLE63S Coupe Beast
Just pull the manifold, clean it, install a catch can NOW, then run a can or two of BK44K and be done with it. You don’t need water injection etc. And if you take the manifold off to clean it and don’t install a catch can now, you’re just wasting your time.
For ****'s sake mate grow up. 99% of your posts on this forum are just being an absolute double standard ******* as others have already pointed out.
I shared an informative video with before and after boroscope results that have a very clear improvement. There are more. I've also researched PEA which is very effective and most other additives don't have. I did not claim to have first hand evidence. I shared good evidence from someone else.
I love how you edited out the "I saw it on the internet so it must be true" smart *** comment because that's the basis of you're alledged "C63 godlike knowledge" *as long as it's been done before by me or forum users.
I posted something constructive. Why don't you stuck to constructive posts yourself?
For ****'s sake mate grow up. 99% of your posts on this forum are just being an absolute double standard ******* as others have already pointed out.
I shared an informative video with before and after boroscope results that have a very clear improvement. There are more. I've also researched PEA which is very effective and most other additives don't have. I did not claim to have first hand evidence. I shared good evidence from someone else.
I love how you edited out the "I saw it on the internet so it must be true" smart *** comment because that's the basis of you're alledged "C63 godlike knowledge" *as long as it's been done before by me or forum users.
I posted something constructive. Why don't you stuck to constructive posts yourself?
I thought all the leading "complete fuel system cleaners" used PEA? It's tried and proven for sure.
2012 P31 C63 Coupe Trackrat, 2019 GLE63S Coupe Beast
Originally Posted by bradsm87
For ****'s sake mate grow up. 99% of your posts on this forum are just being an absolute double standard ******* as others have already pointed out.
I shared an informative video with before and after boroscope results that have a very clear improvement. There are more. I've also researched PEA which is very effective and most other additives don't have. I did not claim to have first hand evidence. I shared good evidence from someone else.
I love how you edited out the "I saw it on the internet so it must be true" smart *** comment because that's the basis of you're alledged "C63 godlike knowledge" *as long as it's been done before by me or forum users.
I posted something constructive. Why don't you stuck to constructive posts yourself?
I edited that 8 HOURS ago, just minutes after my original post because you’re right, the comment was unnecessary. Yet, 8 HOURS later, you post up something crazy like this over a comment that doesn’t even exist and nobody likely even saw. That’s a little mentally retarded.
I had this bookmarked on an old laptop I don't use any more (from BITOG, where else?).
Chevron Techron Concentrate (32% PEA, based on an older published MSDS spec sheet--may be different now; $8 for 12oz. bottle) has been the leading fuel system cleaner since its development sometime in the 1970�s (it's also a touted leading detergent in gas, albeit in MUCH lower concentrations than the stand-alone concentrate formulation). The main active cleaning ingredient is PEA. Other known fuel system products containing PEA include the following:
* Gumout Regane (30-40% PEA content based on published MSDS data; about $5 for 12oz. bottle) * Redline SI-1 (30-50% PEA based on MSDS data; about $9 for 15oz. bottle) * Amsoil Performance Improver (28-37% PEA based on MSDS data; $10 for 12oz. bottle) * BG Products 44K (unknown PEA content since they reformulated�does anyone have this data?).
Just pull the manifold, clean it, install a catch can NOW, then run a can or two of BK44K and be done with it. You don’t need water injection etc. And if you take the manifold off to clean it and don’t install a catch can now, you’re just wasting your time.
Little update on my end. Ended up pulling the manifold at the same time I installed a catch can. The manifold was CAKED in oil and the air passage ways in the block were full of tar. I tried a few solvents to remove the oil and honestly, the only success I had was with ether (quickstart). Nothing else did anything. Ether and a tooth brush and a few hours scrubbing.
I went as far as to take the intake apart, it was coated in oil. I cleaned everything and put it back together.
There are 13 bolts that hold the upper and lower portions of the intake together. Upon reassembly, I used a nice torque wrench and followed torque specs and very gently attempted to reassemble the intake and I ended up stripping one of the 13 bolt holes. The holes were quite far gone and my engine at the time only had 40k km. Ended up having a machine shop install helicoils in all 13 holes as a precaution ($200 CAD). I can't tell you how careful I was reassembling and they stripped at like 6 inch lbs. If you decide to tackle taking the manifold itself apart, be ready for the bolts to strip.
I choose the VRP speed catch can because of the included fittings, and without going into too much detail, I was entirely unimpressed. It's a cheap Chinese setup, missing key elements required to make it work. More over, the entire reason I choose to pay a premium and but that kit is because it has machined fittings to connect to the pcv valve. These machined fittings are very poorly designed and require you to butcher the plastic y-pipe. They are too bulky and really need to be redesigned. I can't honestly recommend the vrp can because of these issues.
Once the oil was cleaned out and everything reassembled, my car had considerably more power and the pre ignition was gone. It felt like a brand new car, insane increase in performance.
This was short lived though. The vrp can is junk and has allowed some continual blow by, I've found a fair amount of oil in the outlet hose. My can is installed correctly it just fails to separate all the oil. It manages to catch some so its not a total loss but again, I'm disappointed with it.
I'd recommend just spending the extra few dollars on the weistec setup or finding a better generic can and finding fittings or cutting into your pcv.
All in all a catch can is a must for these cars. The oil alone was clearly contributing to my pre ignition and lowered performance. Like I said, for the first few weeks the car was amazing. Just stay away from vrp, I wish I didn't have to hate on them, but their catch can is junk.
They charged $50 to ship and used a crappy ground courier that wanted to charge me $150 Brokerage fees. Had they taken that $50 and used Air mail these fees could have been avoided. To the door their can cost me around $550 cad.
Ohh and for anyone considering installing a can without removing the intake, It may be possible but it's hard enough to get everything to fit with the intake off. I'd recommend buying gaskets and bolts and removing the intake. It gives you the opportunity to clean everything and makes install easier.
Little update on my end. Ended up pulling the manifold at the same time I installed a catch can. The manifold was CAKED in oil and the air passage ways in the block were full of tar. I tried a few solvents to remove the oil and honestly, the only success I had was with ether (quickstart). Nothing else did anything. Ether and a tooth brush and a few hours scrubbing.
I went as far as to take the intake apart, it was coated in oil. I cleaned everything and put it back together.
There are 13 bolts that hold the upper and lower portions of the intake together. Upon reassembly, I used a nice torque wrench and followed torque specs and very gently attempted to reassemble the intake and I ended up stripping one of the 13 bolt holes. The holes were quite far gone and my engine at the time only had 40k km. Ended up having a machine shop install helicoils in all 13 holes as a precaution ($200 CAD). I can't tell you how careful I was reassembling and they stripped at like 6 inch lbs. If you decide to tackle taking the manifold itself apart, be ready for the bolts to strip.
I choose the VRP speed catch can because of the included fittings, and without going into too much detail, I was entirely unimpressed. It's a cheap Chinese setup, missing key elements required to make it work. More over, the entire reason I choose to pay a premium and but that kit is because it has machined fittings to connect to the pcv valve. These machined fittings are very poorly designed and require you to butcher the plastic y-pipe. They are too bulky and really need to be redesigned. I can't honestly recommend the vrp can because of these issues.
Once the oil was cleaned out and everything reassembled, my car had considerably more power and the pre ignition was gone. It felt like a brand new car, insane increase in performance.
This was short lived though. The vrp can is junk and has allowed some continual blow by, I've found a fair amount of oil in the outlet hose. My can is installed correctly it just fails to separate all the oil. It manages to catch some so its not a total loss but again, I'm disappointed with it.
I'd recommend just spending the extra few dollars on the weistec setup or finding a better generic can and finding fittings or cutting into your pcv.
All in all a catch can is a must for these cars. The oil alone was clearly contributing to my pre ignition and lowered performance. Like I said, for the first few weeks the car was amazing. Just stay away from vrp, I wish I didn't have to hate on them, but their catch can is junk.
They charged $50 to ship and used a crappy ground courier that wanted to charge me $150 Brokerage fees. Had they taken that $50 and used Air mail these fees could have been avoided. To the door their can cost me around $550 cad.
Ohh and for anyone considering installing a can without removing the intake, It may be possible but it's hard enough to get everything to fit with the intake off. I'd recommend buying gaskets and bolts and removing the intake. It gives you the opportunity to clean everything and makes install easier.
Ohh and for anyone considering installing a can without removing the intake, It may be possible but it's hard enough to get everything to fit with the intake off. I'd recommend buying gaskets and bolts and removing the intake. It gives you the opportunity to clean everything and makes install easier.
Appreciate this feedback as I am in the market for the catch can and was wondering about install. Sounds like I'll need to commit a full weekend and a fresh keg for this project
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