30 replies to this topic

[Minitrio]

Hi All,

As title, I'm having my 07 R56 Cooper S engine decoked and the guy said he could do my '89 998 engine as well, if I wanted for less than half price than Cooper S. It's the Terraclean company as seen on Wheeler Dealers a few years back.

My Austin 998 has done 77k miles, I have no records of engine being stripped and rebuilt, head gasket changed, just the usual ancillaries clutch, dizzy, etc. When I initially purchased it, the timing was out and the previous owner had been running it quite rich. After rectifying the timing and setting the carb up correctly, my local garage (who dont offer the service) advised me to get it decoked using the Crushed Walnut shell method, but hadn't mentioned the chemical clean method, because depending on how long it's been run so rich there could be a big carbon build up internally.

Has anyone had this done and is it advisable?

I don't want to do it, if potentially it could knacker the engine, seals, etc, mainly for added expense and I'm getting her ready for the L2B run this year 😀

Thanks for reading

[nicklouse]

I still don't know how this lot find customers.

 

I would never let anything into my engines that was not meant to be there.

 

and pulling the head off a mini is not that hard. you can still get decoke kits. and then lap your valve seat in.

[Dusky]

I would only do something like that when rebuilding a block so you can wash it out afterwards

[Midas Mk1]

Surely the traditional decoke way is better.

 

If it was me, bottle of redex, tank of V-Power, and go for an 'italian tune up' 

[RooBoonix]

 
If it was me, bottle of redex, tank of V-Power, and go for an 'italian tune up' 

This is my preferred method

[cal844]

Try the Terraclean, I know they are successful on injection engines.

[CityEPete]

It does smell like freshly squeezed snake oil to me, I'd certainly be interested in a before and after test on the mini head.

[nicklouse]

I wonder how it likes oil?

 

I would not like anything that removes hard carbon deposits getting past my ring set and into the oil.

[r3k1355]

Bottle of Forte and a good thrashing should be all it needs.

[Minitrio]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I think I'll just get the Cooper S done only. 😀

[nicklouse]

get pics and show how they connect stuff up.  as I am curious has to what they actually do.and how they do it.

 

oh they were ripped to bits by a chem. engineer on a car forum a few years back.

 

will see if I can find it later.

[mini-geek]

I wouldn't bother with it atall.. have a look on mini owners group on FB they tend to get them stripped down and done properly.. the amount of carbon etc that can build up can't be cleaned out with a super refined fuel like they claim


On my T5 there was close to an inch of soot around the EGR how is that ever going to be cleaned with a fuel and if it could where is it going?

[CityEPete]

Same here I had an egr on my VW Caddy, £723 from a specialist! The VW 1.4 turbo/supercharged engine has been dropped due to carbon build up, if this magic trick could fix it then it would be well known amongst the Scirocco owners clubs, some are resorting to pipe cleaners through the exhaust manifold holes!

[Minitrio]

Thanks again for the replies.

Having done a little further research on other car forums, it appears this process works for some motors and not others. The main thing I noticed was that the same results can be achieved at massive fraction of the price at home.

They appear to inject their special mix into the air intake whilst the engine is kept at around 2200rpm over about 30 minutes to an hour. Again it appears this can be achieved with diluted turbo/injector cleaner sprayed directly into the carb or throttle body of a hot engine running at about 2000rpm for about 5 minutes in total.

So I shall be cancelling my booking and saving my money 😀

[1984mini25]

It's not that engine/fuel cleaner type thing that they did on a green Jag XK8 on wheeler dealers a few years back? (maybe try YouTube) Where the engines injection system (fuel pump disabled) is connected up to a air con regas looking machine and the engine left to run. If so I can't see it working on an engine with a mechanical fuel and a carb.

Edited by 1984mini25, 13 February 2017 - 10:42 PM.