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Subaru Upper Engine Cleaner?

pipster11

By pipster11,
in General Maintenance

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White GTS-T
White GTS-T

Has anyone used this post AFM and pre-turbo, to clean the cooler and piping?

Run-It-Hard
Run-It-Hard

Think I might give this a go over the weekend, I can't be assed taking my AAC and cold start apart for a clean (car idles rough, doesn't like cold starts).

Kinks
Kinks

I gotta say I've never noticed any benefit from using upper engine cleaner. Any minor benefit it seems to have is gone after a day or two. Track day? different story. drives smoother for weeks. RB

White GTS-T Mentor

White GTS-T

Posted
Posted (edited)

It's a bit hard to tell from that photo but they are actually two pieces of different sized vacuum hose, 6mm and 8mm, for attaching to different sized vacuum ports/nipples on the intake plenum.

20130614_105244_1_zps097ae587.jpg

The Wurth system cleaner is a bit different to the Subaru stuff. The Wurth cleaner is more of an aqueous solution, while the Subaru cleaner is more of a foaming agent. Which is probably why the instructions for the Wurth cleaner are a bit different.

049_zps2b0b695e.jpg

050_zps6a09e477.jpg

Subaru cleaner on the left and the Wurth cleaner on the right, which you can barely see.

052_zpsf5aee183.jpg

Both work well, and cost us about the same price at about $14 to $15 a can. I'd say the Subaru cleaner cleans the plenum better, by design and it's intended use, by breaking up the carbon deposits in the manifold. But the Wurth cleaner, due to its more non-combustible nature, seems to create more smoke/vapour/steam out the exhaust which I assume is due to the breaking down of carbon in the combustion chamber. But I'd say it's much of a muchness.

Edited by White GTS-T
Old Booster Enthusiast

Old Booster

Posted
Posted

Think I might give this a go over the weekend, I can't be assed taking my AAC and cold start apart for a clean (car idles rough, doesn't like cold starts).

How did you go doing this? my cans should arrive this week, and wouldn't mind squirting a bit down the aac and cold start thingo

Trex Grand Master

Trex

Posted
Posted

I sprayed a lil bit of carbie cleaner in the blocked off vac line at the rear of the plenum. Fixed my cold start rev hunting. I only sprayed it 5 times for 3-4 seconds while it was running and it's been fine since. Weird because I didn't think it would reach the cold start or do anything.

Run-It-Hard Veteran

Run-It-Hard

Posted
Posted

How did you go doing this? my cans should arrive this week, and wouldn't mind squirting a bit down the aac and cold start thingo

Forgot to reply sorry.

taken from my blog:

"Finally a service was done on the ol’ RB25 to make sure it’s ready for a thrashing. The car idles rough on idle and has a hard time starting when cold. So I thought instead of ripping the solenoids apart for a clean I’d give this stuff a try.

The car did run much smoother after spraying the engine cleaner into the RB25. It helped with my rough idle and oddly enough, it didn’t hit R&R when I was running 12psi for a day or so. Though cold start is still bad so I’ll need to pull the sensor apart and give it a thorough clean."

Car runs smoother then it did before, didn't get away with being lazy though so gotta take cold start apart and clean it. Though I didn't spray into the AAC hoses and cold start solenoid hoses. Just vac lines off the plenum/TB.

Old Booster Enthusiast

Old Booster

Posted
Posted

Should be good

I would have refilled with GW synx 3000 or 6000 (if you can get it) to finish it off but the Penrite is supposed to be good also

I wanted to try some high end oil and the racing 10 is group IV and V blend, plus I hear the high zinc formulas are very kind to super and turbo charged engines.

What I do have to report is that I did manage to get some ue-cleaner down into the AAC and IAC valves, the two hoses which join them converge at a T-piece and then continue on to a connector before the throttle body.

I didn't get as much smoke as you did out the tailpipe, just a small plume and it was gone in 30 seconds. The first drive was a little disappointing as the motor seemed to be very sluggish? I originally thought that the engine detox must have cleaned the rings too well and my compression might be down. So went for another run and kept a close eye out for smoke out the exhaust, especially when coming on boost, but nada???

Got home and had a thought, maybe all that spluttering when putting in the ue-cleaner had tripped the computer into the knock map, so disconnected the battery and went inside for a coffee. After the reset I went for another run, bingo pulls hard and clean :) So it's been a couple of days since then, and I can honestly say the engine has never run smoother! Definitely going to buy more of that cleaner.

Mike.

  • 2 weeks later...
Mitch34 Collaborator

Mitch34

Posted
Posted

I've been working at Subaru for a while now and this stuff is boss!!

To get the best out of a can you spray 1/2 the can into plenum through the throttle body then let it sit in there for approx 5 min to let it take all the crap off then start the engine up (may take a few start ups to make it run, don't be worried if it coughs and splutters lol) give it a few revs, then once it's idling normally spray the other half of the can through the throttle body then hook all your piping etc back up and hold the revs at approx 3k until it stops blowing white smoke :) your car should run like a dream

  • 1 month later...
scotty nm35 Grand Master

scotty nm35

Posted
Posted

The walkthrough is 2 posts up Charles. :P

I must say, these foaming cleaners don't work as well on hard carbon deposits in direct injection engine heads, I ended up having to use gasket stripper and leaving it overnight, then scraping the crap off. Oven cleaner may have worked too but I didn't try it.

scotty nm35 Grand Master

scotty nm35

Posted
Posted

For a rough clean all you need is to spray it into a hole in front of the throttle while revving the car. The tube is pretty small.

For a good clean, remove the parts and do it properly.

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