Thread: Removing carbon deposits with water???

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"Could I go thinner and not risk piston to valve clearance issues??"

Depends on the deck height. (piston crown to deck measurement)
Only way to know for sure is to clay the pistons and run the motor through a couple of hand turns with solid lifters and checking springs.

"Not to mention the degree wheel and dial indicator."

Hey, you're either willing to shell out the drachmas for equipment or you're not. The alternatives are to spend even more money by having someone do it for you or leave the motor alone and sell the cam kit on ebay.

Here's what I would do. Purchase a dial indicator, degree wheel, six inch dial caliper and go to a local machine shop and have them make me a steel rod the same diameter as a lifter, but about 8" long. Use this in place of a lifter to do your checking. Being this long, it sticks up far enough to make setting up your dial indicator off the deck easy and if you set up the block so that the rod is vertical, it will follow the cam lobe very nicely, being that it is made of heavy steel. Make sure the shop finishes off the ends nicely.

Purchase 2 solid lifters, a pair of checking springs and some oil-based modeling clay to do the valve to piston check. If you don't know how to do this, just say so and I'll elaborate.

Ok, Tech,


I think I have all the information for the clearance checks and degreeing that came with the kit. Using the clay and then measuring the thinnest part (min. .100 on the intake and .125 on exhaust with steel rods).
The instructions say to measure from the retainer with the indicator plunger parallel to the valve stem when degreeing a camshaft. Would you approve this method?

On the water/carbon. I heard this from my auto-shop teacher who was dang smart in my opinion.. Just pour some water down the carb as the engine is running. He suggested a couple cups of water over about a minute.

I promptly tried it on my mildly cammed 283. It seemed to work fine. In my typical youth I decided if a little is good, more should be good-der. I drug out the garden hose to try an experiment. I got the hose running at, I would estimate, about 3gals/minute. I kinked it in one hand, climbed on the engine and started dribbling it into the carb. As I dribbled more and more, the engine slowed down. This required more throttle. I eventually had the garden hose unkinked (fully open) running into the engine pegged at full throttle. The engine was running at about 1,800rpm. Clouds were coming out the back and I later detected a large black, (soot), puddle behind the car.

Anyway I thought I'd pass this on. I wouldn't recommend it NOW just on principals, but a running engine can ingest a whole lotta water, without harm.