I don’t think I am getting “tar” build up but I do get a soot build up probably from moisture and soot.I have the TBI. I sprayed it with carburetor cleaner even while it was running. But that some how got into the butter fly shafts and mad them sticky. For a long time every morning I would have to take a small hammer and tap the linkage to free it up for the day. Every since I take the air cleaner off and use a small wire brush to dislodge the soot.TomC
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Tom, I have read on this site at some one that had a plastic intake would pore hot water in the throttle body at high rpms. To clean the carbon out. They said it works. I don’t remember who it was that said it.
Bob
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Hi Wayne!
I’m at 2200 miles and soot is acumulating in my intake and on my plates. I tried lighting the soot ones before, but it didn’t burn. I thought maybe I didn’t have enough soot at the time. The torch flame was sucked into the small plate gap but that’s all. Maybe I didn’t heat the soot up enough.
Am I to expect a visible fire or will the soot just glow like in the outlet of a wood stove? If I do get it to light, how long before the intake gets to hot? I have rubber hoses and a cold start fuel valve connected to my intake. I have never had a backfire even though I’ve manually scraped soot loose around the butterflies for them to close properly. No signs of tar. The soot is quite loose.
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Bob, that would have been Mike LaRossa. I poured some fuel injector cleaner through mine a rpm. I think you have to take the TBI off and inspect the inside of the manifold to see if you really have a problem. I would have to have some indication that the manifold is plugging before I go to that trouble.TomC
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Hi Tom, Wayne, Jan-OIa, Bob,
I think I have driven something on the order of 500 miles this summer on wood. Yes, we will be heading south in a few weeks, we are starting to get ready. I have noticed the continual sticking of the throttle plates on a given run even after initial freeing them up. The Caddy has multi-port injection, I will try the torch method if I can avoid setting other engine components on fire. Otherwise I’ll remove the throttle body and maybe burn it out then. Thanks for the input,
Rick
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Hello JO
If you notice soot or carbon on your throttle plates you can start the cold motor running on gasoline, no wood gas necessary .
The carbon on the plates will light up and glow like a cigarette burning . If there is enough build up of carbon in the intake manifold it may light off. If it lights up you will see smoke from the motor exhaust. If there is a lot of carbon the motor may start running rich and may need to turn off the gasoline for it to continue running.( fueled from the carbon burning ) If there is very heavy smoke coming from the motor you may need to touch the manifold to make sure it is not over heating . If so kill the motor for a little while then restart after the manifold has cooled some .
I like to offer a flame to the throttle plates 1000-1500 miles to avoid a heavy build up. If allowed to build up over several thousand miles it may self clean and really cause an event and might damage the intake.
Rick
I don’t think I would try putting fire to a TBI . This is the main reason I avoid them .
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Thanks Wayne,
I’ll put the torch to it and try again.
Hi Wayne,
The Caddy has multi-point fuel injection but has what looks like a throttle body on top of the manifold. It has two throttle plates in it that currently are well coated in tar. The injectors for each cylinder are out near the edge of the intake manifold or cylinder heads (I couldn’t tell which) so I think it would be OK to try the torch method as long as I didn’t melt hoses or other plastic or rubber items nearby what I probably incorrectly am calling the throttle body on this engine.
Thanks,
Rick
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Well, it was a nice day and I had some free time so I torched the throttle plates. At first I could stick the torch right next to them and really put the heat to them (this is with the engine running). It seemed not much was happening except some soot deposits turned red. Then it got so it was hard to keep the torch lit but if I put the torch about 1/2" from the plates the propane would burn all around each plate for a little while. After a few times I shut the engine down. The plates and their bores look a lot cleaner, I guess the real test will be after everything cools down and I try to open the throttle. Hopefully no sticking.
Rick
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Hi Rick,
Did you ever get the soot to light inside the manifold? This was my problem. I could burn clean the throttle plates ok, but the soot downstream never lit up.
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Hi Jan-Ola,
No, I don’t think so. I was only trying to clean the throttle plates. I really was just trying to burn off tar, not soot. I don’t have enough miles on the Caddy using wood gas to have much of a soot problem yet. I imagine that you would have to hold the throttle open and stick the torch down past the throttle plates to burn out the manifold, hard to do with the engine running. Maybe get it started with the engine off and then start the engine.
Rick
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I have a plastic intake manifold. Shuld be interasting to clean that out whet the time comes…
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If I remember right Mike LaRosa poured boiling water into his plastic intake to clean up carbon.
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That sounds a lot less risky than trying to burn soot out of a plastic manifold with a propane torch.
Rick
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