Top engine cleaner

[Viator Trudeau]

Years ago(early 80 s ) Cadillac dealers parts dept. sold "top engine cleaner," came in a GT. can.  I have it used on a 500 cu. engine with a knocking sounding a diesel.  The shop manager gave it a treatment and the knocking disappeared.  This Cadillac was owned by a gentleman who worked in the Chicago loop area and drove it a few miles to work every day.  My experience W/ car was apx.five years of this usage.  Do the readers know of a similar cleaner at the big box parts stores.

V.  Trudeau

[Bobby B]

Seafoam......
                 Bobby

[Jon S]

Rislone, Bardahl or Marvel Mystery oil

[Dan LeBlanc]

Good old transmission fluid down the carb (slowly) also does the trick.  Smokes like a steam engine for a bit afterwards and fouls the plugs, but tends to clean things up nicely.

[TJ Hopland]

I think I may still have a can of that around somewhere I bought to try and deal with a problem I was having.  Or was it can(s)?   I seem to recall that it was a 2 part thing?  One was something you poured or let get sucked up a hose and the other was in a pressure can that you tapped into something?   Or am I thinking of something else?   What ever it was I bought it from a GM (possibly Cadillac dealer) and it was not cheap.  I don't even remember what car it was for or what I ended up doing about the issue.   

Apparently it was especially common at Cadillac dealers in the 90's for Northstars that never got driven long or hard.    I suppose it had some non environmentally friendly aspects and that is why its no longer available?

There are a lot of semi home brew remedies.   Seafoam does seem to work as does marvel.   I also have heard of one that just uses water,  sort of a steam cleaning effect.   If you ever taken apart and engine with a bad head gasket you can see how well steam cleans. 

For minor issues just making sure everything is working as it should and driving the car seems to work fine.   Everything working is the key.   Carburetors are not maintenance free no matter the mileage or storage conditions.   A lot of people seem to forget that in the EFI age where a car can go 100K with little to no maintenance.   Sitting is harder on carbs than use especially now that just about everyone is often stuck with ethanol and other magic additives now.

If you have a real serious build up noting in a can is going to help.   Seen more than one Cadillac engine come apart that looked like this.
 
     

That came out of a 500.   Its been too long now that I don't remember if that was and engine I had running or if I was told it ran fine.  I do remember the seats were good and you could still see hone marks in the cylinder walls so it apparently didn't have a ton of miles on it.   I think its the engine I am running now.  It had got water in one hole that stuck one piston so it did need a trip to the machine shop to get running.   

[tripwire]

GM Top Engine Cleaner is still around.  Amazon has it:  https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-88861803-Engine-Injector-Cleaner/dp/B00BK7LR36

And someone on ebay is selling it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/371565469378?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

WParo in VT

[David Greenburg]

Over the years, I've used water. You just stick a vacuum hose in a big jar (I used the windshield washer jar).  You need to modulate the water flow so it doesn't stall, but it does a good job and the price is right!

[76eldo]

The correct way to use Top Engine Cleaner is to dribble about 1/3 of the can through the carb on a warmed up and running engine,then dump the other 2/3 in the carb choking out the engine.

Wait 15-20 minutes then start the car and be prepared to run it hard for at least 20 minutes. Be ready for lots of smoke out of the exhaust.

This stuff dissolves gum and varnish in the intake and combustion chamber and gets rid of a lot of crud. It's meant for carb engines.

Does a good job and we used to use it all the time back in the day.

Brian