anyone tried walnut blasting, cleaning your engine carbons.
is it worth it? any difference after walnut blasting? and whats the price

If im not mistaken only if your engine is GDI, had accumulated more than 50k mileage, getting bad fuel economy and loosing power.

If still using the standard fuel injection, not really.

nothing more than placebo effect

and filling engine with abrasive material

no need dismantle engine to blast kah ?

I seen all in Malaysia down with cylinder head still installed

bye bye engine

If dismantle head then might as well do traditional way of cleaning the carbon. Afaik, the walnut method is to clean the valves without head overhaul (but cannot clean the combustion chamber or the piston head). They blast the walnut with the valves in close position, so they need to alternately open and close the valves by turning the crank manually. Hence the walnuts will not go into the combustion chambers.

one mistake is enough, for something that brings no benefit

get it right zero effect

get it wrong , new engine

wtf for do stupid thing like this if engine not broken at all

Get it right zero effect? You sure?

Direct injection engines tend to have carbon deposit on the intake valves. Over time it can decrease engine power. In serious case, it can cause misfire and CEL.

My car was plagued by rough idles and CEL going into limp mode. Changed everything from spark plugs to ignition coil, nothing fixes it.

I've even tried the hydrogen cleaning but it does nothing. Then tried cleaning the valves at a different shop. When they removed the intake manifold, the carbon deposit on the valves is just terrible. After cleaning the valves, no more CEL, no more misfire or limp mode. No hardware change required to solve the problem

it's just curing the symptom not the problem

and tearing the head off affects so many other things , coincidentally fixing whatever your initial problem was, that's the right way to do it

just one blast of wallnut shells into valve that was forgotten to be closed , you are well and truly bollocked on that cylinder

like you said, unless there is a problem already that can't seemed to be fixed then try it and remove the head.

if just for Syiok sendiri , engine running fine, no CEL , why place such danger for no benefit at all

Well if you're talking about risk of things going wrong during service, almost everything also got risk. Everything that you need to do to service or repair cars also got specific procedure to do it right otherwise something will brake. Doing overhaul probably even more risky. Sure head overhaul will clean better but this walnut method does have its own merit and benefit. Have you seen carbon build up on the valves of GDi engines before? And you don't need to do it too often anyway, maybe just once every 100k km?

no , this is knowingly putting a very harmful material into the engine to fix something which is not a problem , no cel, no rough idle , no nothing

and there is no safe control, just one small tiny mistake forget to close the valve and you are done for, there is no going back , the cylinder will be filled and should require removal of head for proper cleaning

same goes for overhauling , if there nothing wrong go overhaul for what ? too free go and catch worm and sumbat into bontot ?

I bet you their biggest customers are sohai port injection engines Syiok sendiri

Mana ada taking the engine head off? It's just taking the intake manifold off la. This walnut blast only necessary for DI engines. My E60 running N52 (port-injection) doesnt have any carbon deposit on the valves

fine , but until it reaches your stage of degradation

don't drag Shit onto yourself for fun

rebuilt engine... you will not satisfy with the end results.

no lah,, just feel like cleaning my engine after 200k mileage.. doesn't wanna overhaul it..
seafoam and other engine cleaner doesnt really convince me unlike walnut blasting where it really use something to attack the carbon.
my engine running petrol anyway.. doesnt know walnut is for diesel only. @@

Dude, this method is only for GDi engines, cannot be done on normal MPI la.

mate i'm saying even sohai MPI are doing it and claimed suddenly they found 50 hrsprs from it.

if your engine is running fine, no CEL, nothing.

don't do this dangerous no benefit

i bet TS is MPI engine also

Depends on the engine

From my experience, peugeot prince thp engine now 130k km. Already decarbonized twice and overhauled once, cuci manually la not using walnut blasting. Can really feel the engine is heavy and sluggish when carbon has buildup on the intake valves

Meanwhile on the vw tsi ea888 engine, now 120k km, never cuci before. I bet the carbon build up is bad already, but no noticeable drop in performance

This post has been edited by Boy96: Mar 20 2019, 11:07 AM

haha. My experience with engine overhaul scared me away from doing it again. maybe the repair workmenship quality does counts in though.

btw i recently just bought 2 bottles of 3M fuel system cleaner, 2 can of seafoam, 1 can seafoam spray, and 1 bottle techron

so far my observation are:
- techron works for 1 half tank (car noticeable smoother, no jerk when aircon kicks in)
- seafoam does almost the same as techron, can feel car a bit more torquey
- 3M does feel less jerk when aircon kicks in, but performance remain the same

cost me quite some penny for them, though

how much does the 3M fuel system cleaner cost..?
does the car remains the same after 2nd or 3rd fuel ups.?

after the 1 half tank on techron,u no longer feel the car smoother is it?.

Ok i'm listening to both and i hope you guys can help me - im driving a 1.8 sentra (15 years old) - how do i improve my engine performance ? i do feel like im driving a 1.3 nowadays...very sluggish. Any recommendations are welcomed.

3M - rm40 per bottle
not yet finish the first tank so i dont have the answer yet...

if engine was never maintained properly, nothing can be done, wear and tear has set in and cannot be reversed magically

yes of course get it wrong and there'll be hell. But competent mechanic can do this correctly.

But as others had said, GDI engines are very prone to carbon buildup due to the design of the engine.

If you're worried about the walnut getting into the cylinder, the valves are either close, or open. No in between half close/open so unless the mechanic is dumb and forgetful as f, chances of getting this wrong is pretty low to be honest.

Also if few bits of are accidentally missed out during the cleaning, it won't really do much harm to the engine (from what i've seen).

from where i read somewhere in bimmer forums, BMW in USA is apparently offering this service for their customers with GDI engines.


Omg why so salty you had tried this with any of your car and got screwed over is it? if yes, please do share the details so that we can avoid the workshop.

This post has been edited by axtray: Mar 20 2019, 04:21 PM

For fuel additives, either Caltex Techron or Redline SI-1.

The main reason why use walnut shells as medium :
1) a gentle enough medium that can abrade the carbon away without scouring the metallic components
2) it is cheap and easy to procure, facial parlours use this as exfoliant
3) even if some shell flakes flew into the combustion chamber, it is easily turns to ashes when the combustion cycle starts.

I'm not so stupid to try this thing that bring no benefit and here all the bangla buggers doing the work

don't misunderstand , walnut cleaning has been around as surface treatment as long as the invention of the car, but it always is done with parts removed and then put into giant washer to remove any residue.

if you want to try please go ahead man , it's not. my engine not my money , personally I would never ever use these guys even if gdi as long it has no running problem

because the easiest person to fool is yourself

forum always Damn easy to say , you find the right mechanic la, do this do that , but never anyone can give real good one

the thing is, it is called preventive maintenance. Why would you want to wait until the bigger symtoms such as misfirings, jerking etc to finally go and fix it? In the long run, it may be potentially more expensive repair.

if it's not broken don't jerk around with it

perfect running engine can be ruined with one simple mistake

preventive is using good oil, change good filters in time .

not introduce risky damaging procedures for zero gain

when it work no benefit , when it goes wrong totally destroyed.

The no benefit part is where you are not correct. 😂 Let me ask you this: if a GDi engine already has around 2cm build up of carbon on top if the valves, is it good to be able to clean it completely?

again apply.the rule

is the engine suffering check engine lights?
is the engine struggling to run properly ?

if both of these are a no , don't friggin touch it . Engines are so complex on monitoring themselves they will tell you when stuff is broken

again the question of what you want to risk vs benefit.

so okay you removed the 2cm , but engine feels the same, runs fine as before so what did it do ? nothing

but make that mistake and you are happy to say , yeah I buggered one cylinder but my other 3 valves are clean eh, eh ,eh, I'm smart like a fox

And consider this other fact.

When industry uses media blasting to clean machinery, surface prep for painting , etc. The blasting shed is always located far away from the work area.

Why ? Because that shit gets into every goddamn hole and crevice and tiniest of places. Sandblasters have the shittiest job next to sewer divers, they get media up their butt cracks.

Here if we have this so called 'expert' happily dusting the entire engine with super abrasive material , all the rest of your pulleys, pumps , fans are going to get chewed up from being exposed to abrasive dust.

And high precision machinery, gas turbines, classic car restorers, never use abrasive media, they use ice blasting/ co2 blasting / dry ice where the media is dry ice, it just evaporates harmlessly with no residue.

Walnut blasting is banned by US Army because of one fatal helicopter crash caused by walnut shells found in the oil lines that blocked oil to the main bearings causing fatal failure.

And all the above is assuming really walnut is used instead of regular old sand which is 100x cheaper than actual walnuts.

Well if you leave it then it will grow bigger right? So you just want to repair when it's already got bigger problems instead of doing preventive maintainance so not to get worse? It's like if you have a small tumor and you know about it but you just leave it to grow bigger coz it hasn't make you feel sick, is that it? If that's the case then ok lor! ☺️

if you're building 2cm thick on valves, the engine is buggered anyways and it's a probably a crap beater car that no one really cars about anymore.

and yes if there's no light i'll leave it. until it's broken then fix it because then it can't be buggered anymore worse than it already is.

do you do chemo just in case, since it kills cancer, why not do it like every 5 years once just to be safe?

same concept

Not exactly the same. There's alot of difference in treating early detected cancer as compared to trying to treat it when it's already at stage 4 etc.

Same goes with the car. If you open the intake manifold and can see the carbon buildup is already there, why not do something about it? No one is stupid enough to do it and waste $$ if it's still clean.

If you have the spare cash to totally overhaul it, by all means do it. Walnut blasting is just the cheaper alternative that works. Your example on the blasting made it sound like it is totally abrasive when the walnut shells are pretty soft. If some of the grains do somehow managed to get into the cylinder, the combustion will just burn them out. Big difference to sand blasting. Also, If the valves are closed and the walnut still somehow managed to find its way in, then something is really wrong with the engine already.

I still find it weird on why you are so edgy about this.

To those who don't know the process,
"This blasting tool is using pressurised air (usually 6-8 bar) to inject fine walnut shell granules into the intake tract. These granules hit the carbonising at high speed and thus remove it entirely, while at the same time this material is soft enough not to damage the metal of the intake tract and the valves. That is also the reason why no other material should be used for this method."

This post has been edited by axtray: Mar 21 2019, 12:05 AM

Seems like you never owned or saw carbon build up in a traditional GDi engine in front of your own eyes. To answer your question, no the engine is still not buggered and no it's not s crap beater car either. 😁

No, not same concept. You do chemo because you already feel sick, which is exactly like you imply! Who do chemo without already feeling pain first from the cancer?? 😂 If still small tumor then cut it out la before it gets worse until you need chemo.

Anyway nevermind, no point prolonging the debate. Obviously you think that method is difficult and risky while I think it's not so complicated as you think. I personally haven't done it too but I've done similar method just using more traditional manual tools because back then haven't know anyone yet that does this walnut blast method. In the future when comes time I would do that method, easier and faster.

I'm not sure how you get the idea that inside the cylinder is like a wood stove or some magical field keeping walnut shells floating about until combustion

mate, the cylinder is an oily place inside , either from engine oil or the petrol , whatever got in is going to stick like.glue to the oily surfaces especially the finest ones , so now you have this lovely coated walls with fine abrasives just waiting for the piston come and drag them along the walls up and down over and over.

doesn't that sound a lot like honing cylinder walls ?

exactly the symptom

' I HEARD is soft '

' I have haven't done it before too '

before you all so support it , why not present the risks involve and why should someone not do it and understand what the proper way of doing it entails

not just plainly support it without really having tested it themselves before

so far only one post who said it did help but it was already. last resort to a bad running car , what else could.be worse than to try .

I don't care what marketing wank these so called experts provide , either you remove the head, use traditional solvent nd elbow grease or use dry ice , co2 blasting method to clean , or like every other industry standard the part is blasted away from work area , put into parts washer then reinstalled

blowing abrasives all over your engine is the right way to break everything which is not broken

again is yr money, your engine , if you feel overwhelming need to support them , go ahead. I just want those who want to know more to just stop and think ' oh yeah hor, really need or not'.

This post has been edited by rcracer: Mar 21 2019, 09:09 AM

As I said I had done it in very similar method whereby we need to alternately open/close the valves accordingly before cleaning but just using more traditional manual tools so I know how it's done, not just by guessing or hear say! It's not rocket science actually but you just seem to think otherwise. ☺️

traditional cleaning is absolutely fine aiyohhhh, solvent based cleaning even if valve open is nothing, everything is liquefied and carbon is nothing the engine hasn't seen already .

is the use of abrasives in the completely wrong and dangerous way

I know I not ang moh so I cannot be trusted , just go YouTube and see yourself, every single video will mention at least once , if you don't prevent the walnut from entering the engine , it will kill the motor , same message every video .

For those that do the walnut blasting method correctly, the vacuum will be on at the same time to suck out the blasted shells, so it doesn't accumulate.

have you drilled your wall to hang something, set up vacuum and all that but still have to mop the floor afterwards ?

same la, no 100% , the vacuum takes the big chunk away but the small fine dust still settles everywhere

but that's secondary effect , the major danger of improperly closed valve is still there

like I said , combustion chamber is oily, anything that gets in will stick to the walls immediately and turn into grinding paste .

Even using traditional tools, we still need to alternately open/close the valves so that principle is the same. As long as done the right way (as any other service procedures), it will be fine. Like I said, it's not rocket science and I know exactly how it's done so I'm not too worried about it.

Ok, there's a lot of mention of carbon build-up on intake port and valves.... what about the exhaust valves ?

Personally my own engine, the intake side was fine (port injection), but was shocked at the carbon build-up on the exhaust valves... the carbon build-up from the hot exhaust gas actually look like grey rock that solidified on the metal

as long you trust the fella spraying abrasives all over the place is as good as you have convinced yourself that's all good

again it's free choice , you want to go ahead go

it's for the rest to read and understand the risks involved vs. the benefit if any at all

I don't care about the 1000 times he has done it before correctly , I only care the 1 time he messed up and I definitely will not want to be that 1 person to go and break something already working fine

This post has been edited by rcracer: Mar 21 2019, 12:06 PM

intake side easier to access, hence only mentioned intake cleaning.

same can be applied with the exhaust end, but the effort in removing the exhaust header is much more compared to the intake side.

wow our racer guy is still at it. is he a an overhaul mechanic losing business because of walnut blasting service is now available or something?

He seems to believe that the granules are so fine that it will start sticking to the cylinder wall and becomes some sort of additional coating (if some managed to get in that is). From what i see, the little bits of granules/grains would just get mixed up with the petrol during the intake and compression and burnt off.

If the intake valves are so caked to the point that it cannot be fully closed, just proceed with the overhaul. At the end of the day, it just a cheaper preventive maintenance alternative (with some risk if handled by incompetent mechanic).

From what i read in the bimmer forums, alot of N54 engine owners complaining that the carbon buildup is already pretty bad at 40,000 miles (64,000 KM). Though this is 10+ years old engine. Not sure about the new crop of GDIs.

Not that bad, but it will be a problem in the longer term.

You see, most important markets (china aside) car ownership is through leasing, so after around 3 years, renew with new car (that's the reason why facelift is always around 3 years). 1st 3 years, unless you race the car, you drive very harshly also won't give much issue. Carbon buildup won't be that bad till have check engine light or noticeably performance degradation.

Modern engine recirculates exhaust and have lots of catalytic mesh that could block exhaust if never service for sometime.

If u were sprinting, I block one of your nostrils could u run fast ? No couldn't.

I've personally tried seafoam and it works. can try that as an option before asking mechanics to clean it cuz it's usually not just a single part that got clogged.

Intake, egr valves and diesel engine exhaust usually get clogged up.

Seafoam bought from lazada? or is there physical shop? this is the one where you spray into the intake manifold for 5 minutes (or until the can is empty) while lightly revvving the engine right?

see here

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...2120&hl=seafoam

from the thread you mentioned that Ace Hardware has it? i just went there last weekend (the curve), they don't carry seafoam products. Unless i'm blind. Ill check it again.

go other outlets like citta mall / starling should have

Conlanfirm seafoam or whatever similar products cannot clean the build up i saw.
Need to remove the valve and grind it off.

My car with the build up don't have EGR system

then just overhaul the top plus clean whatever exchaust manifolds

it was a full engine rebuild

Now even VW make this one of their official optional maintenance item :
https://www.carlist.my/news/volkswagen-adds...fferings/56924/

recently i've sent my car install oil catch can, so opened the intake and it was very dirty.
so ask my mech whack 3 bottles of intake valve cleaner.
i dint take the after picture, but managed to clean the valve to a thin carbon coat (because it's just chemical spray to dissolve the oil residue)



this picture is how it looks like after i whack whole can of seafoam into it 2,000km ago.




after cleaning with 3 cans of valve cleaner, the whole car when step oil will sound better (better, faster response), definitely pulls easier.
of course walnut blast is the best method, but i just went for normal chemical cleaning

This post has been edited by AllnGap: Aug 23 2019, 02:21 PM

Bro..... fothis kind of cleaning, highly recommended to use ThreeBond engine conditioner. Super effective in removing carbon gunks like in photo.

Maybe can use it in your next maintenance schedule as you are quite a preventive maintenance guy. Saw it on sale now at Shopee Merdeka Sale. Normal price is more than RM35.

ThreeBond Engine Conditioner @Shopee

Can DIY too,buy a air can,and walnut powder.
Search YouTube for step by step.just make sure each cylinder you need to blast mush ensure the intake and exhaust valve close probably.
Remove the intake and usually battery,some hose need to be removed.each cylinder blasting for about few different angle,and visual check see got walnut stuck inside.you can feel the results immediately.
Tools require, vacuum cleaner the suction kit ,a scope.
That's all pretty simple.





This post has been edited by hukaka: Aug 24 2019, 11:11 AM

What about this method ?
Is it just another gimmick or some truth ?

https://youtu.be/Jx1VjJPef-k

this is chemical washing only.
for valves, walnut blasting is 100% cleanest method of all.

again, everything works to some extent, but most importantly is add one oil catch can to remove excess oil residue......
so that intake valve takes longer to build up carbon again

walnut blast = 600
seafoam = 58
intake valve cleaner 40

not so simple, have to crawl underneath and turn the crank in order to rotate the valves to close, then only can start blasting with walnut

for my chemical cleaning, nearly fucked up because chemical went into my combustion chamber, then when start up, cause the starter to overload and burn the fuse. then had to dismantle the starter to check. after some checking discovered that starter running fine, fuse blown

Shit man....almost like hydrolock liao....

May have signs of bent rod or damaged pistons...

not really ah, fuse tripped on the first round.
then removed the spark plug to pump out all the balance

How much walnut shell powder you used and how many cans of canned air you used for this DIY project?

at least you sucked out the excess....

Good day all sifus
What are the common cars with GDI, other than the VW ya? Thanks

Quite a lot....mazda skyactiv, Proton X70's TGDI, Ford's Ecoobost and duratac, Peugeot's Prince THP, Hyundai/Kia's GDI, Honda Civic/CRV' 1.5 TDI, and many many more

i think you shall open a new post in FnF to get more input instead of replying here tho

Theres a reason why i use foam based cleaner. If it can be compressed in a can, it can be compressed in your combustion chamber.

And yes, i use foam based cleaners to clean plugs as well. Its strong enough. Noticeable on cars with clogges up intake manifolds, visually

wanna revive this tread as its already 2023

how many owners of GDI cars like X70, CRV, Civic etc have done this walnut blasting

mazda CX5 etc is also GDI engine right

VW I know started put in as part of service.
I didn't do fr my Fc but considering now

I've done it every 60k km for my 2.2 diesel

what car do you drive.

feel any different before and after

you waited for after warranty expired right before doing it

Mazda6.

definitely, bro. Felt the car can finally breathe after long time.

the car was mostly driven in city traffic. soot build up like crazy.

yup, sent it for walnut blasting after warranty ends.

X70, done walnut blasting towards the end of warranty period.. 80k km

How much it cost nowdays?

where did you do it and what was the cost

Hi, where you do the walnut blasting? Any recommendations for JB?
My cx5 2.2D also felt sluggish, 130k km now.

Zordaq bangi puteri RM500 for X70 walnut blasting. They have few branches - one in Puchong, Shah Alam, Putrajaya

Other shops in Klang Valley charging RM600+/-

Vcarbon Shah Alam. RM550 since mine is diesel.

Petrol engine cheaper only RM350.

This cost does not include engine oil change.

This post has been edited by amscouzach57: Oct 7 2024, 09:36 AM

No idea for JB, sorry.