Is this what a piston is supposed to look like?

[Jand3rson]

This is what my pistons looked like this morning:



And this is what they look like after 2 hours, a razor blade, a brass wire wheel, and a 3M bristle disc:





The amount of SHIT that was built up on top of my pistons was frightening. I can't even imagine how well my car is going to run once I get everything put back together...

I'd like to add, before anyone freaks out, that the brass wire wheel was only used to take off the REALLY hardened carbon shit, and not used directly against the metal. The 3M bristle disc was reccomended to me by a local German Master repair shop, it's what they use, and it worked great!

[Iain]

A good trick I learned was to go to Subaru, pay the small amount of money they want for their Upper Engine Cleaner (small aerosol can with a blue lid) and then follow the directions immediately before an oil change.

You'd be amazed at how good that stuff is at de-gunking an engine. I'm sure you could also get a liquid version, which would work as well, but for those who aren't stripping their motors the spray can should be easily to buy (I presume there are lots of Subaru dealers in the USA?) and damn cheap (Subaru are meant to do it before every oil change in Australia).

[kronus]

A good trick I learned was to go to Subaru, pay the small amount of money they want for their Upper Engine Cleaner (small aerosol can with a blue lid) and then follow the directions immediately before an oil change.

You'd be amazed at how good that stuff is at de-gunking an engine. I'm sure you could also get a liquid version, which would work as well, but for those who aren't stripping their motors the spray can should be easily to buy (I presume there are lots of Subaru dealers in the USA?) and damn cheap (Subaru are meant to do it before every oil change in Australia).

And then all the happy fun time gunk goes into your cat.

[napabavarian]

You just lost your compression :(

[Iain]

You do it on a hot motor so most of it is burnt, and what normally ends up out the back is a white smoke (which stinks).

I've done it on a car with just headers fitted because I thought I might get chunks of crap caught in the cat/muffer and I was fairly surprised to see that even on an engine that had a patchy service history (30,000km between oil changes, etc) there wasn't much in the way of physical gunk coming out the collector.

[Aptyp]

You just lost your compression :(

lol, that's what I was thinking... Not it will never run.

[Jand3rson]

You just lost your compression :(

That's what Fidhle said!

I think it will be fine. Nice new head gasket, and full-scale tune up will have her purring like a Bavarian kitten.

[Adrian_Visser]

that is alot of carbon. i wonder how much of that a seafoam treatment would remove?

[Jand3rson]

It didn't remove SHIT. I Seafoamed it over the summer, and that's what was in there when I pulled the head off a few weeks ago.

I will never use that crap again.

[Rolla1990]

Low compression decarbonized piston mod. You're ready for a turbo now!

[Ray Smoodiver]

A good trick I learned was to go to Subaru, pay the small amount of money they want for their Upper Engine Cleaner (small aerosol can with a blue lid) and then follow the directions immediately before an oil change.

You'd be amazed at how good that stuff is at de-gunking an engine. I'm sure you could also get a liquid version, which would work as well, but for those who aren't stripping their motors the spray can should be easily to buy (I presume there are lots of Subaru dealers in the USA?) and damn cheap (Subaru are meant to do it before every oil change in Australia).

Holy shit where the FUCK have you been?

[Jean]

Once I pull my head on the original m10 in my car, I am sure I'll have you beat :) You just wait

[Iain]

One interesting thing to note is that all the Japanese import engines I've been playing with over the last few years have had carbon build-up and oil sludge like no tomorrow. Don't assume that just because Jap engines are low-distance that they're immaculately maintained: often they're completely neglected.

Holy shit where the FUCK have you been?

Hiding on Subaru forums. Been posting here for around a week, mate. Getting myself another DirtE30 to build as a long-term project.

Sucks to read about your car getting keyed. Track the fuckers down and proceed to make them drink rotting placenta milkshake.

[Ray Smoodiver]

At least it was the daily! Guess it's now a beater as well as a daily, which is a fucken shame as it only had 110k on the clock.

[napabavarian]

Did you save it in a jar?