Turbo carbon'd up how to disolve?

RobWales

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Joined
21 Sep 2006
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www.3ksengineering.com
Hi,

Boat on berth and not been out for a run yet! (F/L Sprint recent purchase).

while tinkering in engine bay today thought I would check and see if the turbo on my ad31 spun freely?

Nope it was stuck solid, so removed it and brought home to dissasemble, bearings, shaft etc all seem fine but there was a major carbon build up around the exhaust turbine area totally stopping it from spinning.....

Anyone know of a product that will disolve the heavy carbon deposits within the housing?

Thanks.
 
Oven cleaner sprayed on and left overnight, respray and pick off carbon with a scrap bit of allumin. Did my mates torbo with ease.
 
Failing oven cleaner, caustic soda will shift the carbon very quickly, leave it to soak over night in a bucket or similar, will do the job, but be careful with caustic its nasty stuff.
If you have a local bead blaster around, he will do it very quickly without damage also.
 
Brick cleaner from B&Q great stuff...got rid of all of the carbon from inside the exhaust turbine casting....

However....DO NOT put the compressor wheel in that stuff....after 2 hrs there was only 25% of it left?

OOOPS...major expense coming up! bugger.......... :(
 
For future reference there are carbon removal solvents available, but they are fairly foul chemicals and usually only available in 5 gallon cans. I have had success using paint stripper, but bearing in mind the above sorry tale test whatever you're planning to use on a bit of scrap aluminium before dunking something expensive in it.
 
arbon disulphide is the best carbon remover, used in some oven cleaners. Do not even think of using brick cleaner HCL!
The best make that I know of is sold by the Bettaware catalogue!
 
Soltron kept my Volvos clean as new.

And these filters were in for 7 years,

P3290001.jpg
 
Your not a Solly fan then.
The turbo fan blades on my engine were clean metal no carbon.


[I do not think this is somthing I would be proud to publish. ]....WHY?
 
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Your not a Solly fan then.
The turbo fan blades on my engine were clean metal no carbon.


[I do not think this is somthing I would be proud to publish. ]....WHY?

Soot on turbocharger vanes has absolutely nothing to do with fuel filteration or additives, it is products of combustion, most importantly engine duty cycle has a critical part to play in creation of carbon particulates.

Solatron does the job it is intended to do, but bug aside fuel filters are there to prevent debris entering engines injection system. Leaving fuel filters in place for 7 years is plain wooley headed and nothing to be proud of.

Cost of changing out fuel filters on a regular basis is all about safety and long term protection of expensive investment
 
Soltron

Was there not someone [Depsol?] from the Chann. Isles who used to flog Soltron?

John G
 
Soltron stops carbon build up, can you explain why my turbos were clean,
also th exhaust tailpipe of my car is clean metal inside.
 
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There was a Turbo charger for a TAMD61 for sale on EBAY recently, but no takers. I was looking as I have this engine, but didn't want to pay £300 just in case.

The part number was also listed. May be worth a look as it might fit the AD31, and £300 doesn't sound too bad at all when it becomes a necessity.

I have had a look just now and it is not listed at the moment.
 
Soltron stops carbon build up, can you explain why my turbos were clean,
also th exhaust tailpipe of my car is clean metal inside.

Have no clue as to your engine model.

Volvo has used a retarded timing strategy since introduction of IMO emission standards which is totally NOx focussed. Result is that mechanical engines with very few levers to pull in the timing department make particulates (soot). When Cat tried to get the 3208 through IMO they concluded that the amout of retard required to meet the NOx requirement the 3208 produced unnaceptable levels of particulates which they felt would not be a good product so the canned the whole range of engines.

NOx production is directly linked to combustion temperature, you reduce combustion temperature and therefore NOx by retarding timing, however late timing results in a small amout of unburnt fuel hitting the cylinder walls which forms particulates. Whatever the snake oil additives are in the hydrocarbon fuel, contact with hot cylinder walls it makes particulates, process is inevitable as death and taxes if you have an engine with a linear timing table.

Same bore and stroke ratios fare better than others however continued operation around peak torque leads to high soot loadings which is why it is duty cyle related.

KKK turbochargers are pretty poor and tend to be sold to OEM's on the basis of their low cost, the putty like cast iron exhaust housings tend to blister and foul the turbine blades, which also tend to also lack any self cleaning characteristics.

We do seem to have flip flopped between turbine side and compressor side. The light alloy compressor side can become real dirty due to oil carryover from some crankcase breather arrangements, as well as a blocked filters causing lube oil to be sucked past the piston ring seals, poor engine comartment ventilation can play havoc with the air side.

Yanmar make a cleaning additive which is sprayed into the compressor housing with the engine running, lot less expensive than the Yanmar turbocharger cleaner is a strong solution of Fairy liquid and a fine spray bottle, so you see, just like those who swear by snake oil additives, I also believe in Fairy.
 
Latestarter commented..."KKK turbochargers are pretty poor and tend to be sold to OEM's on the basis of their low cost, the putty like cast iron exhaust housings tend to blister and foul the turbine blades, which also tend to also lack any self cleaning characteristics."

Spot on with the observation regarding the turbine casing, mine had rusted causing the said blisters which in turn had fouled the turbine rotor..

With the blister/blisters having a coating of carbon I wrongly thought it was a heavy carbon build up, only on a thorough cleaning did the rust blister/scales become apparent!
 
Latestarter commented..."KKK turbochargers are pretty poor and tend to be sold to OEM's on the basis of their low cost, the putty like cast iron exhaust housings tend to blister and foul the turbine blades, which also tend to also lack any self cleaning characteristics."

Spot on with the observation regarding the turbine casing, mine had rusted causing the said blisters which in turn had fouled the turbine rotor..

With the blister/blisters having a coating of carbon I wrongly thought it was a heavy carbon build up, only on a thorough cleaning did the rust blister/scales become apparent!

KKK's also blight VM engines. My fix is to have engineering shop machine the housing to take a 316 stainless sleeve which was sweated in. Problem goes away.
 
KKK's also blight VM engines. My fix is to have engineering shop machine the housing to take a 316 stainless sleeve which was sweated in. Problem goes away.

I guess you that you must have machined oversize to a depth which would just coincide with the start of the radius then?

Any idea of the wall thickness of the stainless sleeve they fitted?

An easy job for me to get done due to the nature of my work (engineering fab/mc shop)!

Thanks,Rob.
 
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