Intake Carbon Deposits on new GDI GM Engines

VdellaV · February 10, 2019

Hello Everyone

As many of you know, GDI engines are more widespread than ever, and with them, regardless of how well maintained they are, they always develop Carbon Buildup on the Intake Valves and Runners, specially TurboCharged engines, and with mileage as low as 30k.

Before having a GM Truck, I used to have a VW Jetta and rolled with many friends with GDI TFSI engines, so I know this problem first hand.

The most obvious sign of Carbon Buildup is decreased performance and fuel economy, along with difficulty to star the engine or even knock under load.

What I have been doing to avoid this problem early on in my cars is to bypass the PCV gasses to an atmospheric catch can or most recently to a Crankcase Scavenging System directed to my Exhaust, so the is absolutely no source of carbon going inside of my intake, but I understand this may not be a viable solution for everyone, so I would like to present another alternative: chemical prevention.

Every 6k miles, as part of my oil Changing interval, I also replace the Air Intake Filter and chemically clean my intake using fuel injector cleaner additives directly into my intake, like if I was using seafoam.

Most Fuel injector cleaners have high concentrations of PolyEtherAmines of PEAs for short, which is a carbon detergent, the exact same active ingredient on products like CRC GDI Intake Valve Cleaner, but all fuel injector cleaners have one or other detergent for this matter.

Below, you will find a video explaining how to apply this method to your engine and another video explaining how I came to the conclusion that any Fuel Injector cleaner will do the trick:

MikeNH · February 11, 2019

Nicely made videos. What do you have for exhaust on that truck? It sounds amazing.

VdellaV · February 11, 2019

4 minutes ago, MikeNH said:

Nicely made videos. What do you have for exhaust on that truck? It sounds amazing.

Thank you!

Here is my setup:

MikeNH · February 11, 2019

5 minutes ago, VdellaV said:

Thank you!

Here is my setup:

Nice setup! I guess they don't do emissions testing in your area? I could never get away with catless long tubes here. haha

VdellaV · February 11, 2019

1 minute ago, MikeNH said:

Nice setup! I guess they don't do emissions testing in your area? I could never get away with catless long tubes here. haha

No, I live in Mexico, I pretty much can run whatever I please lol