Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience, 25 times voted best auto service in Vancouver by their customers, and we're talking cars. How you doing, Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today's guest is a 2014 Ford F-150. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: This customer requested that we do a walnut shell blasting intake valve cleaning on their vehicle just as a maintenance item, preventative measure. He heard that it was good to keep your intake valves clean for proper engine performance, and that's what he brought his truck in for.
Mark: So why would you need to clean your intake valves?
Bernie: So most engines these days use a direct fuel injection system, and what that does is it injects the fuel directly into the cylinder. In the past, the fuel injectors were placed above the intake valves, and what they would do is spray the fuel onto the valve, so that would keep the valves relatively clean.
But what happens, you know, with direct injection, there's nothing spraying any fuel on top of the valves cleaning them. So they get carbon deposits over time and carbon builds up and then that affects the breathing performance of the engine. Sometimes the valves don't seat quite properly or if they get really bad, you know, you actually have a restriction of airflow into the engine and performance issues.
Mark: Performance and mileage?
Bernie: Mileage, performance, you know, fuel economy. You may even get engine misfire codes, starting issues. There's a whole number of things that excessive carbon deposits will do on engines
Mark: And would you recommend this something as once a vehicle's like 10 years old, 5 years old, where's the line?
Bernie: It's not a bad idea to do it, you know, 10 years old, but the other service that we have is we can do direct injection cleanings, which I usually recommend every 30 to 50,000 kilometres. And that's just basically sucking a chemical into the intake system. It's a bit of a procedure and you let it sit for a little while, and that softens the carbon deposits and prevents large buildups.
But sometimes it gets to the point where the buildup is too large. Maybe people haven't done the direct injection cleaning, and then you have to take it off and actually do a proper walnut shell cleaning.
Mark: So let's go to some pictures and let's see our guest. Nice looking 2014 vehicle.
Bernie: Yep. Good shape.
View the engine. Little dusty and well used.
Mark: It's a V6, I believe.
Bernie: V6. Yeah. Eco boost. It's a twin Turbo V6.
So here's our before picture, and what you're looking at, the sort of black thing at the corner is the light. And this is the intake port is very deep on the cylinder head, but if you look down, you can see a bunch of black crusty stuff. Those are the two intake valves. There's two intake valves per cylinder. So we're looking down at, this is the before picture, pretty grungy and dirty.
And that's the after. And you can see it's very shiny, very clean. You know, the air can flow through that much better.
Mark: Is there any cleaning that, I guess there isn't any cleaning happening within the cylinder itself on that edge of the intake valve, is that right?
Bernie: Sorry, I don't get what you mean. Like what?
Mark: Well, there's a bottom on the intake valve, that's inside the cylinder.
Bernie: Yeah, no, that doesn't get cleaned, but that generally won't get too bad, that won't have this same level of carbon deposit. This is just strictly from the intake. What happens is there's an exhaust gas recirculation system. So some exhaust gases sucked back through the intake system and also the crank case breather sucks the fumes from the crank case. There's a very toxic pollutant. So it sucks that back into the intake system, but with it is a slight amount of oil vapour, and that's what we're seeing here. Basically the oil vapour slowly over, you know, a hundred thousand kilometres. It's condensing on the valves where it's just a little cooler in that intake port.
Mark: And turning into carbon.
Bernie: Yeah, exactly. It's turning back into what it was made of. It's recycling itself, but not so good for the engine.
Mark: So what's the result of this? Like again, better fuel mileage, better performance, better longevity.
Bernie: Absolutely, I'll give you an example. I have a BMW X3 and for a long time had a stumbly idle. Like it just, when you're sitting at idle, it would just kind of stumble and shake a little bit, but not a full misfire, but just kind of uncomfortable. It was very, you know, it doesn't feel like a performance, you know, the ultimate German driving machine as they used to call themselves, you know, just felt a little stumbly. And I had the intake off to do a job and it wasn't even that badly deposited. But I did a walnut shell cleaning and it just ran like a dream afterwards, like completely smooth immediately.
And this is actually an issue that happens on a lot of cars where the engine is a little rough, shaky, might be harder to start. These are all sort of symptoms of excess carbon deposits, lack of power, misfire codes, variety of things.
Mark: Do you do this sort of work on diesels or is this just for gasoline vehicles?
Bernie: We just do it on gas, actually, we have done it on diesels, but it's mostly a problem with gasoline engines.
Mark: So there you go. If you want more performance, you're saving your dough, you're keeping your car running. A good thing for the environment, honestly, and for your pocketbook. But you want to keep your vehicle running really well. The people to see are at Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC. You can reach them online at pawlikautomotive.com, or you can call them to book your appointment, (604) 327-7112. You have to book ahead. They're always busy. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC Canada. Thanks so much for watching and listening. Thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thank you, Mark. Thanks for watching.
