Good question because I am planning to do the same for my car acdelco x66p and oils change 5w-30

 

Go to Home Depot and get 3/8" od clear flexible hose. Should be in their plumbing section, sold in a 10-foot roll (my store doesn't custom cut this stuff anymore). That will fit perfectly down the cylinder holes.

I attached a 6" piece to a turkey baster with electrical tape and it worked wonderful. I also attached the 3/8" hose to the larger hoses on my Harbor Freight fluid transfer pump. That worked even better.

Just for the hell of it, I filled 3 cylinders with the X66P and the other 3 with Marvel Mystery Oil. 4oz. in each hole (don't fill anymore than that or it'll spill up into the spark plug hole). When sucking it out of the holes, the MMO had visibly broken up carbon in the fluid. The A/C Delco stuff did not.

Unfortunately, I can't crank the car over yet to get rid of any possible excess fluid because now 4 of my fuel injectors are leaking. No idea why. This didn't happen before. I have all new o-rings and clamps on them. Ridiculous. Probably have to re-seat all this crap again. :censor:

 

Go to Home Depot and get 3/8" od clear flexible hose. Should be in their plumbing section, sold in a 10-foot roll (my store doesn't custom cut this stuff anymore). That will fit perfectly down the cylinder holes.

I attached a 6" piece to a turkey baster with electrical tape and it worked wonderful. I also attached the 3/8" hose to the larger hoses on my Harbor Freight fluid transfer pump. That worked even better.

Just for the hell of it, I filled 3 cylinders with the X66P and the other 3 with Marvel Mystery Oil. 4oz. in each hole (don't fill anymore than that or it'll spill up into the spark plug hole). When sucking it out of the holes, the MMO had visibly broken up carbon in the fluid. The A/C Delco stuff did not.

Unfortunately, I can't start the car yet because now 4 of my fuel injectors are leaking. No idea why. This didn't happen before. I have all new o-rings and clamps on them. Ridiculous. :censor:

All good advice. (I have so many different hoses in the garage so I thought I had the right diameter, but I didn't.) Lowe's, or at least the one I go to, has the hose available by the foot.

As far as X66P vs MMO, I was able to remove a bit of fluid with some clear hose and a syringe. The hose was too big to keep messing around with, and was too big to move around in the cylinder to suck much out. But I was able to get almost an ounce from a cylinder. It was very dark and loaded up with carbon. I could also see it dissolving when I looked into the cylinder with a strong flashlight. I left the liquid overnight. I've used MMO in the past, and it didn't do as much as I saw the X66P doing. MMO at least lubricates the cylinder, which I feel better about.

I did this for the rings, but for the combustion chamber I like to use distilled water though a vacuum hose while the engine is running. I've seen pictures of what a piston looks like after a leaking head gasket, and it's made me believe that water is the best thing to clean out carbon. I would like to do a before and after with an endoscope at some point.

 

The 3/8" od hose should give you more than enough room to go fully around the cylinder, when you twist it around. It did in my case.

This is a messy thing to do. I had an idea of putting the 3/8" hose in all the cylinders, then taping them all together and putting them inside my shop vac's main larger hose, so when you crank the car it won't shoot all over the place (like it did in that video I think you posted in another thread?)

I don't know how long it's 'safe' to let this stuff sit in the cylinder holes but it's been a few days for me now. It seemed like there was fresh oil in cylinder #1 and not carbon deposits. Not sure what that means.....and I kinda don't want to know lol. Regardless, I plan to change the oil after I get her running.

 

Plugs are cheap enough,....put new plugs in. Report back.




Rob43

 

+1. Remove couple plugs and see if they turned white..

 

Also if you have not driven a lot after the soak, drive at least 100 miles and see if it changes..

 

When you remove fluid from cylinders by cranking the engine, some of with will enter intake and exhaust manifolds, hence the excessive and prolonged smoking.
Some of it may still be inside the intake manifold.
Get your car on a long trip if you haven't already, read the short and long term fuel trims.

 

This is good stuff.
I'm looking to do this to my xi this week.
Looking forward to results!

 

Yup. I just changed the oil pan gasket. The car leaks absolutely nothing on the ground, and oil is disappearing.
So mark my situation up to oil consumption.
X66P to be delivered tomorrow.

 

Anything change today, or more of the same?

 

Please report back after the weekend. People search for symptoms, and someone will have your issue in the future. It is nice when threads get resolved!

 

Forgive me but what is a piston soak ? (remember am still new to E46's)

 

Decarbonizing(or hoping to) piston rings. The piston rings/oil rings in these engines are made of low tension and they tend to get stuck closed because of carbon deposits keeping them compressed.

So by pouring an ounce or 2 of this liquid in to the spark plugs holes, the thought is that the fluid seeps in to the cylinder walls and removes the carbon deposits, thus helping with oil burning issues and bring up the lost compression.

 

I still think if you really love your E46 and it burns excessive oil or feels tired, the best thing to do is to install new rings at least once during your car's life. Especially for 330s since they seem to be the ones with the burning probs. Most people wouldn't think twice before installing new plugs or new suspension bushings because they're wear items. Well rings in this case wear out. They're just a pain to get to so people avoid the topic in search for an easier solution. The rings on these engines just don't seem to resist wear very well beyond 100k. I guess you could try the above first to see if it works.

 

I still think if you really love your E46 and it burns excessive oil or feels tired, the best thing to do is to install new rings at least once during your car's life.

You're right, of course. But I think any option is preferable to piston ring replacement. For me, I would have to move the car to third car status and restore the whole thing if I were to replace the piston rings.

A bit of an update on the piston soak itself: I checked the oil (Castrol Edge 0w40) today, and it hasn't gone down even a millimeter since the piston soak. I was losing around a quart per 2,500 miles after doing the "02Pilot mod," and a quart per 900-1000 before the mod. I'll report what happens once I get to 2k miles.

 

The oil consumption is still around 1 quart per 2,500 miles. The "02Pilot mod" is the only thing that seems to have made much of a difference. I might do another piston soak, or I might just leave it.

 

I must just be lucky, other than some minor leaks (OFHG has been replaced) my car doesn't use any oil at all. 7500 mi oci, 0w-40 Castrol in it now and Mobil One before that and never had to add any in the 4½ years and 35K I've had it.

 

I don't often soak my pistons...
...but when I do, I only use Palmolive.

Or Techron. That stuff seems to work.

t

 

I don't often soak my pistons...
...but when I do, I only use Palmolive.

"You know, you're soaking in it..."