Modern technology friend or foe .

[Greg Roles]

Absolutely. That gunk and carbon buildup is at the narrowest part of your intake - the inlet port / valve. Buildup there is as bad as it gets.

[Bug_racer]

Bit of a difference between a manifold and a head...

And does it make that much difference? I can remember when porting and polishing was all the go until someone discovered a rough surface gave better performance so polishing was out and bead blasting was in (inlet side).

I pull the manifold off to get to the back of the valves and intake ports to clean them .
Does it make that much of a difference , Id say so given I have the fastest unopened stock turbo Golf R in the world and the fastest (currently) Golf R in Australia over 1000m which is faster than the next 3 Golf Rs which are all big turbo cars

[Bug_racer]

Absolutely. That gunk and carbon buildup is at the narrowest part of your intake - the inlet port / valve. Buildup there is as bad as it gets.

I agree on TFSI engines but experience has shown on a lot of FSI engines the build up is worse at the throttle body

[ian]

My first car was. A Austin A40. Devon top of the range heater and a sun roof. Had to replace the fuel pump with an electric one which went tick tick tick. When you turned the key Had to pull a knob connected to the started to engage the starter motor. And if the battery was flat there was always the crank handle. And you had to get out to turn on the tail lights. As there was a switch near the tail lights. The joys of modern motoring.

[sports racer]

I pull the manifold off to get to the back of the valves and intake ports to clean them .

Why are you taking the manifold off?

Disconnect the air filter and get the car idling. Trickle a small stream of water into the intake and set it up so the engine sucks it up for around 30 minutes. The water breaks down any carbon build up in the intake and exhaust manifold as well as the head and top of the pistons.

It's an old trick but it works.

You can buy aftermarket products to do the same but water works just as well.

Cheers

Paul

[jets]

I wish they would get back to the driving experience,

VW & others don't help by deleting most models with manual trans. My wife agrees with me that most autos turn good cars into white goods. I know that there is a place for an auto. but most of the buying public don't care & say "why would you buy a manual".
I have a couple of friends who have bought new cars recently & didn't even have a test drive.

[stefcio007]

Compared to my MK3 Golf, you can't feel the speed in any new car. In the Golf if I'm doing 60km/h it's fun and I can feel it, it's like a go-kart. It's small and personal. In the Focus I could probably fall asleep doing 60 the revs are so low and everything is quiet.

A part of me doesn't want to sell it, but then maybe it's time to move on and I'm being nostalgic for the sake of nostalgia.

[theresanothersteve]

I pull the manifold off to get to the back of the valves and intake ports to clean them .
Does it make that much of a difference , Id say so given I have the fastest unopened stock turbo Golf R in the world and the fastest (currently) Golf R in Australia over 1000m which is faster than the next 3 Golf Rs which are all big turbo cars

I doffs me cap to you, and give you kudos for holding records, but it's hardly the point.

For the average driver pulling heads off for decoke, servicing every 3,000 miles, replacing spark plugs every 6,000 miles and so on are a thing of the past.

Technology has led to more reliable vehicles, but when they break down the average punter has to send them to technicians.

[Bug_racer]

I doffs me cap to you, and give you kudos for holding records, but it's hardly the point.

For the average driver pulling heads off for decoke, servicing every 3,000 miles, replacing spark plugs every 6,000 miles and so on are a thing of the past.

Technology has led to more reliable vehicles, but when they break down the average punter has to send them to technicians.

For me Carbon cleans are a regular item I do , not just on my car but customers .
if this carbon build up would happen to cars with carbys and points there is no way you could ever get it to run right . Modern ECUs have the ability to control injection and ignition to each cylinder as well as having inputs like the lambda probe and knock sensors . Due to the processing power of the ECU issues that the car might have can easily be masked . Unplug a MAF or coolant sensor and see if that changes how a modern car runs , do the same with a mk2 or early mk3 golf . I dont believe modern engines are as completely reliable as what they are made out to be , they are just a lot better at masking issues than earlier cars . Almost like they were built to last the warranty period and then the heavy maintenance would start . But , in saying that if you are prepared to spend more money on maintaining them then they can last quite a while with the benefit of being safer , more fuel efficient and more powerful . Its just hard for some people to justify $1k for a carbon clean when the car still runs ok .

[sports racer]

As per my last post - using water only costs you 30 min of your time and gives the same result.

[Bug_racer]

As per my last post - using water only costs you 30 min of your time and gives the same result.

I doubt it , also its not going to help with carbon build up on injector tips

[Sunny43.5]

I forgot to add these two to my original post , DMF is the most stupid part for a manual T5 van meant to carry up to one ton of weight because small engine capacities do not have the grunt to overcome the weight which leads to the DMF disintegrating prematurely . My second one is the ridiculous "Sealed for Life " on the T5 Tiptronic autos , VW were blatantly oblivious to our climate and the effect on the fluids viscosity during our long hot summers and every day driving conditions . Strange thing was in 2010 VW decided to release the DSG in the Transporter vans and wonder of wonders they then said that autos SHOULD be serviced at 60000 kay intervals plus the fitted the filter on the OUTSIDE . My memories of my auto in my 68 VF Valiant V8 was that you could drive to a trannie shop they would remove the sump pan tighten the bands and replace the fluid and you would not get the problems that seem to be plaguing these modern technological nightmares .