CRC intake valve cleaner. It works

 

Can you explain your process to clean the XT5?

 

Directions are on the can. It is complicated but you have to follow them exactly. Involves spraying the cleaner into the intake past the MAF while running engine at a certain RPM, Shutting down for an hour, restarting and driving for a while. When you restart the engine will run rough for a little bit and all kinds of crap will come out the exhaust. A little scary. The main thing is DO NOT let the engine stall while sprayin the cleaner in.

 

The chemical cleaning procedure does work. If you live in an area that has top tier gasoline (Costco is top tier and I think it is top rated) and you use that as frequently as possible, you could be comfortable in extending those intervals. Thanks to KRDCAD for the DIY tips.

Whatever you do, use a product like KRDCAD recommended. You'll destroy your MAF sensor and remove other protective coatings that throttle bodies have on them using more common cleaners.

 

Armiius, where did you see that "The factory service manual recommends it at 15,000 miles intervals "before expensive mechanical cleaning is required." . There is nothing in the 2020 XT5 OM about that. On page 232 it does state using

Fuel Additives
TOP TIER Detergent Gasoline is highly
recommended for use with your
vehicle. If your country does not have
TOP TIER Detergent Gasoline, add
ACDelco Fuel System Treatment Plus
−Gasoline to the vehicle’s gasoline fuel
tank at every oil change or 15 000 km
(9,000 mi), whichever occurs first. TOP
TIER Detergent Gasoline and ACDelco
Fuel System Treatment Plus−Gasoline
will help keep your vehicle’s engine
fuel deposit free and performing
optimally.

 

Armiius, where did you see that "The factory service manual recommends it at 15,000 miles intervals "before expensive mechanical cleaning is required." . There is nothing in the 2020 XT5 OM about that. On page 232 it does state using

Fuel Additives
TOP TIER Detergent Gasoline is highly
recommended for use with your
vehicle. If your country does not have
TOP TIER Detergent Gasoline, add
ACDelco Fuel System Treatment Plus
−Gasoline to the vehicle’s gasoline fuel
tank at every oil change or 15 000 km
(9,000 mi), whichever occurs first. TOP
TIER Detergent Gasoline and ACDelco
Fuel System Treatment Plus−Gasoline
will help keep your vehicle’s engine
fuel deposit free and performing
optimally.

I obtained a copy of the factory service manual on DVD for $25. It was a gamble and I can't find the index but there is a workaround. I was paging through the 1500 pages and came to services in back. I think this makes Induction Cleaning more reputable and I'd like to hear what the Dealer has to say. I think I will stop by personally next week. This really sounds like snake oil to me. One of the goals of the factory is to try to provide a revenue stream to the Dealers w/o impairing the reputation of their products. I sure wouldn't do the cleaning myself. At least the old quack nostrums had dope in them!
Our engine has a trick PCV valve that is supposed to help. I'd expect to have heard a wave of complaints if this were a mass problem. Driving them hard in lower gears kept the exhaust system free of carbon in the past.
Maybe the Dealer can identify the chemical to be used and I'll talk to the retired chemist in the neighborhood. The endorsement by the factory at least indicates that the treatment will not do more harm than good. I thought the cost of the solution involved how much disassembly had to be done before you could access the backs of the valves for walnut shell blasting. I was going to get a Lexus just because their Toyota engines retained the port injectors along with DI but I was very unimpressed (although their luxury 4Runner with a V-8 would have towed well).
Just don't want to be penny wise and pound foolish.

 

Intake deposits are a real problem in GDI engines. Below is a BG video on the subject.

 

I only use top tier fuel in all of my vehicles. I add a bottle of Techron every oil change and never had an issue. Dealers use flushes and chemical cleaners as an "up-sell". A money maker for them, value for the consumer probably not much. CRC is also good, but more involved than adding something to the tank. I haven't needed a more intensive cleaner so far, but if I do I'll most likely use CRC. I won't have the dealer do it.

 

Top-tier gasolines do nothing for the valves on GDI engines. At least not the intake valves since the fuel mixture never passes through them. Theoretically, if the chemicals used to clean the valves survive combustion they could help clean the exhaust valves.

 

Not mechanically inclined and not trying to be a jacka$$, so using "ACDelco Fuel System Treatment Plus
−Gasoline to the vehicle’s gasoline fuel tank at every oil change or 15 000 km (9,000 mi), whichever occurs first. TOP
TIER Detergent Gasoline and ACDelco Fuel System Treatment Plus−Gasoline will help keep your vehicle’s engine
fuel deposit free and performing optimally" as stated in the OM is pointless,

 

Don't know how it is is other cities but in mine I have 18 stations within roughly a 4 mile radius of my house and 11 of the are Top Tier, prices are the same at all the stations. So for me buying Top Tier fuel is no problem.

 

This is going back to my 2012 Equinox V6, I asked the Asst Service Mgr if he saw any carbon buildup on the V6s, back then he said nothing before 30K or more.

 

Look and see? Tiny cameras on tubes (endoscopes or borescopes) are now available for under $50. We should be able to look for ourselves. They fit down the plug hole on some engines and image the side of the opening valve but we have extra small plugs so the valves can be bigger. This guy seems to have imaged his 40K Acadia 3.6 LGX engine before and after cleaning by routing the camera in through the intake manifold but is unclear whether he found the same valve after cleaning. I see deposits before and after myself although the white dots could be artifacts, Intake Valve Cleaning on 2018 SLT

 

Gm service bulletin.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...=2ahUKEwiCsb2v4cfqAhUNHc0KHQ33CCkQFjAAegQIBRAC&usg=AOvVaw1oefbwVH2aFIER5Zmihscf

[/URL]

 

LINK DOES NOT WORK

 

Sorry.
Google..

gm intake cleaning service bulletins

The first result..
Bulletin No.: 16-NA-383 Date: May-2017 Subject: Information on Rough Idle ... - NHTSA

 

Here's a you tube link purporting to show scope results of a cleaning. The cleaning appears superficial with inconsequential results. Does not look superior to downshifting to 2nd on those long grades. Also, studies have shown that the worst oil vapor condensation occurs on the backs of cold intake valves. I will continue letting the car sit till it comes off fast idle. I will demand scope before any cleaning, chemical or mechanical.

 

Danger Danger Will Robinson:
"Important: Extreme care must be taken not to hydro-lock the engine when inducing the cleaner, especially if it is induced without Fuel Injector Cleaner Kit J-35800-A or equivalent. If too much cleaner is induced at too low of a RPM, or if you force the engine to stall by inducing too much cleaner at once, the engine may hydro-lock and bend a connecting rod(s)." Service Bulletin above.

 

"Top Tier" gas is such a widespread falsehood that its repetition can hardly be said to reflect adversely on the credibility of the speaker. Mercedes came up with it after going to DI despite the disasters BMW, VW and Audi had with carbon build up. They just didn't want to tell what they had really done differently. Go down to the docks and you'll see all the gas comes off the same tankers! One of the possible solutions was valve overlap allowing some regurgitation of hot exhaust gases. Who knows? Mercedes also offers, "We invented DI first!"

 

snakeoil

 

What makes you think that the valves are getting fouled? Only air passes through the intake valve.

It is my opinion that the Top Tier gasoline is mainly for keeping the fuel injector clean.

 

I'm not too worried about it. My previous vehicle was a 2004 Isuzu Axiom, which at the time was one of only three passenger vehicles in the world with DI. I never had the valves cleaned, and I don't recall the issue coming up in Axiom owner groups. It still ran great when I traded it in with >100K miles.

 

I do recall that being one of the "claims to fame" for the Axiom. Besides the fact that it was a great-looking car!

 

I've never worried about this and never performed this service on any of my DI vehicles and never have had a problem. I actually have never had a major engine problem with any vehicle I've ever owned except a blown head gasket once 20 years ago, and my last 3 Caddy's I owned for at least 10 years each. So I'll be taking a hard pass on this service unless it's covered under my 4-year free maintenance I have on both my current Caddy's.

 

Yesterday I performed an Induction Cleaning service on my XT5 at 17,000 miles. I used the Wisamic canister kit and two cans of BG PN 260WOR Air Intake & Valve Cleaner. I also followed the instructions from BG for its Air Intake Cleaning Tool. The service was easy to perform and the result was a noticeable improvement in responsiveness, power and smoothness of operation.

Before I did this service I noticed some hesitation and rough shifting which are now gone. It makes sense to me that this was cause by carbon buildup in the intake and on the back of the intake valves. I have also seen reports that as the carbon buildup increases on a GDI engine, drivability can get worse. Also, not sure if this applies to the XT5, but some intakes have operating vanes that carbon buildup can cause to malfunction.

Based on what I experienced, I am now convinced that this is a worthwhile and necessary maintenance operation to maintain the performance and reliability of this XT5 GDI engine. Below is a link to the tool I used. The BG Instructions are attached. The BG 260WOR is available from multiple sources.

Amazon.com: Wisamic Automotive Non-dismantle Fuel Injector Cleaner Kit and Tester with Case for Petrol EFI Throttle Petrol Cars, 750ML Tank, 145PSI: Automotive

 

^^^and full synthetic oil changed regularly.

 

True!