Intake carbon buildup on TSI engine

My other car is a 2018 Golf TSI. I understand that with direct injection there is carbon formed on the intake valves. Rather than pull the head apart there is a chemical that can be sucked in to remove this carbon. Anyone know what this is and how to do it? Thanx!

Yes, welcome to the world of EGR induced soot accumulation in intake tracts. Try any carbon blaster type product formulated for just this thing, found at your local FLAPS.

Otherwise, you get to remove the intake manifold and remove the carbon in the good old fashioned way. I'm lucky in that there is a local machine shop that does a manifold for an entirely reasonable fee.

Cheers,

PH

Powder Hound said:

Yes, welcome to the world of EGR induced soot accumulation in intake tracts. Try any carbon blaster type product formulated for just this thing, found at your local FLAPS.
Otherwise, you get to remove the intake manifold and remove the carbon in the good old fashioned way. I'm lucky in that there is a local machine shop that does a manifold for an entirely reasonable fee.
Cheers,
PH

Click to expand...

This has nothing to do with what the OP is talking about.

Intake port issues on direct-injected gasoline engines, ESPECIALLY those from Volkswagen (which do not use EGR, btw), is a common problem. Some of the engines have a 5th injector in the intake manifold that helps with this. I am not sure if the CXCB engine in the '18 GTI has one or not. But some tweaking of the design of the newer EA888 engines has helped some with this, time will tell if it works or not.

There are intake induction cleaning methods that can help, but are generally a better preventive measure than a fix. We use BG's products and systems here, with mixed results.

There is a high likelihood that some other EA888 specter will manifest itself before the intake ports get really bad, even though the CXCB is a newer generation it still has some shortcomings.

oilhammer said:

This has nothing to do with what the OP is talking about.
Intake port issues on direct-injected gasoline engines, ESPECIALLY those from Volkswagen (which do not use EGR, btw), is a common problem. Some of the engines have a 5th injector in the intake manifold that helps with this. I am not sure if the CXCB engine in the '18 GTI has one or not. But some tweaking of the design of the newer EA888 engines has helped some with this, time will tell if it works or not.
There are intake induction cleaning methods that can help, but are generally a better preventive measure than a fix. We use BG's products and systems here, with mixed results.
There is a high likelihood that some other EA888 specter will manifest itself before the intake ports get really bad, even though the CXCB is a newer generation it still has some shortcomings.

Click to expand...

What oilhammer said^

The TSIs use variable cam timing to get the effect of an EGR valve under light load driving without actually having an EGR valve. They effectively just over advance the intake cam so some exhaust gases burp back up into the intake ports when at idle and light load, low RPM driving. The more performance you request, the more it will retard the cam closer to 0 to gain performance.

There are some other methods to prevent the intake carbon as well. Some use an oil catch can to prevent oil from the CCV system from getting into the intake and then combining with the somewhat sooty exhaust gases in the intake ports and carboning things up.

Some engine oils have a chemistry that make it more difficult to coke under those hot conditions and are less likely to form that carbon as well. On various forums guys who have run Red Line's Group V-heavy base stock oil have had good success along with a company in the Mid West called RLI that uses a basestock oil from renewable sources that seems to have a similar effect to group V esters.

Something to look into, anyway. Either isn't a bad idea to use as your engine oil as a preventative for carbon build up, but the oil itself is not cheap (especially Red Line's).