Snake oil time tomorrow :)

So, tomorrow, I will be mostly testing the benefits of Snake Oil. The medicine in question is a well known EGR cleaner that is meant to be sprayed into the air intake. Claims include being able to improve mpg, emissions, and clean valves and intakes. How on earth its supposed to get to the EGR is beyond me, as it will be burnt in the combustion chamber way before that!

My reasons for using it? Well prior to having the tappets done, I had a chuffing noise from the air intake. This went away, but has come back at idle, with tappets correctly set. Suspicions are a valve not seating correctly, and its far cheaper to try Snake Oil, than dismantle the head

Its a 300tdi, with no EGR, and small pump tweaks, so lets see what the doctor says tomorrow

Well, the rest of the street was a bit scared by the diesel knock

Unsurprisingly, this stuff is very like carb cleaner, and very good at removing oil from surfaces, sight from eyeballs etc. Smells just like carb cleaner too.

Engine revs went up on each squirt, sometimes knocking, sometimes not, but easy did it, and eventually all the 200ml can went in. Smoke from the exhaust each squirt, but not unexpected.

'Idle for 10 minutes' says the can, but I wasn't - I fixed the front washers as I'd trapped the hose reassembling after sorting my sloppy wipers.

Out for a drive. Was it more responsive? I think so, a bit smoother on take up when coming on and off the throttle, maybe, and pulled nicely up a nearby hill. Any better than before? Its hard to tell, so probably means no, however, I didn't break it, and I only spent £8

Tomorrow, its the motorway, to test staying power on a long drag....

Interesting stuff, Steveo, and it made me grin! On a side note, do you reckon that this stuff would make a good substitute for oven cleaner when cleaning out intakes and egrs by hand?

DevonGuy said:

Interesting stuff, Steveo, and it made me grin! On a side note, do you reckon that this stuff would make a good substitute for oven cleaner when cleaning out intakes and egrs by hand?

Click to expand...

Definitely, it is also sold for that purpose - it would eat all that nasty carbon.

Next job for me is an intercooler flush - a smear of oil in the pipes, and the far end of the intake was moist.....