Turbo cleaners, do they work?

[GingerMagic]

As title suggests, I am trying to get my car ' motivated ' but maybe fighting a losing battle.

I have also been browsing the coupe forum and some say they use a turbo cleaner to clean the turbo, obviously, but has anyone here had a go and does it work?

There are a few on ebay, some of which you put in a tank of fuel ( how does that get to the turbo? ) and others come with a kit to blank the turbo off before cleaning.

Any thoughts..?

[madmadmax]

just give it an Italian tune up it will do the same as chemicals but wont damage seals, has it got a vnt turbo as the vac can may not have full travel thus not fully opening or closing the vanes

[jonsowman]

Considering trying this on mine in my endless quest to find my turbo-lag-type-issue.

If you give the REVIVE cleaner a go, let us know how it goes. Good luck!

[GingerMagic]

I was wondering about the vacuum side of things, the coupe chaps seem to be getting rid of vacuum tanks but I'm not sure why..?

I will give the car a blast but does get a regular cane on a particular road on the way to work, lots of pooh from the exhaust and my EGR is blanked so should be clean...

[Doggy]

I was wondering about the vacuum side of things, the coupe chaps seem to be getting rid of vacuum tanks but I'm not sure why..?

I've noticed that too, but since the reservoir is there to ensure there's a vacuum reserve to keep stuff working if the brake servo's gobbling most of it, seems barmy to me.

I realise the reservoir itself can leak and cause problems, but if you need one and it's potentially suspect, I'd go for 2 rather than 0.

[Bailes1992]

I used a turbo cleaner to fix a friends sticky vanes.

You blank off the inlet of the compressor and pour it down the outlet.

It worked really well and we were shocked at the amount of crap that come out!


GM- have you cleaned out your inlet manifold? As your car was an ex taxi the inlet will be sooted up like mad!

[GingerMagic]

Is that the one between the air-doser and the head? I'm not thick but I get confused a bit when there are so many pipes etc coming in and out of the engine...

My old Supersport was a doddle in comparison....

If I can borrow the use of ramps for a couple of hours I may pour some cleaner in - how long does it take to clean the turbo?

[oldskoolskool]

I was wondering about the vacuum side of things, the coupe chaps seem to be getting rid of vacuum tanks but I'm not sure why..?

I've noticed that too, but since the reservoir is there to ensure there's a vacuum reserve to keep stuff working if the brake servo's gobbling most of it, seems barmy to me.

I realise the reservoir itself can leak and cause problems, but if you need one and it's potentially suspect, I'd go for 2 rather than 0.

The cars that have removed the vacuum reservoir have also removed the air-dossers and the egr valve so only 2 out of 5 electro valve are used.

As I had read about people blocking the unused hoses with screw (this is not my style), i pretty much ripped out the whole system and replaced it with new vacuum hose with the minimum amount of connections required, (I think I have the original vacuum to brake servo hose still in there).

I was also dubious about removing the vacuum reservoir but done it with the intention of fitting a old fuel filter as a replacement reservoir if needed, but after extensive testing on a quiet industrial at night I experienced no issues and have now been running no reservoir for nearly a year.

Still thinking about whether its worth fitting one incase the vacuum pump starts dying but this would only prolong the issue and not fix it.

[oldskoolskool]

Is that the one between the air-doser and the head?

Yes.

[Doggy]

I was wondering about the vacuum side of things, the coupe chaps seem to be getting rid of vacuum tanks but I'm not sure why..?

I've noticed that too, but since the reservoir is there to ensure there's a vacuum reserve to keep stuff working if the brake servo's gobbling most of it, seems barmy to me.

I realise the reservoir itself can leak and cause problems, but if you need one and it's potentially suspect, I'd go for 2 rather than 0.

The cars that have removed the vacuum reservoir have also removed the air-dossers and the egr valve so only 2 out of 5 electro valve are used.

As I had read about people blocking the unused hoses with screw (this is not my style), i pretty much ripped out the whole system and replaced it with new vacuum hose with the minimum amount of connections required, (I think I have the original vacuum to brake servo hose still in there).

I was also dubious about removing the vacuum reservoir but done it with the intention of fitting a old fuel filter as a replacement reservoir if needed, but after extensive testing on a quiet industrial at night I experienced no issues and have now been running no reservoir for nearly a year.

Still thinking about whether its worth fitting one incase the vacuum pump starts dying but this would only prolong the issue and not fix it.

Thanks for the explanation. I can definitely see the sense in simplifying the vacuum system and getting rid of all those potential future leaks. Seem to remember from exboyracer's guide there were two restricters in the pipework to ensure the servo got the lion's share. Do you keep one or both of those?

[oldskoolskool]

I'll have to get back to you on that one, I remember talking to Dave about them but can't remember of my head :-[

[jonsowman]

The restrictors are shown here:

[dirtydirtydiesel]

Ginger,
The Forte diesel cleaner treatment & Advanced Formula diesel treatment are both very good & I use them every service 6-8thou, also steer clear of supermarket diesel it's crap . Mine ratled like a bastard on it, I also use millers diesel treatment in every tank, Oh & when I do the service I also put a bottle of forte fuel system flush in 1/2 tank of fuel & drive it like I stole it after warming up of course untill the fuel light comes on, & then fit a new fuel filter.
B.T.W BG244 diesel cleaner & treatment is susposed to be very good stuff for cleaning out your engine, ie manifold ect but I haven't tryed it yet .
Hope this is of some help bud DDD.

[GingerMagic]

Hi DDD.

I too use Millers every tank ( cheap on eBay ) and never use supermarket fuel in my car, I even stretch to the super diesel every 4th tank or so. I may try the Revive turbo cleaner stuff, it has good feedback and seems very effective. The Forte stuff is good too but I will stick to Millers and maybe do a BG244 or BG248 in the new year before next service.

Oddly enough, when I drive my car with a bit of, lets say 'enthusiasm', then it seems to go much better afterwards - maybe my pootling to work is not good for it and it needs to stretch its legs most of the time, not just once every couple of days..?

[jonsowman]

Mine seems to feel a bit better after long "spirited" runs, I think they just don't like being pootled around town.

I've noticed mine's quieter on Shell/BP diesel compared to supermarket as well.

GM - since you've been using Millers for some time, how are your injector corrections looking?