Revive turbo cleaner - Anyone used it?

BenG · Apr 18, 2012

This stuff:

http://www.cleanmyengine.co.uk/index.php/how-it-works

:claims to remove carbon deposits from the intake and turbo by removing them as smal particles, avoiding damage to the engine. Since I failed to get my EGR valve off, let alone the inlet manifold, I was thinking of giving this a go...

Has anyone tried using this stuff? Is it just another snake oil product?

Cheers,

Ben

joel81 · Apr 19, 2012

I was thinking of giving it a go to try and sort a bit of a flat spot and poor low revs pick up so i'd be interested to know if it's works. It's £68 something delivered inc VAT.

BenG · Apr 19, 2012

Their website doesn't give a price. Seems they expect only garages to perform the cleaning. Don't see why I can't just spray it into the intake myself! Too cheap??

I'm a bit hesistant in case it dislodges a lump of carbon from the EGR/inlet which might cause engine damage.

joel81 · Apr 19, 2012

I rang SP Diagnostics who sell it. They quoted £49.99 plus VAT and carriage. You can do it yourself as that's what i was thinking of doing with a mate to rev the engine appropriately. Apparently it;s only been on sale in the UK since January this year but I read about first on this forum so somebody has definitely used it on here.

BenG · Apr 19, 2012

Ok Cheers. I'd rather do the job properly by getting the EGR and inlet manifold off, but I tried and failed to remove the EGR....

rsrich · Apr 19, 2012

I have personally used it on a fair range of vehicles with a variety of issues

To be fair I'll be up front and disclose I have been involved from the start introducing the fluid to the automotive specific market. (It was developed originally for cleaning turbines in jet engines and power station turbine generators, as well as adopting for large marine turbo diesel engines, so has plenty of history in high-value markets that need it to work.)

But seriously, I'll avoid trying to sell it and give my personal experience of how it works - I have done for example a number of VAG group models (A6, Golf, Beetle, Octavia), Ford Mondeos of various versions, Mercedes A-class, Vauxhall Astras to name the ones that come to mind, all diesel turbos. The cars had a variety of issues from vague driveablity problems, with hesitations and slugish performance, through to hard faults due to sticking turbo vanes causing overboost and limp mode as soon as any load is applied. In every case the owners have reported at minimum, significant improvement and in most cases a transformation of driveability and power back to how it should be, and often reduction of exhaust smoke and potential fuel economy improvements.

Application is straightforward and involves introducing the fluid into the air intake (after the MAF sensor) as a fine spray in three stages at various rpms as described in the instructions supplied with the bottle. Whilst not actively marketed to individual public end users, it is available to garages and "enthusiasts".

To briefly explain how the material works - it is a water-based non-toxic material with a "surfactant" active ingredient. This works by the molecules attaching themselves to oily/carbon deposits in the air path (ie turbo compressor, intercooler, valves, possible EGR and exhaust turbine components) and then releasing them as tiny particles into the airstream, thereby stripping the deposits in thin layers deliberatley avoiding large chunks of material being dislodged and causing subsequent damage or blockage. (remember the jet turbines? they can't afford to have damaging particles passing through) There is no solvent as such in the material, and is not intended to "soak clean"

A significant number of units have been distributed since launch and feedback has been enthusiastic to say the least. It is important of course to diagnose the problem correctly in the first instance to be due to carbon/oil fouling for the treatment to be effective. Mechanical or electronic issues (including severe clogging which is verging on mechanical siezure) producing similar symptoms will of course not be magically fixed!

It is also equally important to consider the possible reasons for the condition and establish if any other remedial work is required to avoid the condition recurring within a short interval.
Hope that helps

Edit - relevant post from Bill (ibizacupra) on this one too - http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=346219

Muttley · Apr 19, 2012

It sounds very promising, aiming to fix both EGR-induced clogged inlet manifolds and sticky turbo vanes. Where can we get it from?

rsrich · Apr 19, 2012

Muttley said:
It sounds very promising, aiming to fix both EGR-induced clogged inlet manifolds and sticky turbo vanes. Where can we get it from?

Either try your local parts distributor or contact SP Diagnostics directly -
http://www.spdiagnostics.com/index.php/products/workshop/revive-turbo-cleaner

To avoid disappointment please be realistic about what the treatment is physically able to do - as described previously it is a surface acting material which doesn't dislodge large chunks of deposit, so you can visualise that it will not be capable of removing thickly encrusted inlet manifold deposits which you are perhaps envisaging.

Muttley · Apr 20, 2012

Fair comment. I'm expecting it to act mainly on the inlet manifold, as it will only have been through the turbocompressor at that point, and should still be intact. I'd not expect a surfactant to remove large chunks unless they were poorly attached.

I have to say I will be interested to see what effect it can have on the turbo VNT mechanism, as this is in the exhaust flow, so the surfactant will have been through the combustion chamber. Is it formulated to survive into the exhaust?

Jet engines have a tendency to burn very hot and not deposit much soot after the burners. Power station turbines are almost all steam turbines, where you'd be trying to clean off scale from the water. Neither of these translate directly into effectiveness in turbo-diesels, although the marine engines obviously do.

Seatmann · Apr 20, 2012

BenG said:
Ok Cheers. I'd rather do the job properly by getting the EGR and inlet manifold off, but I tried and failed to remove the EGR....

Whay can't you get the egr off? What lump is in your car?

BenG · Apr 20, 2012

It's the 1.9TDI. I tried and failed to get the EGR valve off as I couldn't reach one of the two bolts attaching the exhaust gas inlet pipe flange to the base of the valve - it was too close to the cam cover to give any access for undoing the bolt.

BenG · Apr 20, 2012

rsrich said:
I have personally used it on a fair range of vehicles with a variety of issues
To be fair I'll be up front and disclose I have been involved from the start introducing the fluid to the automotive specific market. (It was developed originally for cleaning turbines in jet engines and power station turbine generators, as well as adopting for large marine turbo diesel engines, so has plenty of history in high-value markets that need it to work.)

But seriously, I'll avoid trying to sell it and give my personal experience of how it works - I have done for example a number of VAG group models (A6, Golf, Beetle, Octavia), Ford Mondeos of various versions, Mercedes A-class, Vauxhall Astras to name the ones that come to mind, all diesel turbos. The cars had a variety of issues from vague driveablity problems, with hesitations and slugish performance, through to hard faults due to sticking turbo vanes causing overboost and limp mode as soon as any load is applied. In every case the owners have reported at minimum, significant improvement and in most cases a transformation of driveability and power back to how it should be, and often reduction of exhaust smoke and potential fuel economy improvements.

Application is straightforward and involves introducing the fluid into the air intake (after the MAF sensor) as a fine spray in three stages at various rpms as described in the instructions supplied with the bottle. Whilst not actively marketed to individual public end users, it is available to garages and "enthusiasts".

To briefly explain how the material works - it is a water-based non-toxic material with a "surfactant" active ingredient. This works by the molecules attaching themselves to oily/carbon deposits in the air path (ie turbo compressor, intercooler, valves, possible EGR and exhaust turbine components) and then releasing them as tiny particles into the airstream, thereby stripping the deposits in thin layers deliberatley avoiding large chunks of material being dislodged and causing subsequent damage or blockage. (remember the jet turbines? they can't afford to have damaging particles passing through) There is no solvent as such in the material, and is not intended to "soak clean"

A significant number of units have been distributed since launch and feedback has been enthusiastic to say the least. It is important of course to diagnose the problem correctly in the first instance to be due to carbon/oil fouling for the treatment to be effective. Mechanical or electronic issues (including severe clogging which is verging on mechanical siezure) producing similar symptoms will of course not be magically fixed! It is also equally important to consider the possible reasons for the condition and establish if any other remedial work is required to avoid the condition recurring within a short interval.
Hope that helps

Edit - relevant post from Bill (ibizacupra) on this one too - http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=346219

Thanks for the comments. Can I take it then that this product would not be of use in shifting the thick encrusted oily carbon deposits in an EGR valve / inlet manifold?

Also, does it work post combustion, in the turbo turbine?

Cheers,

Ben

rsrich · Apr 20, 2012

The original jet and more so the power generation turbine (gas turbines predominantly) markets are VERY sensitive to operating efficiency which directly affects fuel useage. Power generation consider a cleaning cycle at 1-2% drop in efficiency which then results in a return to normal, a variation which they can measure and monitor online. In this case a large proportion of the cleaning action is on the compressor blades.
The automotive and marine diesel formulation of the fluid is a variation of the original turbine product.
Fluid reaches the exhaust turbine and VNT mechanisms in its raw state by passing through the engine during the valve overlap period.
The VNT mechanism is largely responsible for a lot of boost and driveability/response problems, as a result of becoming contaminated with oil and carbon, this can initially make the mechanism (and hence boost control) sluggish and ultimately mechanically bind up leading to loss of boost control and under/over-boost fault codes set. Due to the relatively delicate nature of the vane components, we are not talking about huge amounts of contamination to cause a problem.

Seatmann · Apr 20, 2012

BenG said:
It's the 1.9TDI. I tried and failed to get the EGR valve off as I couldn't reach one of the two bolts attaching the exhaust gas inlet pipe flange to the base of the valve - it was too close to the cam cover to give any access for undoing the bolt.

PD or non PD? What's the actual engine code? I'm just asking because I'm not that far away and might be able to assist.

Nam-uk · Apr 21, 2012

A true gent Seatmann [B)]

Seatmann · Apr 21, 2012

Nam-uk said:
A true gent Seatmann

Why thank you kind sir :thanks:

dsj20v · Apr 29, 2012

if inlet/ egr/ turbo is off what is the best product to use to remove the crud

Seatmann · Apr 29, 2012

Mr muscle oven cleaner is supposed to be pretty good, are you stripping the turbo to do it?

http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/500/Drivbiwire_VNT_repair_procedure_small.pdf

Nam-uk · Apr 30, 2012

Wynns EGR clean i used that when i did my EGR, make sure you wear gloves though if you do get it, it melts the carbon into liquid it is like carb cleaner but 100 times more concentrated/powerfull.

Seatmann · Apr 30, 2012

Nam-uk said:
Wynns EGR clean i used that when i did my EGR, make sure you wear gloves though if you do get it, it melts the carbon into liquid it is like carb cleaner but 100 times more concentrated/powerfull.

Rebadged oven cleaner?

Revive turbo cleaner - Anyone used it?

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