You’ll have to watch the video for the “advice” on this one. Will water help your engine?

The answer is just no on this one. Lets back up for a minute and talk about risks. Water (and any liquid) is what is called a non-compressible fluid. This means that as you apply large amounts of pressure, the volume only changes slightly. A gas on the other hand is a compressible fluid, meaning that if you apply large amounts of pressure, the volume will also change a lot. How is this relevant? A combustion engine works on the principle of compression, or increasing pressure in the combustion chamber. It accomplishes this by moving the piston up in the combustion chamber and reducing the volume. If a non-compressible fluid is present in the combustion chamber, with a fixed volume, the piston can’t move upwards. This can result in piston, bearing, rod, ring, and valve failure. Essentially the piston would be hitting a wall. In fact, in diesel engines, injector cups can fail allowing engine coolant into the compression chamber, which results in a hole blown through the piston. By injecting large amounts of water, you would essentially be doing the same thing. This video is what I would consider large amounts of water.

Also, injecting cold, undispersed water in your intake can also lead to thermal shock on your intake valves, piston, spark plug and injector tips. Remember, your intake valves are at 220+ degrees F, and that water is approximately 60 degrees. This can cause cracking and damage.

Valves stems and heads are thinner and more fragile than some think.

So does this even work? Actually maybe, but this is more of a wives tale, and it isn’t necessary anyway. A better option would be to drive at highway speeds for a long stretch, which allows the engine to come up to temp and burn off the carbon deposits. An even better option still is to replace your O2 sensors, air filter, spark plugs, wires and other worn out components that caused your engine to run rich and coke up to begin with. A failed CCV/PCV system can also cause excessive oil burning and coking. A computer controlled vehicle does not run rich when warmed up, and will not cause deposits in your engine. If you have this problem, then another problem caused it. Don’t just put in a garden hose in your engine to solve basic tune up issues.

Also, a basic byproduct of combustion is water. Water is produced in large quantities in your compression chamber every time you complete the power stroke. So adding more water is just more of the same. “Steam Cleaning” can remove carbon deposits, but I really don’t think its worth it on this one.

Think about this, fuel filters are specifically designed to block and separate water, especially in diesel engines. If this was a good idea, why would we go through all this trouble and cost to separate the water BEFORE it is injected into the engine?

The biggest travesty of this whole thing is that that is a Taurus SHO Yamaha Engine, one of the world’s best 6 years in a row. I wonder what other “good ideas” the owner has subjected that engine to. Good thing its a tough engine.

Tim @ Leftlanebrain