Berryman's piston soak directions:
Yes and no. Berryman B-12 CHEMTOOL FUEL INJECTOR CLEANER (part #0116 and part #0121) can be used as a piston soak to help free stuck compression rings. Once you’ve removed the spark plugs, be sure to add enough cleaner to cover the entire piston crown with cleaner. With inline motors with vertical strokes (like most 4 cylinders and straight 6s), this may only be 2 fl oz of B-12 CHEMTOOL per cylinder, but with V-configured motors (like V6s or V8s), you might need a whole can per cylinder due to the angle of the pistons and diameter of the bore. If you have a V motor and don’t mind doing this in “chunks,” you can jack up one side of the vehicle in order to decease the angle of the pistons. This might cut the amount of product down quite a bit over the course of the whole job.
To perform the soak remove the spark plugs, add to the COLD combustion chambers enough B-12 CHEMTOOL to cover the entire piston crown, and put the spark plug back in a couple threads in order to prevent evaporation of the solvents. Regarding duration, we recommend soaking the pistons for at least 1-2 hours apiece. The process will benefit from a little agitation, so if you can safely rock the vehicle from side to side occasionally, that will improve your results. Obviously, you’ll want to be careful doing this if the car is on a jack or jack stands.
Once you’ve decided to end the soak, the cylinder will need to be evacuated of the cleaner/carbon mixture. You can do this any number of ways including with a vacuum pump or turkey baster. Note that B-12 CHEMTOOL will damage most automotive paint and clear coats, though, so be cautious around such finishes.
If you have leakdown less than about 8 to 10 o 12 fl oz, you can leave that in the oil and it will help with stuck oil control rings. Just start the vehicle and let it idle for 5-10 minutes. Once it cools down enough to safely work with, you can do the change. If you have quite a bit of leakdown, it would be best to go ahead and change the oil at that time out of an abundance of caution in order to avoid thinning it out too much and causing premature wear. If this is the case—if you have too much leakdown and have to change the oil—you can still add B-12 CHEMTOOL to the crankcase in order to address the stuck bottom rings with a flush.
To do this type of flush, add to the COLD engine oil 1½-2 fl oz of B-12 CHEMTOOL per quart of oil capacity. For example, if your oil capacity is 5 quarts, you would add 7½-10 fl oz to the cold oil. Then start the vehicle and let it idle for 5-10 minutes. At this point, all the cleaner will have evaporated. If the oil isn’t too dirty, then there’s no need to change it. However, if the oil picked up quite a bit of color from sludge, you should go ahead change it (again). Note that you can perform multiple soaks before changing the oil if you think that oil control ring needs quite a bit of attention. Just make sure the oil has a chance to completely cool down each time.
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