I'm not talking about before and after results at all having anything to do with the tune.. i'm talking about Carbon build up... Depending on your set up and tune..spark plugs, mantenance etc will have an affect on how much carbon build up in your motor. If you have a higher hp built motor and your tune is not so street friendly.. you may end up benefiting much more from a steam clean than say a stock motor on a base map with low miles.

I actually have an AEM water meth injection kit on my car... but either way the injection is to cool your intake temp....not ment to fully steam your motor...it does help a lot in the long run. My remarkable results could also be due to poor maintenance by the previous owner as well. Not everyone takes care of their FD's like they should. And again AI injection is far different from steam cleaning.... it's not like people would run around with gallons of water hooked up to their UIM's.

I think the best thing about this, and the reason you get good compression increases is because of the crap that builds up down in the seal's springs.

I've taken engines apart and the seals had little or no flex in them due to carbon build up, sometimes you can even see the seal is lopsided because one end of the seal builds up more carbon than the other. I can only imagine what this does to the rotor housings due to uneven wear.

But then I'm not an expert so what do i know.

Quick bump.

Mannykiller, any updates on this?

Yes sir... Just had my intake mani semi-ported and decided to do a check on it while it was so easily accessible. Both housings still over 115 each:icon_tup: I'll be doing a steam clean with every other oil change for now on.

I'd like to add in my experience into this thread eventhough I used Seafoam instead of water.

Did a compression test on the engine this year since I was gonna go single turbo on it. My engine compression results when I first bought the car were 110 psi both rotors. A year later used Seafoam instead of water to clean out the rotors. Didn't have anyone to help me check the compression on the rotors at that time so I went ahead with my normal maintenance and didn't check. A year after the Seafoam clean did maintenence and checked my compression. 120+ psi on both rotors :bigeyes::bigeyes:. Did the compression test 3 times to each rotor just to make sure I wasn't just seeing things.

I think results vary depending on fuel set-up and tune but i'm a firm firm believer. My car idles better. revs better and just overall runs better.. smoother too.

just tried it a few days ago, seems smoother and idles better. a shit ton of white smoke (figured steam would vanish a few inches out of the exhuast) when I did it.. seems better. way to lazy to do 2 compression tests....

I've been doing the water thing for years on my rotarys. The steam also keeps the cat clean and clog free if you still have the stock exhaust. A cleaner cat perfect for those that have to emissions test.

I just did the water ingestion steam clean. A couple of things that I noticed....

It had been stated before that the cat would get really hot. Mine was damn near orange-yellow.

Does everybody have the same bright orange cat?

I had no visible steam, however I was in the car. I did video it and at playback I still did not see steam. I ran a 10' hose so I could drop the hose into the distilled water and keep the engine around 3000. I didn't have a buddy to help. In 3 1/2" minutes the car drank a 1/2 gallon. By that time I had a small amount of smoke coming from under the car. I shut it off immediately and moved the box fans I had running so they were directly under the cat which was cooking. I think the smoke was just coming from my wrapped/sprayed downpipe or maybe a little oil off the turbo but either way I got scared and quit.

How long did it take to ingest 1 gallon? Has anybody timed it? It took 3.5 minutes for a 1/2 gallon. Seemed slow to me.

Maybe there was no vapor because it's very hot and humid right now in San Antonio. If it were chilly I think I could have expected a cloud. I'm running an AEM water injection kit so I probably won't do this again, nor do I expect a large power increase. My compression readings earlier today after a warm up were 105-110 but my gauge has always read low compared to a buddys snap-on gauge.

it didnt take very long at all for me. i didnt notice the cat. how can you guys all see the cat? are you looking under your car? or can you see it over the turbo?

Speaking of emission tests, It appears to me that cleaning the engine with seafoam has the same result as cleaning the engine with water in that it will reduce/eliminate all carbon build up and probably help big time on a smog test AND build compression too??

I have a high idle issue I have to work out first, but I definitley need to get this done!

would anybody not recommend doing "steam cleaning" to a newly rebuilt motor thats broken in for about 1.5k miles even if the compression was great...

Steam cleaning seams to be a good idea, since usually the engine is driven under very light loads and it would clean some of the residue from the assembly lube/oil and the carbon build up from break in period? or is it to early to try this...

I wanted to know what oz. of Seafoam to gallon of petrol ratio you used . Their website doesnt have a ratio for rotory motors. Thanks.

Look under the car from the rear or from in front of the passenger rear wheel. I had it jacked up a little in the front because I was doing a compression test from below right before I did the water. That may have made it easier to see.

Make sure your floor can withstand the heat and I'd recommend fans blowing under the car just to move some of that heat out of there. I thought my undercoating or some other rubber was melting but when I looked all around after it cooled off I did not see any damage. This probably happens to everybody and maybe it's nothing to be worried about but the smoke and hot cat got me worried.

I would not recommend it at that point. Just get a water injection kit and drive it right.

Are you saying you added seafoam to the tank or actually let your car suck it up through the vac lines? That seems dangerous, isn't seafoam really flammable?

I just watched the video on a large screen, there was some visible steam, but it was over 90 outside so I think that is what kept it to a minimum.

I think the lower you can keep it revved the faster it would draw in the water. My car pulls the most vacuum at low engine speeds. I think thats probably obvious to most of us.

hmmmm

You know what we need is a official thread on actual compression numbers before and after the steam clean and on top of the thread a step by step how to.

I think that would be nice to know but I don't really trust the accuracy of many of the $50 compression gauges. Mine reads low compared to a friends snap-on and it's supposed to be a pretty good one. It would be helpful to see the increases between the before and after but the actual numbers could be +/- 10 psi in my opinion. I wish we all had easy access to a mazda compression tester.

Do you think this would be beneficial if I am about to pull the engine for a rebuild?
Do you think it would help out with the cleaning process since I am disassembling the engine? Or wouldn't it help much. I am going to be using a parts washer for the disassembly anyway.

it wouldn't matter as long as the same gauge is used in the pre and post. the instrument may not read correctly at baseline.. but if there is an increase it will show up. You just couldn't trust the numbers for compression reasons... but you could trust the increase.

Does that make sense? As long as the same gauge is used it wouldn't matter how accurate the compression numbers are. We're just looking for increases. If the compression gauge read 10 and then read 25, we know the compression isn't accurate but that there was evidence of an increase.

Yes it would be nice to know the total change for each person, regardless of whether their baseline number was accurate to begin with.

I just did this today. I did one gallon for each rotor housing. Car felt good afterward, but I can't say that there was any dramatic difference. I changed the oil afterwards and there was a ton of water in it, so I highly recommend an oil change after doing this.

I just did about 2/3 of a gallon yesterday through both nipples connected to a T. Reason why I stopped is due to the steam/smoke coming from the engine compartment (very little came out of the exhaust). Didn't do it when I first started and it wasn't too bad when I pulled the line out of the water, but I didn't want to take any chances. Anybody else have steam/smoke in the engine compartment when you did this?

Thanks!