Cleaning black death method

So I bought a van from a unfortunate guy that didn't realize what he was getting into.

2005 had some of the worst carbon buildup I've ever seen. It's lava'd out the side of the injector cap cover so much that every glow plug is even covered in it.

So I went to a restaurant supply store and bought a $50 can of paint on carbon off (don't breathe this stuff!)

I've been warming up the van, painting it with carbon off, and letting it saturate overnight. In the morning I run the van and pressure wash the head and any carbon I can see with it still running. After I get whatever soft stuff the carbon off has loosened, I blow out the excess water off of the head with my air compressor and repaint more carbon off onto the head.

So far it's been working great for me. Maybe someone more experienced than me can tell me why this isn't a good method, but so far for me it beats chiseling hard carbon in a tight area, and it's removed the vast majority of the carbon. As well as I'm able to get into tight areas with the concentrated spray.

Pics
https://photos.app.goo.gl/pjL14SuQoB8vk4yt9

You are doing great.
You might want to contemplate buying some BG Throttle Body cleaner which will dissolve the remaining carbon and reduce it to a slurry.
I then simply blast it off with a shop line ready for a clean up with another pass of the aerosol spray .

When you are ready get it stinking hot and go for an injector removal!
Let the fun begin.
Dennis

I have a question: what causes that?

Bob,
"Black Death" is caused by leaking fuel injector seals.
Over time, and particularly if the engine has been overheated,
the threads that secure the injector hold down "claw' relax slightly
and the copper crush washer/seal at the interface between the bottom of
the injector (the seat) and the seat in the aluminum cylinder head begins
to leak combustion chamber gases (high pressure/high temperature as it's
diesel fuel exploding in the combustion chamber in the cylinder head and
the dish in the top of the piston) + combustion by products.
This forms a black lava like almost crystalline slag in the area around the
injector seal (s).
If let go long enough, it can fill the entire area between the camshaft galleries.
Some folks "chip it out" with tools and scrapers, often damaging the surrounding
surfaces/HP fuel rail/lines/etc. in the cylinder head.
The use of chemicals (haz mat for sure) to break down/melt down the black slag
then wash/pressure wash/clean everything back to the original surfaces seems
a safer/better way to do it. Oven cleaner has been tried, but the BG product
Dennis recommends is probably much more efficient breaking down the slag.
Then the injectors need to be removed, tested or replaced (replaced is much better),
the seal seats in there cylinder head inspected/touched up/lightly machined
to a fully flat smooth sealing surface, the injector hold down claws inspected
and replaced as required, the threads in the cylinder head for the hold down
claw bolts cleaned/retapped/repaired with TimeSert inserts if damaged.
Then the new/retested injectors are installed with new copper crush seals,
and the special torque to yield bolts (always replaced as they are one use
only) installed and torqued to spec, then an additional angular tightening
to the full yield.
It's quite a process, but once the seals leak, it only can get worse and
eventually you will lose compression on any cylinders that are leaking.
Getting the injectors out, without damage to the injector....aluminum
cylinder head....the cam gallery covers is almost an art form if you
want to do it correctly and with minimal damage that has to be repaired
before the new injectors are installed.
Hope this helps,
Roger

DAMN!!! is that
https://photos.app.goo.gl/pjL14SuQoB8vk4yt9
fugly or what!

anybody ever bother to even look under the hood?

with all that 'lava' i'd be very concerned about the prev operators maintenance routines (and lack there of)
since if they let all that crap pile up, just imagine how infrequently they changed the oil (IF they even bothered)
it might be cheaper/easier to 'quit while yer ahead' ?

Bobnoxious said:

I have a question: what causes that?

Click to expand...

Bob
In short several causes are prominent apart from careless assembly & prep techniques prior to the failure.
Here are the most common.
1) The hold down bolt torque has been revised.
2) Engine overheating causes heat mechanical distress on the sealing copper washer which eventfully blows, In turn causes mechanical distress as in example#1)
3 Worn out injectors causing localized engine overheat and the same conditions as in #2.

Doing such a black death job, life/serviceability of the injectors should always be taken into account if the engine done more than 250,000 miles. in about 80% of all jobs completed I find the injectors at this mileage are shot.

The same goes for cooling system servicing!
The whole system should be flushed, cleaned, and major components checked/replaced at 100,000 mile intervals to avoid such circumstances.
Dennis

so den...
i've got 266k on mine, but when i was over to your place to have you check out my systems in dec2016,
all seemed to be ok (at that moment) eh?
all still seems to be going good currently (esp after R&R of the engine harness, BIG MAHALOS for your various recs for that)
what you think, should be OK til spring? (maybe 6k more miles)

Oh yeh
If it ain't broke don't fix it!
Dennis

Wow, yes you are doing great. That might be one of the worst cases I've seen outside of google search pictures. I would reinforce Dennis' recommendation of the BG Throttle cleaner, that is what I used and it works very well.

There is a thread, or a few, on here about the injector seal replacement and if you've come this far, that is your next step. I hesitantly did the engine running and rev it up to pop an injector out, no removal tools. Yes, it is sort of anti intuitive, but it works. I found the black goo so sticky that on one injector I had to remove the hold down bolt entirely for the injector free up, the black goo was so thick and sticky that is kept if from unseating. I did not find it all that difficult, just messy but you already know that. Good luck.

Update, my diesel return line off the injectors was extremely brittle and as I was warming the engine for removing the injectors I realized that we were leaking a lot of fuel. The return line had several splits, so I decided replace it, I've got one in my parts stock. Upon removal the tips of the return lines sheered off inside the injectors, I fished them out with needlenose pliers.

All 5 removed. Came out in about 2 hours without breaking anything. Gentle, correct tools, and patience is the key. Used some ZEP 45 for penatrating oil. Now we're cleaning out the wells and re cutting the seats.

I'm going to take all the injectors to a tester to have them all tested, if I'm doing all the work to remove these correctly I don't want to skimp and put a bad injector back in.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gqNT5BeRj3KSwnLUA

Holy cow man, that injector seal! I am so impressed with how well you've been able to clean this thing up. Not that you need the praise, but you're doing a damn good job so far. Fingers crossed that all your injectors pass the bench test, be sure to let us know how that goes.

Out of curiosity, how many miles were on the van when you bought it?

Question: will BG throttle cleaner melt plastic connectors?

Bobnoxious said:

Question: will BG throttle cleaner melt plastic connectors?

Click to expand...

NO!
Dennis

Brake cleaner dissolved the bit of black death I had. It also dissolved the soft rubber sleeves on the wiring! (not the plastic sheathing of the wire, but the loose sleeves on the outside)
If you choose to use brake cleaner, protect the rubber on the wiring with foil, or remove.

I'm amazed at the results the OP has achieved with that product. In doing my own black death repairs I tested a variety of compounds and found that Acetone and throttle body cleaner were the best, it will literally dissolve BD in front of your eyes. (I posted the complete list somewhere in another BD thread) As it turns out acetone is also one of the key components in throttle body cleaner (at least the brand I tested). It can be a problem with some plastics but I didn't have any problem using it lightly on the hard plastic surfaces of the injectors themselves, but took care not to get it on everything else in the engine compartment.

So update.

It's all put back together but I can't get the engine to start. Just cranks.

In the morning I'm going to check fuel rail pressure. Any other ideas? Some of the electrical connectors have been hard to seat. I was reading that on the 03's om612 if a injector circuit is found open it will cause a no start. Is this the same for the om647 on this 05?

Any other ideas. Gonna check a few things in the morning.

Double check the connectors. Any air in the clear fuel lines? Check it for codes if those don't pan out.

So far no dice. Hmmm.

The HP lines will take a bit (10 seconds?) to reprime when you remove an injector;
The engine won’t fire without cam and crank sensor signals.
Given the history, I’d check the cam sensor and injector wiring.

-dave

Nautamaran said:

The HP lines will take a bit (10 seconds?) to reprime when you remove an injector;
The engine won’t fire without cam and crank sensor signals.
Given the history, I’d check the cam sensor and injector wiring.

-dave

Click to expand...

Yeah the wiring seems to be okay. I'm getting 5v with the ignition on from the wire at the plug for the camshaft.

I'm thinking it's probably the camshaft sensor wiring, but I can't see anything wrong with it.

I've bled the rail and I've got around 5000psi fuel rail pressure while cranking.