Information
-
Patent Grant
-
6557517
-
Patent Number
6,557,517
-
Date Filed
Friday, September 14, 200122 years ago
-
Date Issued
Tuesday, May 6, 200321 years ago
-
Inventors
-
-
Examiners
- Yuen; Henry C.
- Benton; Jason
Agents
- Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.
-
CPC
-
US Classifications
Field of Search
-
International Classifications
-
Abstract
A device for and method of decarboning a combustion chamber and compression rings in an internal combustion engine. The device is a squid shaped container with a cylindrical body, a screw cap, and conduits depending from the body for transmitting cleaner to the combustion chambers on the engine. Once cleaner is transmitted to the combustion chambers, the engine is bumped to work the fluid into the compression rings. When the engine is bumped, the device allows the cleaner to be vented to the device to avoid hydrolocking the engine. The device also contains the cleaner so that it is not splashed outside the engine.
Description
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not applicable.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the decarboning of the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine using a liquid cleaner. More specifically, the present invention relates to the cleaning of the compression rings on the piston associated with the combustion chamber.
The typical internal combustion engine has at least one combustion chamber associated with a piston. On the piston are a pair of compression rings. The compression rings serve to prevent the escape of gases from the chamber around the sides of the piston during the compression stroke of the engine.
The only known method of effectively cleaning compression rings is to overhaul the engine. Overhauling involves dismantling the engine, cleaning any carbon coated parts, putting in new rings, and then reassembling. It is extremely costly and time consuming. Further, some modem engines (i.e., the Cadillac Northstar®) cannot be overhauled because of the way they are constructed. Because they cannot be overhauled, carbon buildup on the compression rings in these kinds of engines is a major concern. If the buildup on the rings becomes so great that compression within the combustion chamber unacceptable, the engine must be replaced. This has resulted in these modern engines earning the nickname “throw-away engines.”
Even though overhauling is the only effective prior art method for cleaning the compression rings, liquid cleaners have been used to clean combustion chambers in the past. One such method involves manually pouring an alcohol based cleaner into the combustion chamber after removing the spark plug and leaving the spark plug hole open.
This method has two disadvantages. First, alcohol based products tend to cause the carbon deposits to break off rather than dissolve. When carbon deposits break off between the piston rings, they become trapped. These trapped particles can cause engine problems.
Second, the open spark plug hole does not allow the user to activate the pistons during the cleaning to work the cleaner into and between the compression rings in an effective manner. If the user were to activate the pistons under this prior art method, the cleaner would splash out of the open spark plug hole. Splashed engine cleaners can eat away at external parts of the engine causing irreparable damage. Splash can be prevented by capping the spark plug hole after the cleaner has been poured in. However, capping the hole also precludes the mechanic from activating the pistons while cleaner is in the chamber. The cleaner can become trapped when the piston is in the upper range of its motion in the chamber because it cannot escape out the spark plug hole. The trapped fluid is not compressible (as is air), so the back pressure resists the movement of the piston so that the engine will not turn over. This is called “hydrolocking.” Hydrolocking an engine can cause tremendous damage to the engine's pistons and rods.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a clean and simple method of inducing and maintaining cleaner in the combustion chamber during the cleaning process and an apparatus for enabling such.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a way of maintaining cleaning fluid in the combustion chamber at the same time as activating the piston that prevents fluid from being spilled onto other engine components or hydrolocking the engine.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a pressurized blowout procedure whereby fluid is forced through the exhaust system of the vehicle after cleaning by way of the application of pressurized air.
These objectives are accomplished using a new device. The device resembles and is hereinafter referred to as a “squid.” The squid has a cylindrical body with sub-cavities into which cleaner is poured. Each sub-cavity is associated with a conduit which is used to deliver the cleaner to a particular combustion chamber in an engine. Each conduit is connected to an adapter that screws into the engine block of the vehicle being serviced. The adapters are easily screwed into the spark plug opening in the combustion chamber after removing the spark plug.
The squid enables the user to clean the compression rings of the piston without overhauling the engine. Clean piston rings are essential for maintaining ideal compression ratios within the combustion chamber. The loss of compression within the combustion chamber is caused by a principle called blow-by. The build up of carbon deposits on the compression rings can cause these rings to not sit flush against the cylinder walls. This creates small gaps between the compression ring and the cylinder wall. These gaps cause the compressed air in the combustion chamber to inappropriately blow past the compression rings downwardly past the piston. This lowers engine compression ratios. Poor compression ratios can greatly reduce performance, increase harmful emissions and even completely disable an engine. Also, engine oil can enter the combustion chamber where it is burned and consumed, creating more deposits and increasing engine oil consumption.
The present invention is the only known solution to blow-by problems in a combustion chamber without overhauling the engine.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings form part of the specification and are to read in conjunction therewith. Reference numerals are used to indicate like parts in the various figures:
FIG. 1
is a fragmented perspective view of the squid in use on a vehicle with an eight-cylinder engine;
FIG. 2
is a cross-sectional view at section
2
—
2
in
FIG. 1
from above;
FIG. 3
is an exploded cross-sectional view at section
3
—
3
in FIG.
2
and also depicting the adaptor of the present invention; and
FIG. 4
shows a combustion chamber arrangement within a typical internal combustion engine with an adapter attached.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The present invention solves the prior art problems noted above by creating a cleaning fluid distributing and maintaining squid
10
shown in FIG.'s
1
-
3
. The more general aspects of the invention can be observed in FIG.
1
. The squid ring decarbonater
10
has four primary components: (i) a screw cap
12
, (ii) a cylindrical body
14
, (iii) a plurality of conduits
16
, and (iv) a plurality of spark plug adaptors
18
. Adaptors
18
are used to deliver cleaning fluid to an internal combustion engine
20
(see FIG.
4
).
A suspension hook
22
is used to hang squid
10
from the open hood of the vehicle being serviced (not pictured) and is connected to body
14
by a bracket
23
.
Body
14
is sealed at its upper end when screw cap
12
is screwed on. Screw cap
12
is used to seal off the top of body
14
. The specific details of cap
12
can best be seen in FIG.
3
.
FIG. 3
shows that pressurized air can be delivered through cap
12
into the cylindrical body
14
by way of a cylindrical bore
24
. A snap-on connector
26
is used to connect to a pressurized air hose
28
. When connected, pressurized air travels from the pressurized air hose
28
through the snap on connector
26
through an elbow
30
down through the bore
24
and into body
14
. Cap
12
is secured by engaging a set of male threads
32
on cap
12
with a set of female threads
34
on body
14
.
As can be seen in FIG.'s
2
and
3
, body
14
is bored out to create a main cylinder cavity
36
. Bored out below main cylinder cavity
36
are a plurality of sub-cavities
38
which receive and hold cleaning fluid. Also part of body
14
are a plurality of threaded openings
40
which are used to receive mating threads
44
on each of a plurality of conduits
16
.
These conduits
16
are valved. The valves
42
on each conduit
16
have upper threads
44
and lower threads
46
. Each valve
42
is opened or shut using a valve control lever
48
. The valves themselves
42
may be common ball valves or any other type of valve known in the art capable of optionally opening up or shutting off flow. The upper threads
44
are used to mesh with the threaded openings
40
on the bottom of the cylindrical body
14
to secure the conduit
16
thereto and permit flow into the conduit from the main body. The lower threads
46
on the valve are received by threads on a first threaded connector that is connected to a translucent tubing
52
. Translucent tubing
52
be constructed of nylon material capable of withstanding the chemicals transmitted through it. At the other end of the translucent tubing
52
is a second threaded connector
54
. The second threaded connector
54
is used to attach the spark plug adaptor
18
.
The spark plug adaptor
18
has a set of upper end threads
56
which are used to mate with the second threaded connector
54
of the conduit
16
. The adaptor
18
also has a set of header engaging threads
56
which are of the same pitch and size as the threads on an ordinary spark plug. The adaptor
18
is essentially a hollow tube which defines a metered compression rate controlling passageway
60
. Passageway
60
is used to control the compression rate through the adaptor
18
and conduit
16
during back flow of fluid through the system. This is done by boring passageway to a diameter that allows a limited amount of forced flow there through.
As can be seen in
FIG. 4
, the spark plug receiving threads
62
on the spark plug holes
70
on the vehicle's header
20
are used to receive header engaging threads
58
on the adaptor
18
. This connects the adaptor
18
to the header
62
allowing the passage of fluid into the engine's combustion chamber
64
. The combustion chamber
64
is sealed at its lower end by a piston head
66
. At the top of the combustion chamber
64
are intake
67
and exhaust
68
valves and spark plug opening
70
. The typical piston head
66
has a pair of compression rings
72
at its upper end which are used to compressibly seal off the combustion chamber
64
from below. A single oil ring
74
is used to seal off the combustion chamber from the seepage up of oil from below during suction stroke of engine
20
.
The squid decorboning process has four steps. First, squid
10
must be filled with cleaner. Second, squid
10
is used to transmit the cleaner from the squid to fill the combustion chambers on the vehicle being serviced. Third, the engine is “bumped” in order to work the cleaner the compression rings. Finally, the cleaner is blown out of the combustion chamber under pressure administered by the squid. Before beginning the decarboning process, engine
20
should be brought up to operating temperature (usually 195 to 200 degrees) so that the carbon deposits become softer. This makes them easier to be cleaned. It's also very important to disable the ignition coils to prevent electrical damage to the ignition system.
With respect to the first step of filling the squid, Cap
12
should be removed from the body
14
to expose main cavity
36
and eight sub-cavities
38
. The user should make sure that all of the valves
42
are closed. Next, each of the spark plugs on the engine
20
should be removed and replaced with adapters
18
. (See FIG.
4
). Adapters
18
are attached by screwing header engaging threads
58
into each threaded spark plug opening
70
for combustion chamber
64
on engine
20
. As can be seen in
FIG. 3
, conduits
16
should then be secured to the conduit end threads
56
on each of the adaptors
18
that have been secured to the engine
20
. It is apparent that with engines with fewer than eight cylinders, some conduits
16
will be left over after all of the adaptors
18
have been hooked up to a conduit
16
. These left over conduits
16
will remain idle during the cleaning process. As can best be seen from
FIG. 3
, each conduit
16
is associated with a particular sub-cavity
38
. Next, sub-cavities
38
should be filled with cleaner.
The preferred cleaner of the present invention is a solvent offered by BG Products, Inc. located in Wichita, Kans. and sold under the name BG 211 Induction System Cleaning, BG Part 211. The composition of the solvent is readily ascertainable from the label of the product. This solvent is preferred over the alcohol based solvents used in the prior art methods described above because it dissolves the carbon particles rather than breaking them off. As described in the background section above, carbon particles can be problematic when they are trapped between the compression rings of a piston. While this BG 211 solvent is the preferred solvent of the system, it is to be understood that other solvents capable of dissolving carbon deposits may also be used and are within the scope of the present invention.
Only the sub-cavities
38
that are associated with attached conduits
16
should be filled. The sub-cavities
38
that are associated with idle conduits
16
should not. After filling the appropriate sub-cavities
38
, cap
12
should be screwed on to body
14
. The hood of the vehicle to be serviced (not pictured) should be opened up and suspension hook
22
used to hang the squid
10
from the hood. The underside of a typical car hood has an opening near the hood latch that can be used to receive the hook
22
. Once hung, squid
10
is ready to fill the combustion chambers with cleaner.
To fill the combustion chambers with cleaner, the valve control levers
48
on each of the hooked up conduits
16
should be turned to open position. This means that for an eight cylinder engines all eight will be opened up. However, for a smaller engine, such as a four-cylinder, only four of the valves would be opened up and the remaining four would remain closed. Once the appropriate valves
42
have been opened up, the cleaning solution will run down the conduits
16
through the metered compression rate controlling passageway
60
into the combustion chamber
64
of the engine
20
. The valves
42
should remain open during the steps that follow.
The third step involves bumping the engine. Bumping means that the user will briefly turn the ignition starter so that the pistons move up and down only a couple of inches. Since the cleaner is now in the combustion chambers
64
, the cleaner will be massaged into the rings. This bumping process is impossible with any of the prior art methods. As explained in the background section, the prior art methods involved either capping or uncapping opening
70
. Capping opening
70
while bumping the engine
20
results in hydrolocking the engine when the piston is in its up-stroke. Leaving opening
70
uncapped while bumping causes cleaner to spew out chamber
64
onto outside engine components causing them to decompose if they are susceptible to the harsh chemicals in most cleaners.
These prior art dilemmas have been overcome by the squid
10
. When the piston is in its up-stroke, squid
10
allows the cleaner to be vented up into the metered portion
60
of the adaptor
18
(see
FIG. 3
) and through the conduit
16
back up into the body
14
. The metered section
60
of the adaptor
18
serves to control the pressurization rate of the fluid such that it can be safely delivered through the conduit
16
up into its respective sub-cavity
38
. The squid acts as a vent releasing the cleaner from the combustion chamber, while at the same time safely containing it. This prevents any damage to the piston or rods that could be caused by hydrolocking the engine.
On the down-stroke of piston
66
, however, the fluid will be drawn back down out of the sub-cavity
38
through the conduit
16
into adaptor
18
and back into chamber
64
. The cleaner moves in and out of the chamber
64
consonant with piston
66
position during bumping.
The bumping process works cleaner into the compression rings
72
thoroughly. This causes the carbon deposits on rings
72
to dissolve into the cleaner. The engine
20
should be bumped several times for optimal results. The user should ideally wait 15 minutes between each bumping in order to allow the cleaner to gradually dissolve the carbon deposits on the compression rings
72
. After the bumping process has been repeated every 15 minutes for the desired amount of time (usually 2 hours), it is time to blow out the cleaner.
The blowing out process is accomplished by attaching a pressurized air source
28
onto snap on connector
26
. Engine
20
should then be turned over continuously for 30 to 60 seconds while user observes the translucent tubes
52
for the presence of cleaner. The pressurized air from the hose
28
forces the cleaner from the sub-cavities
38
down through conduits
16
through adaptors
18
into combustion chambers
64
and then out the exhaust valves
68
of the engine
20
and then out the vehicle's exhaust system. Once tubes
52
are clear of cleaner, the user should continue turning the engine under pressure over for another 15 seconds. The pressure should be turned off. This completes the blow out process.
The valves
42
that were opened should now be closed, and adaptors
18
unscrewed and removed from spark plug holes
70
. New spark plugs should then be screwed into spark plug holes
70
. The disconnected ignition coils should also be reconnected. It is also important to note that the engine oil system should be chemically flushed within one hour of the completion of the squid service. This is done to remove any chemical and/or carbon deposits that may have reached the oil pan below the cleaned piston. The vehicle should never be allowed to sit overnight before performing such an oil flush because any cleaner within the fluid can damage components of the engine.
The removal of carbon deposits from the compression rings restores compression to the cylinders lost due to the buildup of carbon deposits. The effectiveness of compression restoration can be determined by performing a compression check on each cylinder after the cleaning. Besides the compression rings, the squid service also removes carbon deposits from the combustion chamber and valves. Oil ring
74
has been cleanable under prior art methods of power flushing oil systems. However, the squid of the present invention enables the cleaning of compression rings
72
without completely overhauling the engine—an impossibility prior to the present invention. The fact that oil ring
74
could be cleaned by prior art methods was of little significance before this invention because such cleaning would not improve engine performance because of the unremovable buildup carbon deposits on the compression rings. Now that compression rings
72
can be cleaned along with the oil ring
74
, combined cleaning restores overall compression in the combustion chamber
64
with unprecedented effectiveness. This makes squid
10
an important tool in overcoming compression problems caused by carbon deposits on compression rings. This is especially true for modem engines such as the Ford Northstar® that cannot be overhauled. The squid essentially saves the mechanic from having to throw out the engine when carbon deposits cause compression ratios to become unacceptably poor. Now the mechanic can restore compression by merely servicing the engine with cleaner.
Though the present invention has been described herein with reference to particular embodiments, a latitude of modification, various changes, and substitutions are intended in this disclosure, and it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that in some instances some features of the invention will be employed without a corresponding use of other features without department from the scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
Claims
- 1. A combustion chamber cleaning fluid distributor comprising:a body defining a cavity therein for receiving the cleaning fluid; at least one conduit having first and second ends wherein the first end is fluidly connected to a lower portion of the cavity and the second end is fluidly connectable to at least one combustion chamber on an engine; and a suspension hook mounted thereon.
- 2. A combustion chamber cleaning fluid distributor comprising:a body defining a cavity therein for receiving the cleaning fluid; and a plurality of conduits each having first and second ends, each conduit fluidly connected to said sub-cavaties; each of said first ends being fluidly connectable to a lower portion of said cavity and each of said second ends being fluidly connectable to a combustion chamber on an engine; wherein each cavity has sub-cavities.
- 3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein each sub-cavity is fluidly connected to a particular conduit.
- 4. A method of decarboning the compression rings on a piston in an internal combustion engine using cleaning fluid comprising:providing and holding cleaning fluid in a container; fluidly connecting the container with one or more combustion chambers on the engine; introducing cleaning fluid into the combustion chamber from the container for the purpose of cleaning the compression rings; and temporarily activating the piston in order to work the cleaner into the compression rings.
- 5. The method of claim 4 including the additional step ofallowing the flow of cleaning fluid back to the body from the combustion chamber to avoid hydrolocking the engine.
- 6. The method of claim 5 including the additional step ofcontrolling the rate of flow back to the body by passing the fluid through a particular bore diameter.
- 7. A method of decarboning the compression rings on a piston in an internal combustion engine using cleaning fluid comprising:providing and holding cleaning fluid in a container; fluidly connecting the container with one or more combustion chambers on the engine; introducing cleaning fluid into the combustion chamber from the container for the purpose of cleaning the compression ring; and blowing the fluid out the exhaust valve of each connected combustion chamber by introducing air pressure.
US Referenced Citations (9)