so the metal is my car's engine - a horizontally opposed 6, that has some
air passages (supplementary air injection) that are clogged by carbon, which
causes the check engine light to come on - this is an emissions control only
issue, but it's annoying. There are two known procedures for fixing, one
involves removing the heads and cleaning them - this is VERY expensive, and
not all that sensible for a properly running engine. The other procedure
involves flushing some kind of magic compound through the passages using air
pressure and a lot of prayers. I've used this procedure with success, but
each time the interval between failure gets shorter because of course some
of the build up remains - I've made (there's metal content) special adapters
so I can put 160 PSI air where the low pressure blower air normally goes to
help pop out the blockage - this "kind of" works - but what would really
help is some magic goop that would attack the carbon, not eat the aluminum
heads, and not cause engine damage if some managed to work its way inside
the cylinders

So, any ideas? (I've used spray carb cleaner and fuel injector cleaner,
the former works a lot better than the latter) - I've tried wire probes
(access is quite limited), a micro rotor-rooter type thing I made from a
speedo cable, and other mechanical means - none worked worth a darn.

so, there is no politics, and it has a modest relationship to real metal
working, and someone may have an idea to help....

--
Bill
www.wbnoble.com