Fix Blow-by Without Rebuilding the Engine

Blow-by has two distinct causes, and each requires a different product to fix. FTC Decarbonizer handles the heavily-carboned compression rings and glazed cylinders. Flushing Oil Concentrate handles the blocked oil control rings. Here's what each one does and why both are needed.

FTC Decarbonizer — Compression Rings…
Carbon from incomplete or inefficient combustion accumulates in the grooves that locate the compression rings on the piston. It hardens over time and cements the rings in place. When that happens, two things fail simultaneously: the rings can no longer expand outward under their inherent spring tension, and combustion chamber pressure can no longer get in behind the rings to force them tightly against the cylinder wall during the compression and power strokes. Both ring-to-cylinder wall sealing actions are diminished at once. Blow-by is the result.

FTC Decarbonizer is added to the fuel tank. As it catalytically enhances the fuel combustion process, it lowers the combustion temperature of carbon deposits, causing them to oxidize and burn off during normal engine operation. In the combustion chamber, FTC Decarbonizer works on the compression rings, in the compression ring grooves, and on the cylinder walls. As deposits burn off the ring grooves, the compression rings recover their ability to expand and combustion pressure gets in behind them again, ensuring a tight seal against the cylinder wall.

… and Cylinder Walls
At the same time, FTC Decarbonizer burns off the carbon that has built up on the crosshatch micro-grooves machined into the cylinder wall. Those micro-grooves hold the engine oil that helps compression rings seal correctly. When carbon fills the grooves and is polished smooth — creating cylinder glaze — the oil cannot be retained on the cylinder wall and the ring-to-wall sealing effect is significantly reduced. FTC Decarbonizer restores the integrity of the micro-grooves along with the compression rings.

FTC Decarbonizer works in the combustion chamber. It does not address the oil control ring or the sludge buildup associated with it.

Flushing Oil Concentrate — Oil Control Ring and Lubrication System
The lower ring on each piston has a separate job from the compression rings. Its job is to control the amount of oil on the cylinder wall, scraping excess oil off and draining it back into the sump through slots in the piston. This leaves just enough oil in the crosshatch micro-grooves to not just provide adequate lubrication and cooling, but also, very importantly, to help the compression rings seal. When engine sludge blocks the oil control ring's drainage segments, it can no longer do its job. Too much oil stays on the wall, gets past the compression rings into the combustion chamber, burns, and creates more carbon and soot. That soot circulates back into the oil and accelerates sludge buildup further.

Flushing Oil Concentrate is a highly concentrated blend of premium detergents and dispersants that safely and effectively dissolves and suspends the sludge blocking the oil control ring's drainage segments. Added to the engine oil before an oil change, it works throughout the entire lubrication system, dissolving sludge wherever it has accumulated. The dissolved and suspended sludge drains out with the old oil during the oil change.

Flushing Oil Concentrate works below the compression rings. It does not address carbon deposits in the compression ring grooves or on the cylinder walls — that is FTC Decarbonizer's job. They address different components using different processes. Both are needed to ensure engine blow-by is dealt with adequately.