Carbon buildup on valves in GDI

[indiMjc]

Adding to this, No the L15 with DI will not have carbon build up on the intake valves like VW and other experience. Our engines actually spray fuel on the valve under certain conditions to prevent this. Honda has a cool animation of how this works here:

Nice, this is the kind of info I was looking for, thank you.

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[Benster]

I drove the car in -40C weather and this engine does warm itself up idling. It will even get to operating temps but it takes about 30 minutes at this temperature. Best way to prevent this in winter is to install a block heater and have it on a timer start about 2-3 hours before you get up and start the engine. It is then around 10C and warms up a lot faster. Gruber, I do agree with you on the warming up the engine for too long will cause more fuel to wash down the cylinders but the other side of this is if you drive it cold you actually increase wear a lot more on the engine so it's a two-sided knife.

 

[Gruber]

I drove the car in -40C weather and this engine does warm itself up idling. It will even get to operating temps but it takes about 30 minutes at this temperature. Best way to prevent this in winter is to install a block heater and have it on a timer start about 2-3 hours before you get up and start the engine. It is then around 10C and warms up a lot faster. Gruber, I do agree with you on the warming up the engine for too long will cause more fuel to wash down the cylinders but the other side of this is if you drive it cold you actually increase wear a lot more on the engine so it's a two-sided knife.

All true, I wouldn't drive completely cold, and yes, of course it will eventually warm up, but I call warming up in 30 minutes "not warming up." It will eventually warm up to the thermostat opening temperature (low 170's F). If it goes higher than that when driving in winter, it will start falling back down when stopped on a light. In the summer, the ECT may actually start increasing when idling at a traffic light.

And, I don't believe there is much difference (if any) in engine wear between idling and gentle driving once the coolant started getting warm (100 F). I used to drive around the parking lot to warm up faster (not this car) and to get the heat to clear the windows.

 

[indiMjc]

Oh I'm waming up my engine because oil dilution issue. Maybe not necessary for summer season but I think warming up is necessary for winter season.
I commented couple times before, but I feel like I'm unlucky guy. I used to have 2007 Scion TC which has 2.4 liter toyota engine known for Oil consumption. I needed to add 1qt oil every 1000 miles. Then i got 2018 Honda Civic Sport MT. I was telling myself do a lot of searching this time before buying a car. Then I ended up with Honda 1.5T engine which known for Carbon buildup and oil dilution issues. I mean I haven't notice any symptoms for these common issues. But people talking.
I watched couple videos, surfed on couple forums. People saying that almost every newer car has problems. Because companies trying to make reliable cars with small engine/high performance and same time they need to meet emission standard.
I don't blame companies, they need to meet some standards. But Honda has been doing really good engines. And they don't even accept there is oil dilution issue anyway who is keeping their cars for a long long time.. . I'm planning to keep my car for a while. Let's see if there will be carbon build up issues lol.

I think that one of the things that promotes oil dilution is excessive idling, which 10-15 mins seems to be. Also Honda has acknowledged oil dilution buy they say that some dilution is normal. Actually, if you go over to Google scholar (it's a search engine that only looks for research papers) you'll see the same. Oil dilution is just something that happens with direct injection. It actually isn't an issue with Honda specifically as much as it's a side effect of direct injection as a whole.

 

[Benster]

All true, I wouldn't drive completely cold, and yes, of course it will eventually warm up, but I call warming up in 30 minutes "not warming up." It will eventually warm up to the thermostat opening temperature (low 170's F). If it goes higher than that when driving in winter, it will start falling back down when stopped on a light. In the summer, the ECT may actually start increasing when idling at a traffic light.

And, I don't believe there is much difference (if any) in engine wear between idling and gentle driving once the coolant started getting warm (100 F). I used to drive around the parking lot to warm up faster (not this car) and to get the heat to clear the windows.

My previous car was a 2014 Corolla and that car took 20 min or normal driving at -20C to completely warm up on top of 10 min of idling so this car warms up quickly for me lol.

 

[Rugergeek72]

GDI carbon buildup only happens with irresponsible operation and ownership. Drive the car hard enough or, I don’t know, man up and take it to the track and this issue will be nonexistent.

The good old "Italian tune up".

 

[cryptolime]

If you do beat on the car a bit and plan to tune, I'd recommend 5w-30. I'm using AMSOIL myself and love the product. Even their cheapest oil is better than factory fill and I usually do 10k km on an oil change. It does smell of fuel at that point but the car usually shows 40-50% oil wear.

Reason for 5w-30 is that's what is recommended in Euro cars and lighter weight oil is ONLY used to give better fuel efficiency, even if it's about 0.01% better, car manufaturers do everything to keep above the fuel efficiency bar they have to make. 0W-20 is NOT good for engine longevity and does a poor job at preventing detonation since it's so light. I also noticed the engine runs a bit smoother at all rpms since the switch, especially past 5k doesn't sound as tinny as it did with the OEM oil. 5W-30 is only slightly thicker than stock so it won't affect oil distribution or anything.

0w-20 is what is specified in EURO owner's manuals. looking at the UK manual right now.

also, i think the exhaust valves are sodium-filled for more cooling. kinda crazy.

https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/sodium-filled-exhaust-valves.12269/

 

[Benster]

0w-20 is what is specified in EURO owner's manuals. looking at the UK manual right now.

also, i think the exhaust valves are also sodium-filled for more cooling. kinda crazy.

https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/sodium-filled-exhaust-valves.12269/

Could be true, maybe some other countries have a different requirement or they changed since 2019. Either way, I've been running 5w30 since the first oil change at 5000 km and had zero issues with the engine.

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