How to clean engine exhaust and remove rings?

[wirelessguy]

Two questions for today.

1. What does one use to remove the old exhaust o-rings? I can't quite get a good enough grip to pull them out.

2. There's a Ton of gunk in there as well ( I assume all the way down the cylinder ). What is safe to pour/ spray in there to loosen/clear all that out before I install the new o-rings and header.

[gearhead13]

Use a screwdriver to pry them out?
If you try and wash out any gunk in there it might get washed into the cylinder, not a good idea.

[mlinder]

Mechanic pick, screwdriver, whatever.

Don't bother cleaning any of it unless you are doing a tear down.

[wirelessguy]

Mechanic pick, screwdriver, whatever.

Don't bother cleaning any of it unless you are doing a tear down.

The tear down is somehting I hope I won't need to do this go around. I know that there are a number of fuel additives for cars which are supposed to clear out some of the deposits. I was just curious if there was anything which would loosen all the gummed up gunk there. (carb cleaner, seafoam etc???)

I'm also wondering what to do over the winter. Do the leave the engine dry? Do I attempt to fill with oil? (I'm guessing that oil might not be a great idea with all that existing junk in there. Best case the oil and gunk don't mix much but if the oil does loosen that stuff and leave it within the cylinder it's prob not going to be a good thing).

[Dave8338]

Running a little Seafoam in the fuel won't hurt anything and may help loosen some of that up. When the engine is set correctly and running good, the complete combustion will do quite nicely (over time) to clear it up. Also, frequent oil and filter changes help greatly.

[Dogma]

I wonder what Seafoam would be after combustion.

Water injection should dissolve it.

[bwringer]

1) Screwdriver. Destroy and remove.

2) Don't mess with the carbon deposits. Seriously. They are completely normal. You'll get particles in places they aren't supposed to be, and they'll just get re-deposited in a couple of hours anyway. Any farting around you do with solvents, picks, etc. is going to drop the gunk into the cylinder the second you start the engine.

Just re-install the exhaust seals and exhaust, and pretend you didn't see anything.

Seafoam and other miracle mouse milk you dump into the gas won't do anything to or for these deposits either.