When it comes to my car, I am the very cautious type.
I was a bit hesitant to allow some guy poking around the insides of my car, but after thinking about it I decided to take the chance. George is a respected member on multiple forums after all.
After meeting him and his crew and seeing how they work, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend his services to anyone else. I would rather let him poke around the insides of my car than some part-replaces at the stealership who works against the clock.
As everyone else have said, you can see you are dealing with people who love cars, and who do a shit-ton of research. That was especially evident when he told me about his C63 AMG project!
Some before and after pics:
More pics here:
There was still some work done after the "after" pictures were taken. Lots of vacuuming and blowing, and trying to get the last bits of stubborn carbon out. What you see as the after pics are not how it looked when everything got closed up.
There is no such thing as "aaah, screw it, 5pm, good enough lets call it a day".
I was surprised at how dirty my valves were after a mere 62000km. As with all things on a secondhand car, I'll blame it on the previous owner.
As for the results, I was cautiously optimistic. I don't drive my car as hard as often as most other people on here, and wasn't sure if I would feel a difference in performance.
I read some people saying their cars ran smoother, but my car ran perfectly smooth already.
It appears it didn't. It's subtle, but after the cleaning it definitely runs smoother. The engine sounds slightly better as well, and the seat was closer to the steering wheel.
I drove mostly highway on the way back, so not much room to really play. I definitely did feel that it pulls noticeably stronger in 6th on an incline. 3rd and 4th also felt noticeably stronger.
It is difficult to measure responsiveness, as there are so many variables. Especially when you will probably be subconsciously driving at higher rpm when you go out to measure it. Either that, or you will do some or other "standard" test like driving at 1500rpm and then mashing the pedal to the floor and feeling how long it takes till you feel the surge.
To me it feels like responsiveness is better, but I have no real way to back up that clam.
On my way back from PTA, I used pretty much the same amount of fuel, but my driving style was obviously different, and PTA lies around 400m lower than Jhb. Not a scientific test at all.
The 2 weeks before I had it cleaned I averaged 13l/100km to work and back. I will start a new measurement tomorrow and report back in a couple of weeks time.
Oh, and it's seriously difficult to get pictures of those valves, especially when dirty! I'm sure that I could have done it if I remembered my proper flash and flash bender, with with the popup flash there was just no way the camera would focus on those valves. I tried with a 100mm F2.8 macro lens, a lens that never let me down before.
I was a bit hesitant to allow some guy poking around the insides of my car, but after thinking about it I decided to take the chance. George is a respected member on multiple forums after all.
After meeting him and his crew and seeing how they work, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend his services to anyone else. I would rather let him poke around the insides of my car than some part-replaces at the stealership who works against the clock.
As everyone else have said, you can see you are dealing with people who love cars, and who do a shit-ton of research. That was especially evident when he told me about his C63 AMG project!
Some before and after pics:
More pics here:
There was still some work done after the "after" pictures were taken. Lots of vacuuming and blowing, and trying to get the last bits of stubborn carbon out. What you see as the after pics are not how it looked when everything got closed up.
There is no such thing as "aaah, screw it, 5pm, good enough lets call it a day".
I was surprised at how dirty my valves were after a mere 62000km. As with all things on a secondhand car, I'll blame it on the previous owner.
As for the results, I was cautiously optimistic. I don't drive my car as hard as often as most other people on here, and wasn't sure if I would feel a difference in performance.
I read some people saying their cars ran smoother, but my car ran perfectly smooth already.
It appears it didn't. It's subtle, but after the cleaning it definitely runs smoother. The engine sounds slightly better as well, and the seat was closer to the steering wheel.
I drove mostly highway on the way back, so not much room to really play. I definitely did feel that it pulls noticeably stronger in 6th on an incline. 3rd and 4th also felt noticeably stronger.
It is difficult to measure responsiveness, as there are so many variables. Especially when you will probably be subconsciously driving at higher rpm when you go out to measure it. Either that, or you will do some or other "standard" test like driving at 1500rpm and then mashing the pedal to the floor and feeling how long it takes till you feel the surge.
To me it feels like responsiveness is better, but I have no real way to back up that clam.
On my way back from PTA, I used pretty much the same amount of fuel, but my driving style was obviously different, and PTA lies around 400m lower than Jhb. Not a scientific test at all.
The 2 weeks before I had it cleaned I averaged 13l/100km to work and back. I will start a new measurement tomorrow and report back in a couple of weeks time.
Oh, and it's seriously difficult to get pictures of those valves, especially when dirty! I'm sure that I could have done it if I remembered my proper flash and flash bender, with with the popup flash there was just no way the camera would focus on those valves. I tried with a 100mm F2.8 macro lens, a lens that never let me down before.
