[Divya Sharan]

What a coincidence this thread!
Only a couple of days back did I ponder over the topic. My car is a highway (only) drive. So it frequently sees up to 3500 rpm. It's a Fiat 1.4 petrol.
But this time I was in a good mood and after driving for about 40 km I thought why not redline for a while and listen to the lovely exhaust note!
1st gear 6k rpm, 2nd and 3rd all the way till 6.5k rpm and repeat for 50 km - it made the FE drop down to single digits and the car started pulling clean from low(er) revs.
It has nearly done 15k in as many months so I do not think carbon deposit may be an issue (yet).
I feel it's just the ECU learning (and unlearning) driver's inputs from time to time.

[gypsyFreak]

I too agree with Italian tune-up.

Case 1, my Scorpio once a month gets a highway or else it is just driving in Bangalore city traffic. After highway drives, it pulls easily in 2nd gear from road humps. The same vehicle becomes tougher while negotiating city humps during daily commute.

Case 2, Suzuki access. Driven by my wife very sedately, tends to switch off at low rpms. So, last weekend, i took it for a italian tune-up. It works much better now.
Even my father used to tell me that our HH Splendour pulls better after i had ridden it. I was in college those days, so redlining was the norm..

[bansal.sushant]

Can someone please elaborate on this? My cars are run within city traffic only.
Does running at a lower gear so as to achieve higher rmp work (since it's tough to find a road where I can achieve higher speed) ?

Also, is this true for a CNG vehicle also? Couldn't find any resource pertaining to that.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by bansal.sushant

Can someone please elaborate on this? My cars are run within city traffic only.Does running at a lower gear so as to achieve higher rmp work (since it's tough to find a road where I can achieve higher speed) ?

Also, is this true for a CNG vehicle also? Couldn't find any resource pertaining to that.

If you're happy with the car and its response and if you feel nothing is lacking then don't even think about all these "Italian tune-up" procedures.. keep running it the way you always have. Running a lower gear in a higher RPM is not advisable in any situation except when needing a quick surge during an emergency so that's out as well.

CNG's carbon production is much lesser than that of gasolene, but in principle since it works much the same way as a gasolene engine it might take much longer for carbon deposits to form in CNG's case. In anycase such tune-ups are only required if you feel the engine is sluggish compared to before.

I've often seen that after a long-ish drive the engine does become more settled, smoother and eager to move but in most cases it's due to the engine reaching ideal operating temperature than carbon deposits being removed. If you do know for sure that carbon deposits are hindering performance you need to use a good fuel line cleaning solution (specifically for petrol or diesel) and go for a drive to Noida/Gurgaon and return. The changes may be less than noticeable during city-drives though.

The origin of the Italian tuneup comes from Ferrari. Owners would drive their cars infrequently and never run them hard, which causes the engine to build up enough carbon inside to affect performance. Mechanics would perform a "tuneup" by driving several laps around a race track to get the engine hot enough to burn out the built up carbon. Cars before the advent of modern engine lubricants and fuels, often had a 'de-coke' by hand, after removing the cylinder head, as a scheduled service operation.

Source :Wiki

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

I've often seen that after a long-ish drive the engine does become more settled, smoother and eager to move but in most cases it's due to the engine reaching ideal operating temperature than carbon deposits being removed. If you do know for sure that carbon deposits are hindering performance you need to use a good fuel line cleaning solution (specifically for petrol or diesel) and go for a drive to Noida/Gurgaon and return. The changes may be less than noticeable during city-drives though.

Do you mean to say that the engine does not reach ideal operating temperature in city drives?

[Swapnil4585]

Italian tune up. Will it work for me?

After a strictly zero use for around 4 months, I have started using my car for city runabouts. I got the radiator fully flushed, cleaned and coolant refilled. Thereafter I got the petrol tank cleaned. In the mean time, I have an error P0037 which is due to no downstream sensor on my car. I am unable to procure the correct part and the work is therefore pending. In all this, I have a long highway trip with family scheduled for the weekend.

Should I do a tune up? I can go for a short 50 km run before the actual trip. 3rd gear at 3500 rpm? Advisable?

[srini1785]

Italian tune up is something like a stradivarius violin. Supposed to be the most melodious sounding violin in planet made by a famous (Italian) violin maker of the same name. Originals sell for around $15Million.

Analytical experiments have since debunked the theory that the notes on a Stradivarius are more perfect than a well tuned $50 Violin. In spite of all evidence the craze does not subside. Its all in the mind.

BTT, True for cars of yore, some redlining does have some positive performance changes, especially on older turbo petrol engines like P-930 , since it clears air paths and helps in turbo tuning, in modern ECU controlled EFI cars it has no specific performance enhancing effect.

[theGeekyLad]

A quick skim through this short thread reveals exiguous info about diesel engines. I always (even on highways) drive my 2019 Innova (20,000 km old) super sedately. The vehicle barely sees 2000+ revs unless there's a dire need, as while negotiating ghat-like ascents when I ensure the fallback RPMs are within the power band.

I noticed that I lurk around at the peak torque RPM which being ~1400 revs for the most part unless it's a highway where I'm usually at 1900 revs with cruise on. Do you think this engine would suffer from carbon build up for my driving manners?

While at that, during my long drives (outstation road-trips over 1600 km) I usually cruise at around 1800-1900 revs for the most part. During the run-in / break-in period, I'd been the most assiduous driver and tried not to stick to the same RPM for long, but does that matter now? Is cruising at a fixed RPM for a long time a bad thing to do?