I'm starting this thread to create a place to post photos of intake valve carbon deposits. I will be periodically taking borescope photos of my valves to keep track of how they are doing and posting them here. Other people are welcome to add their photos, but if you do please note your mileage and any mods or carbon/fuel cleaner products you've used.
To start off here's a photo of the valves on my 2020 VN with performance pack at 1,500 miles. Completely stock car, no catch cans or anything. Oil was changed at 750 miles with Pennzoil Euro LX 0W30. You can see some oil film on there that's collected carbon, so the accumulation has started but isn't more than I would expect. (Note scrape mark on stem is not actually a scrape and is only from the plastic camera head)
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For those who have never seen what fairly bad valve deposits on a GDI engine look like, here's a photo of a Ford Ecoboost 2.0L with 60K miles on it that was in for routine walnut blasting service. (Sorry I forgot to grab the after photo from the borescope). Notice the lump of carbon that accumulated on the stem where the oil seepage from the valve guide collected the carbon soot before both were baked on solid by the heat. There's also a hard as glass 2mm thick later of carbon on the back of the valve.
![Image]()
To start off here's a photo of the valves on my 2020 VN with performance pack at 1,500 miles. Completely stock car, no catch cans or anything. Oil was changed at 750 miles with Pennzoil Euro LX 0W30. You can see some oil film on there that's collected carbon, so the accumulation has started but isn't more than I would expect. (Note scrape mark on stem is not actually a scrape and is only from the plastic camera head)
For those who have never seen what fairly bad valve deposits on a GDI engine look like, here's a photo of a Ford Ecoboost 2.0L with 60K miles on it that was in for routine walnut blasting service. (Sorry I forgot to grab the after photo from the borescope). Notice the lump of carbon that accumulated on the stem where the oil seepage from the valve guide collected the carbon soot before both were baked on solid by the heat. There's also a hard as glass 2mm thick later of carbon on the back of the valve.
