Italian Tune-Up is a method which flushes out any deposits or gunk in the car by driving hard and bringing the car to the redline. People have a varying opinion about this method; some belief in it and some don’t. Jason Fenske of YouTube channel Engineering Explained has settled this debate by experimenting himself. He went through some studies done by the Society of Automotive Engineers to find of it is possible that an engine can get rid of the carbon deposits through hard driving in the redline. According to those studies, it was possible that the engine creates enough heat which can break apart the deposits.
Among those study researches, there was one which stated that running a direct-injection turbocharged engine at high loads increases the chance of formation of growing carbon deposits. An engine can get rid of those deposits depending if it can get hot enough to do that and this also varies from engine to engine. Fenske added that bringing your car to redline once in a while is not enough to cause a significant carbon breakdown. For that, you are required to have a constant increase in the temperature. Watch this video below to understand how the carbon breakdown works.
