Anyone done this? I have the intake and exhaust manifolds off to replace the exhaust manifold and noticed the intake ports and the intake valves are pretty gummed up with deposits. Is there a method to clean these up while everything is disassembled and there's access? I read a few threads on trickling water down the intake while the engine is running, but I was curious if anyone has cleaned the valves manually with the intake off. Thanks
Valve Cleaning with Intake Removed?
- Thread starter rtd16
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There is a very good chance that debris could easily drop into the cylinder doing that.
It's done on gasoline direct injection because there's no gasoline washing deposits off the backs of the valves the way there is with port fuel injection. I've done it before on one of those cars, but I had a vehicle specific adapter that attached to a shop vac and a media blaster and fit in the intake port. Crushed walnut shell media. Make sure valve is closed and other ports are covered, turn on shop vac, blast, stop blasting, blow out any remaining walnut fragments. Don't let the adapter slip out of the port or you'll end up with walnut media in places you didn't know existed. Repeat for each port.
The GDI deposits are mostly sooty and dry though. Not sure if blasting would work if the deposits are gummy...you might end up with a valve that's tarred and feathered with walnut shells that you can't take off without pulling the head.
How big/thick are the deposits? Post a photo? The GDI ones will grow big enough to block flow and trip a misfire code.
Look up BMW valve cleaning. BMW had a big problem with carbon build up that would soak up the fuel from the injectors. The repair was removing the intake and walnut blasting then vacuuming out the debris. I have used water and auto trans fluid to clean carbon debris from the intake valves. These are pre-cat vehicles. There is a risk if there is heavy carbon build up dislodging a piece and having it get stuck between valve and seat. We had a TSB at ford that addressed this problem if causing driveabity issues also. If I remember correctly we used a top end cleaner poured some in while running then stalled the motor and let it sit so the cleaner would soak on the valves to help break up the deposits.
https://seafoamworks.com/product/sea-foam-spray-intake-valve-top-engine-cleaner/
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I have done something similar years ago with a product called "intake snake", or something like that. It was a service sold by the shop I was working in at the time. IDK if it’s still on the market, but it was a drain snake type of thing with disposable sponges on the end. Those were soaked in a cleaner, then run in and out of the intake runners. This was done while the engine was together, but not running. It appeared to work, but took time.
Looks like it still exist, but looks a little different. https://run-rite.com/pro/products/equipment/intake-tools-and-equipment/intake-snake-tool/
That is to clean buildup out of the combustion chamber and won't do anything significant for the intake track. You can do that with water, ATF or a product like Seafoam which is my choice. Just a little at a time.
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I'll see if I can dig up the bore cameral images but I had some success using products that contain PEA (Berryman's Intake Cleaner, CRC's intake/turbo cleaner etc.) using a series of "heat soak" sessions. It didn't take all the carbon off the valves and but it did take a good 50% off after 2 treatments. The Wrangler wasn't very bad when I bought it (it's a 2005 and it has 78K on it when I got it 3 years ago). It's helped but didn't fully clean the valves.
On my wife's turbo Santa Fe however (GDi) it does a decent job of keeping the build up from getting significant. Again, not fully removing it but "maintaining it".
I used the product through the intake for 3 to 5 minutes. Then let it soak for an hour. Another 3-5 minutes and another hour and once again before the "Italian Tune Up". After you could see improvement and sometimes a lot of improvement.
All of that said, My oldest daughter bought a 2008 BMW with 120K on it because she liked the way it looked (the badges is what she liked). I started looking it over and pulled the plugs and looked in there and I'm not sure how it was still running. I tried the above procedure and got very little improvement. Me and a friend pulled the cover and did the walnut blasting procedure for the better part of a day to get to where we could see metal again. After that it ran like a top... well... until more BMW stuff happened that is.
If/when I find the photos I'll update this post.
Good luck. I'd try the PEA based stuff and see if it improves. Chlorinated Brake cleaner is a good alternative but hard to find.
On my wife's turbo Santa Fe however (GDi) it does a decent job of keeping the build up from getting significant. Again, not fully removing it but "maintaining it".
I used the product through the intake for 3 to 5 minutes. Then let it soak for an hour. Another 3-5 minutes and another hour and once again before the "Italian Tune Up". After you could see improvement and sometimes a lot of improvement.
All of that said, My oldest daughter bought a 2008 BMW with 120K on it because she liked the way it looked (the badges is what she liked). I started looking it over and pulled the plugs and looked in there and I'm not sure how it was still running. I tried the above procedure and got very little improvement. Me and a friend pulled the cover and did the walnut blasting procedure for the better part of a day to get to where we could see metal again. After that it ran like a top... well... until more BMW stuff happened that is.
If/when I find the photos I'll update this post.
Good luck. I'd try the PEA based stuff and see if it improves. Chlorinated Brake cleaner is a good alternative but hard to find.
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