Thread: HOW TO: cleaning Intake manifold ?

Take the Green Can or the Red Can (sorry Morpheus) -


Non-chlorinated - all but 5-10% is Acetone (half), Toluene, or Methanol. Extremely volatile and flammable. Kinda makes you wonder why you are paying such a premium for something that is 50% Acetone, 15% Methanol - both available cheap in bulk. You pay for someone to add CO2 and put it into a nice metal can that you then throw away. Maybe it gets recycled, but probably not. Either way, you're getting ripped off for the tiny quantity you get for $3-$5.

Chlorinated - is non-flammable. But, Tetrachloroethylene (PERC) is the main ingredient and it's Carcinogenic. So easy choice, use something that is significantly dangerous around any ignition source (e.g a spark from metal to metal contact) or something that adds to your life cancer odds significantly. Probably this is the more "abrasive" because it is a much more effective solvent and really nasty stuff.

Both of these are banned for Consumer use in CA and/or NJ. At least 70% of the Non-chlorinated mix ends up as VOC's in the air, which when mixed with NOx and sunlight to produce that nasty ground level Ozone (O3) that leaves your lungs feeling like you just worked out in a swimming pool. When they say "Ozone Alert" days that's the stuff.

Like I said, not a tree hugger. But, I've been out Mt. Biking on high ground level Ozone days and quickly figured out the damage wasn't worth the workout - O3 kills cells in your lungs on contact, enough to make you notice. Unlike a lot of pollutants in the upper air, it has a direct and immediate impact however small, on your health. If you breath the main ingredient in the chlorinated stuff, that's a nice dose of carcinogenic poison.

Or you could use biodegradable stuff, citrus stuff, and none of this is an issue. Me, I don't like pissing in my drinking water, why would I contribute needlessly to poisoning the air I have to breathe when I don't have to?

Go find something that smells like lemons or oranges and is biodegradable.

Oh, btw it is the red stuff you don't want to use on Aluminum castings. It eats the metal.

Incompatible Materials:
Avoid contact with metals such as: aluminum... Avoid contact with strong bases and strong oxidizers.

And you also don't want to mix it up with anything else.

In the first pic, that bpt thing or what ever it was had a plate under it sealing it... The first plate I made wasn't thick enough and the bolts bottomed out so I had put it back on and used it to sandwich the plate made...

Now the new egr plates I made are 3/8 inch thick 6061 aluminum and work great but are soooioooo thick it's hard to cut. But I will post another couple pics tomorow after my new job I started...so I will show the new plates and finished results in daylight... My computer is garbage and froze like six times while trying to update this thread.... FML windows xp

Result of cleaning the manifold are finding a hole, sealing it, smoother idle, and it pulls a lil bit harder thru all rpms and cruises easier... I did also notice after sealing the hole in the bolt my safc2 had a little bit higher afl reading so now the air is actually being registared....

Hey guys I noticed some dark carbon build up inside my IACV-FICD, IACV-AAC valve unit.

I'm going to clean my throttle body with the throttle body cleaner. Should I also use it for the IACV unit?

Yes, I would.

Is that hole in the EGR port SUPPOSED to be there?? (in the photo in your first post, the port with the brown mark PEDRONX mentioned in his first post, abut 1/4 of the way down the page)

I found the same thing on mine. Looking down through the intake runners, cylinder 2's I believe, I noticed some soot had accumulated there. The soot that ordinarily would pass back through this passage now exits through the little hole in that port's plug. It accumulates on top of the intake plenum and coolant BY-PASS hose that runs under the upper intake manifold.
The part of the "tip" of the plug that screws into the manifold was no longer smooth and appeared to have eroded. It looked like raw, un-machined metal and also had the hole through the plug, both of which struck me as out of place.

I was hunting for an exhaust leak, as my engine was making a ticking sound when the rpm's are from about 1800 -3000 rpm, ONLY when IN GEAR, and ACCELERATING UNDER LOAD. There was no ticking when accelerating in neutral or when the engine is at idle.

I'm not sure if this EGR exhaust leak is the cause of the "ticking".

I believe that hole should not be there, and is a result of corrosion.
I think it is a strong likelihood that you have found the cause of your exhaust leak.