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Author Topic: Carbon cleaning from intake (walnut blasting etc.)  (Read 5588 times)

Offline Alex Booth

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Re: Carbon cleaning from intake (walnut blasting etc.)
« Reply #15 on: September 11, 2019, 11:23:21 am »
Don't even bother with a 'Terraclean' or any other shabby carbon cleaning services that claim they make a difference, because they don't and it's all placebo. They literally do nothing on direct port injection engines.

Get the inlet valves cleaned properly with walnut blasting.

Offline ljc19630

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Re: Carbon cleaning from intake (walnut blasting etc.)
« Reply #16 on: September 11, 2019, 11:34:55 am »
what he said  :congrats: :congrats:

Offline svvg

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Re: Carbon cleaning from intake (walnut blasting etc.)
« Reply #17 on: September 16, 2019, 10:23:57 am »
A little update - thanks for input above.

I stripped the car down over the weekend and cleaned the inlet ports and the flaps on the inlet manifold. Was a mission - only because I really struggled to get the correct combination of ratchets and bits together in order to remove the four throttle body bolts. Took over an hour to remove and another hour to reinstall those four bolts alone! The rest of it was pretty easy.

Inlet ports ranged from a bit gunged-up, to caked, in two to three table spoons worth of carbon/mud. I scrapped them with a screw driver (before anyone goes nuts, I was delicate - minor scratches, if any, in the aluminium head won’t affect anything as it’s supposed to be rough in there and the valves are hardened). I then sprayed CRC GDI valve cleaner directly into the port I was working on (bloody expensive at £38 for 500ml can - but I watched a you tube clip of a guy using it on a bmw 335 - and it looked seriously good) - filling the port completely up - and left for half an hour (rather than spraying into the inlet pipe with the engine on - which is how it is intended to be used....). Gave a scrub with an old toothbrush and then drained with kitchen roll. Scraped the sludge out and then filled a second time and scrubbed with toothbrush. Again drained it out and cleaned with brake cleaner and finally blew it all out with a compressed air can.

All the ports came up really well. I’ll try to post some before and after shots - but pretty consistent with other pics you’ll find on the net. There is residual colouring/varnish - but so thin that it won’t affect anything. The car starts without chugging - and feels a tad keener - although by no means night and day on performance. Chugging and aggressive vibration on start up were my key drivers for doing this - and so far so good.

There is a slight blip/misfire at idle - but I think that was there previously - and a slight flat spot on gradual acceleration - which I hope to remedy with new oil, sparks, coil packs, fuel filter and checking whether the diverter valve has had it - all to be done next weekend...

I had to improvise when installing the teflon injector seals, as I ran out of time on Saturday to go to my local dealership for them to install the teflon seals properly. I’d usually wait it out or buy the correct tool - but had to have the car ready for the nursery run today - used a metal biro tip (the bit which unscrews by the nib of a pen) - as it had a metal cone which perfectly matched the end of the injector - and then chopped the pen lid so the taper was just the same size at the injector diameter (and smoothed the inside out,  as there’s usually a strengthening ridge of plastic) - and used that as a make-shift compression tool. Left it in situe for half an hour over the seal, and it had squeezed it down to size. I did use a small amount of silicone spray on installation (despite all the manuals advising not to lubricate) - as they were a bit proud of the injector, and I didn’t want to risk damaging them - and so far no leaks - but will report back/fess-up if that transpires to have been a mistake...

Will post some pics of the “tools” in case it helps anyone else.

Thanks again for input. Quite straight forward to do, save for access to the throttle body bolts, which were a total bugger. A tiny hand held ratchet with a bit holder worked in the end.

Oh - while I remember - the satan bolt was piss easy. I used a 3/8th M10 triple square/spline bit (as per the bolt....) - but on a long 1/4 inch extension - and the extension is thin enough to slide between the hard pipes which would otherwise block access.

Thanks again for all help/feedback above...!