Hello guys, this is my first post here. Very nice forum. I have alot of carbon and sludge build-up in my intake plenum and manifold. I already have the throttle body took off. I am thinking about taking the intake off and having it cleaned and re-installing it. How hard of a job is this. I'm mechanicaly inclined, I am pretty confident I can do it, I just dont want to get in over my head. Thanks in advance.

 

If you are mechanically inclined its not that hard of a job. If you don't want to take the intake off I would recommend you try sea-foam engine cleaner.

 

Thanks but I think its beyond seafoam. Its cruded up pretty bad. When putting the manifold back on do i need to use a torque wrench to tighten the bolds or just get them pretty tight?

By the way, I may be buying a used intake manifold thats in good shape and very clean for about $100

 

Just clean the one you have and save the 100 bones. I would definitely recommend you use a torque wrench whenever you are dealing with a surface that requires a gasket. If the torque is not even then it is likely to leak. I think the torque spec is like 14ftlbs but I don't know for sure. Your repair manual should have the spec. Make sure you don't over torque them as they are easy to strip. One last thing, make sure you remove the socket (Allen) head bolt that is located just under the t-stat housing. It's easy to miss if you don't know about it. Let us know if you need more help and good luck.

 

Thank you.

 

the hardest part is unplugging all of the wires and vaccume hoses.

 

after disassembly you can soak a manifold in a strong detergent such as spray-nine or top job and the scrub it and rinse with hot water, you'd be surprised at how effective this is.

I'm currently working on modifying a manifold for my truck and I used spray-nine. It almost looks new now. well except for being all chopped up and welded back together

My latest project

also take the cold start injector and soak the tip of it in carb cleaner.

 

If you have both the intake manifold and the plenum off, now is the time to change your fuel filter!! You'll understand why when you see it.

Also, since you need to drain the cooling system to remove the intake manifold, change the coolant, thermostat, and any coolant related hoses that look sketchy.

 

What about soaking it in "Grease Lightning"? Will that remove the carbon build up? Some one told me to use heavy duty oven cleaner, but it is a strong alkyline and will etch aluminum.

 

Oven cleaner will get er done..........

 

You can also get seafoam in a spray can, bet that would work.