I took the throttle body off to clean it out and I found about a 1/4 inch of crap built up in the intake plenum. This totally caught me off guard, I had the plenum off during a head gasket replacement and I would of noticed it then. That means this happened in about 1000 miles.

I'm just gonna knock it down with a screw driver and vacuum it out then run some sea foam through the PCV pipe. (the one that goes from vale cover to to intake)

 

dont use a screwdriver. soak in cleaner, scrub with a nylon brush. what you have is a mess there.

 

too late, but its ALOT cleaner now than it was. If it wasn't sunday i would just take the whole plenum off and take it to the machine shop to get hot tanked. But I don't have enough time for that. Lets just say that I added a 1/4 inch to the diameter of my intake today

I would still like to figure out why it was so bad after only 1000 miles?

 

is that the same area where the pcv hose goes into the intake? if so maybe your PCV valve might be bad and sticking open?

 

I can't comment on whether you would have noticed this 1000 miles ago. But this build up is not uncommon, and you've probably got a lot more "inside" the plenum (upper intake manifold). At some point (maybe soon, maybe not) it can choke off the EGR input pipe, and the vacuum lines for the two (AC, Pwr Steering) idle-ups.

Cleaning it "the old-fashioned way" (chemicals, wooden sticks, bottle brush, etc.) is a PITA and not particularly effective. Hot-tanking would be the way to go if reasonably available. And if you go that far, consider hot tanking the lower intake manifold as well: same issue.

 

EGR is what's causing it likely.

i removed my EGR, and i'm cleaning my intake as soon as i get my new VC gaskets

 

Not exactly where the PCV valve enters the plenum. And I'd think whatever could come from the PCV valve itself would tend to be drawn down into the cylinders and not towards the throttle body, in the opposite direction of air flow. And if it was coming from the PCV inlet hose(in front of the throttle body)it would have been most heavily deposited on the throttle body itself and cover the entire length of the runner behind it. It could only be from the EGR. And IMO that much build-up after 1000 miles is not normal.

 

I didn't know in which direction this was facing etc etc, and don't know too much on the 3.0 as far as layout, I figured I would throw that out there which is why I had asked if that was the location where the pcv goes.

 

Thanks for all the input yotatech! Building off of what mudhippy said, my shade tree mechanic brain would say that the truck is running rich and some of the excess crap is going through the EGR valve into my engine.

I'm gonna go pull a spark plug and see what it looks like.

 

oh yea, give no credit to the guy who said it first

just because i'm 19yrs old, doesn't mean i don't know anything about the 3vz, remember...i just rebuild mine...

 

Pulled spark the left front spark plug, (when looking at engine) the one next to the egr. I don't spot anything out of the ordinary, if you asked me it looks perfect. EDIT: Haha, good call camo

 

that's cylinder number 1.

looks like your gap is a lil too close?


just because one spark plug looks fine, doesn't mean they all are, just sayin.

 

The problem with the EGR valve could be that it's stuck open/not closing fully when it should. That's usaully enough to cause the engine to run rough at times. Meaning you'd probably notice that something wasn't right before finding the intake full of crud. But then again, maybe not.

Here's the FSM pages on checking the EGR system on the 3VZE:
http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...77exhaustg.pdf

Here's some info on cleaning the EGR valve itself.


More info on Toyota EGR systems can be found here: http://autoshop101.com/forms/h61.pdf

 

ah, the notorious "black goo"



been there done that...













soak it in parts cleaner for a few hours, then scrub the bejesus out of it with a few wire brushes

that nasty stuff will come off, but it's stubborn

 

That is normal. Mine was closed up to only about 1" hole. The oil & oil byproducts are sucked into the intake & the heat causes them to build up. Almost all fuel injected engines will have this happen. It becomes worse as they are older because you get more blow-by past the valve seals.

 

Holy black goo Batman! That is one messy throttle and intake, mine wasn't that bad but was pretty dirty. My 22re sure did appreciate the time I took to clean it all up. Runs super clean now.

 

Just cleaned my plenum as it looked the same and while ihad it off I cleaned my fuel rails and injectors. Truck likes the go pedal alot more now

 

took the truck out on a little adventure today and noticed it was much happier to get up in the higher rpms while on the highway, maybe cause it can actually breath now.

One thing I have noticed before is sometimes when I start it up and its warm (not cold, and not hot) it will idle like crap, bouncing around 500 rpms until I give it gas and then it will idle at the normal 11-1200. Is that what a stuck EGR valve acts like?

keep in mind this truck still isnt getting the gas mileage i was hoping for, it gets 12 mpg around town, with a light foot, 31's, and 4.88's.

 

DANG! That is nasty stuff you got there superbleeder, how many miles was that left alone for?

 

Couldn't you disconnect the PCV and put a breather filter on it to solve the problem?
That's quite a mess! Going to check mine tomorrow, although he feels like he still has the same power from 50k ago.

(I've seen worse in VW 1.9L TDI intake manifolds I brought to the machine shop to get hot tanked, albeit a diesel. On some, a passage was nearly completely stuffed with baked on carbon.)