Intake Cleaning
 

I cleaned my intake manifold today. It was quite dirty with black gunky oil inside and out.

I pulled both the left and right manifolds and left the throttle body in place. I didn't want to pull the throttle and cruise control cables, but everything else, short of a single breather hose, was removed. It took me about 4 hrs to complete at a very liesurely pace.

Went for a test drive this evening and did a Hammer adaptation after warming up. Then out for another blast!

I'm quite pleased with the results. So smooth! I really noticed a difference. Maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe I'm dreaming, but it really seemed to make a difference. I've cleaned the ISV a couple of times before and didn't get as good a feeling about the results as I did with the intake cleaning.

I took a slew of photos and plan on sorting them and posting the interesting ones.

Cheers,
Dave

That's great Dave. Something I think I'll do too! Looking foreward to your photos.

Jaime

I'm not surprised that you noticed a difference. I did this once to a 10-year-old Ford Taurus SHO intake, which, like yours, had a film of relatively thick sludge on all interior surfaces. I soaked it overnight in carb cleaner and the amount of stuff that came out was amazing. there was a noticeable difference in performance afterwards.

Nice job Dave, maybe you can show me exactly what you did on Friday if you make it here, sounds like a good worthwhile project!

Did you have to replace any gaskets to do this? Sounds like a great weekend project!

Gary, be happy to show you what I did.

Chad T, no gaskets. Pretty easy, really.

Note that there is another Intake Manifold Cleaning thread which Garrett wrote a while back. He did a more thorough job of removing the manifolds and throttle body. I was a bit too timid to remove all of the electrical, vacuum, breather hoses, cables and mounting bracket connections.

However, removing just the left and right manifolds really wasn't too bad and enabled me to do a great job cleaning the manifolds and a pretty good job of cleaning the throttle body.

I'm going through the pics now to try and figure out which ones I should post.

Cheers,
Dave

Intake Manifold Cleaning
 

I removed the Air Box and AFM as a unit (red), the Blower and Tube (blue), and the Right and Left Intake Manifolds (yellow; only the right is visible in this shot).

There are 6 electrical connectors to disconnect in the central area (in yellow). One goes to the rear of the AFM (yellow arrow). It is a bit difficult to reach. I go around from the far right hand side. Don't forget to reconnect it! You can spend a week trying to figure out why the car's not working right. I did. The good folks at Rennlist never thought to ask if I could be that dumb!

There is also a vacuum line (in blue) that connects to the vacuum reservoir attached to the back of the Air Box. Equally as much fun to remove and replace.

The next pic has shots of these two connection points.

The electrical (in yellow) and vacuum connections (in blue) on the back of the Air Box / AFM.

My AFM was not really dirty. Just a bit of oily smuge. It's been cleaned a couple of times in the past year.

I do not separate the Air Box from the AFM. I pull them as a unit. It's a bit of a trick to get the combination in and out, but it slides right through if you get it positioned just right.

If you do separate them you have to remove the horn (in green) and you'll need to replace a gasket upon reassembly.
The nuts holding the Air Box in place (in red) are 10 mm.

I started with the RHS Manifold. It's easier to remove. After the Air Box and AFM there is nothing else to remove.
I loosened the top hose clamps (jubilee clips) (red arrows) on the three intake ports and the two Throttle Body connections. The top Throttle Body connection is easy to get at. The lower Throttle Body connection, the Resonate Valve port, is a bit more challenging. I went in by the double red arrows, as I recall. Houdini would be proud!

Once these clamps are loose the manifold can be wiggled free.

Note the placement of all the wires, cables and hoses, in, around, and in between the port legs. This all has to go back together again later without rubbing or chafing.

I think Porsche is German for genius!

The LHS Manifold has a few bits attached to it that must be removed first. The LHS Wiring Connector Bracket has two 10 mm nuts attching it to the manifold. Likewise, there is a hose bracket around the back side (red arrows).

The top hose clamps on the intake port legs get loosened (lowest red arrow), as do the two clamps on the Throttle Body and Resonance Valve connections (double red arrows).

The Resonance Valve connection here is totally blind. I spent as much time trying to figure out how to get at it as it took to just close my eyes, reach back there with two hands (seems impossible, I know) and just brail the thing apart.
Again, the manifold should just wiggle free. In fact, the whole Throttle Body is now very loose, too.

Success, RHS Manifold out. Note the glistening oil on the Throttle Body ports!

Don't forget to cover the intake ports!

And the LHS Manifold out. There are more holes on this side. The ones for the blower especially scare me. I fill those right away.

Note the cruise control actuator motor down in back. Beside the rear two intake ports. There is quite a lot to see now that the manifolds are out. I took about 75 pictures, in all! Some are worthless, but I'm happy to share if anyone is interested.