Cleaning intake manifold soot on a diesel car.

shedweller

I have researched this and it mostly comes down to removing the manifold and going at it with a power washer and various scraping tools.
That would be fine by me but in my case, the intake manifold is part of the head of the engine and can only be removed with the head. It is integral to the head! In other words a big job given that its not causing problems, yet..
I have heard of a product (seafoam, no connection) that can clean out intake manifolds but not on diesel engines due to the risk of the engine running on while spraying it into the manifold and self destructing. Not good enough really. To say the least.
So am i stuck with an intake manifold that is going to choke up over time or is there any solution to this?
Maybe removing the head, cleaning it, refitting it with a new head gasket and timing chain won't be too dear but i fear it will.
The engine is a 1ND-TV 1.4 d4d. Has 125,000 miles on it and goes very well, little or no burning oil.
Any info much appreciated.

PADRAIC.M

Hi, I know the 1nd inside out, they are designed in such a way that carbon doesn't build up due to the small size of the internal space and no ports lay out inside, even if you took off the head you can't see much inside, you have to remove the valves just to see in slightly, was year is your car? The egr valve is the only the thing you need to keep clean and you will be trouble free, depending on the year there is about 4 types of egr valves on these.

peasant

shedweller wrote: »

So am i stuck with an intake manifold that is going to choke up over time

Why would it choke up?

The air that passes through it is filtered and your turbo doesn't seem to be spewing oil into it either.

EDIT ...ahh ...I forgot about these new fangled engines that are forced to ingest their own exhaust gases

shedweller

PADRAIC.M wrote: »

Hi, I know the 1nd inside out, they are designed in such a way that carbon doesn't build up due to the small size of the internal space and no ports lay out inside, even if you took off the head you can't see much inside, you have to remove the valves just to see in slightly, was year is your car? The egr valve is the only the thing you need to keep clean and you will be trouble free, depending on the year there is about 4 types of egr valves on these.

It's a 4004 model. I have cleaned out the EGR valve (4 types you say!) and the EGR feed to the intake pipe, it was choked up when i got the car. But there is a film of oily tar in the intake manifold about 3 to 4 mm thick in places. I scraped a little out but stopped when i thought of loose bits being ingested when i start up.
I'm extremely reluctant to remove the head so it's good to know there isn't much point anyway.

YouTookMyName

peasant wrote: »

Why would it choke up?

The air that passes through it is filtered and your turbo doesn't seem to be spewing oil into it either.

EDIT ...ahh ...I forgot about these new fangled engines that are forced to ingest their own exhaust gases

EGR Cooler, like feeding an athlete their own ****e.

shedweller

YouTookMyName wrote: »

EGR Cooler, like feeding an athlete their own ****e.

I know, its a terrible thing to do to an engine but there you go. It lowers NOX but raises everything else iirc.
The TDI forums often mention intake manifold cleaning and man do some of them need cleaning!