Dirty intake??????

[sy112]

just took off the throttle body and intake today to clean up and install the 50# injectors and noticed what looks to be pretty damn dirty intake and throttle body. I has kind of a oily feel to it but smells only like gas and not oil. My first thought was that my turbo had been leaking some oil but the outlet on the turbo was extremely clean,no oil residue at all. So now I am kind of stumped as to why that is there.

I was using the SMC kit for a month or so and figured spraying alky would clean all that up. Anyways, any suggestions what it might be and how to stop it from happening after I reassemble?

Also you can see on that pic where I need to port match all of the ports, with stock heads would it be worth porting the upper intake at all? I am installing a pte kit on this build up if that makes any difference to the grand scheme of things. I know better flow is gooder but was wondering if it would be worth all the extra time and trouble?????

just a add in......you never really know how dirty a 92k mile Sy is until you start taking it apart peice by peice, need to buy more Gunk :-?

 

[MikeRenz]

Thats typical. I'm pretty sure its from pcv valves and egr. Does your intercooler have any of the oily residue in it? Prolly not.


Mine looked the same when i took it apart...so I had it glass bead blasted. Came out looking brand new: (click for bigger images)

 

[sy112]

sweet renz, thanks.

guess i just need to get it cleaned up an replace all pcv stuff. and my intercooler was fine, not to worried about it as i am not going to be installing it on this build.......maybe :wink:

how much did it cost to get it bead blasted, and where do you find a place to do it, machine shop? or maybe a paint shop?

oh yeah, how about that porting question, will it be worth the trouble?

 

[MikeRenz]

i got mine done for $35 at a engine builder/machine shop. I would take your lower intake to be done also.



Its well worth the $ compared to trying to hand wash. Although...others have used acids and carb cleaner type products and had good results. Check out Morgan's ugly duckling pictures - he cleaned his himself.

As far as porting...I didn't do any intake porting. Not that it won't net you any gains. I just didn't bother. If you have the time to do it - go for it.

 

[sy112]

holy crap mike, your lower was worse than mine.

the only problem is if i pull my lower then I might as well pull the motor and clean everything else, cause it would just look weird on a dirty motor.....and while the motor is out might as well do a l35 swap.......and hell while I'm doing the l35 swap i might as well fix that broken motor mount I've had for a while........but before I do that, since the motor is out I might as well clean and por15 the front suspension.........while I'm por15ing the front suspension I might as well por15 the rest since I already have it out..........jesus, this stuf never ends does it???? :-?

 

[MikeRenz]

my entire engine build started with a broken tranny. I went through exactly what you are talking about. But pulling the lower intake would hardly necesitate pulling the motor. If you take a machine shop both the lower and upper intakes at the same time, they might charge the exact same as only having 1 item.

 

[ZMann]

Go for it Don!! Im sure Pat is helping out, might as well do it while it's open.

 

[sy112]

Go for it Don!! Im sure Pat is helping out, might as well do it while it's open.

yeah but now i thought i was on the back strecth and it's been down for so long anyhow, just want to get to tuning this bitch. probably will, i mean hell, if you can grab a hold of your motor and move it around freely in the bay, might as well pull it, not that much more involved except time :drinking:

 

[Tooky]

I almost removed my lower intake and also ported the upper intake but didn't do either and I'll tell you why. I didn't port the upper intake because I ran out of time with the die grinder (that's the real reason) but my justification is Waller (I think) made a point on this board that our motors don't turn the kind of RPM to see any gains by porting the upper intake.

I wanted to remove my lower intake to clean it but I didn't because my friend Monte has this thing about "oh once you do that, you're really breaking the seal of the motor and it will never be the same" now I know that sounds like a bunch of crap but if you think about it, there are other reasons not to do it. Don't get the RTV seal from lower intake to block/heads correct and you'll have oil leaks. You have to drain the coolant or have a big sticky mess since the heater core and thermostat flow through the lower intake. Also the fuel rail has to get disconnected. Your distributor also has to come out and you have to reset the timing when it goes back in (I always hate fumbling for that distributor bolt and dropping tools in the tranny tunnel). So if you're looking for excuses to NOT do it in the name of getting back on the road sooner; here you are

PS: Interesting discovery that alky injection does NOT clean the intake like was previously thought... I guess this means I still ought to run GM Top Engine Cleaner periodically. FWIW the alky definitely didnt keep my spark plugs any cleaner than they normally were.

 

[Sy769]

We can bead blast it for free at the hangar. I need to go out there and clean some parts anyway.

Thought you were in to much of a hurry to pull the motor,fix the mount and clean it?

You know where my hoist is.

I prolly would not pull the lower unless you are gonna change the heads, too much of a pain in the arse just to bead blast it.

 

[GEN3Typhoon]

my entire engine build started with a broken tranny.

I feel your pain some thousands of dollars and nearly 3 years later. :lol: