Intake Manifold Clean, yep that was next.

[cobrin]

This is not a how to because I didn’t take pics along the way mainly because it was going to be an inspection and clean up of an area but truth be told is was a dirty sticky mess. This was directly after the sump repair and with no parts for it I wasn’t interested in right now.



That and it’s only half the job, it’s the upper plastic intake manifold, it’s not the whole air intake system. I did this bit of maintenance because after the sump I had noticed the wet patch between the two parts below. It wasn’t until I stuck my finger up there did I realise that a simple disassemble and clean was going to cut it. It was bad, the air temp sensor was gummed up the shut off valve pretty much the same and the MAP sensor. If this point of the intake was this bad I had a sneaky feeling the rest would be too.
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The intake itself is pretty easy to take off, the oil/air separator hose and EGR pipe work come off first, pretty self explanatory.


Work your way around the intake bolts, the two at the front of the intake are the longer bolts (there’s only two at the front). The rest are the same length, bolts located around the area of injectors are easy to get to (though one was hidden under a bit of harness bend. One bolt on the timing cover needs to be removed and you need to remove the cam timing sensor.


Next remove the injector harness connections and three engine harness connections around the back left of the engine/bay, (odd bracket and cable-tie mount) and move all of that out of the way. The last two banjos was some wiring that ran along the rear of the manifold that I didn’t notice till you start to lift it, its a simple case of pulling it out of the pinch holder that’s part of the manifold, and a couple of vacuum lines that attach to the Shutoff valve. That’s it remove the clamp from the lower charge intake pipe and separate the Shutoff valve from the intake and slowly lift the intake manifold off.


The amount of carbon was a surprise and not only that so was some of it’s condition and where it was built up. More on that later.


For now pics, again sorry I was too sticky and black to even give a thought about going near my phone. Not until I cleaned the parts and me down did I get any shots off.


No.4 cylinder had a build-up of sticky carbon but the others were dry and a light dusting on the finger but that’s nothing definitive as I didn’t open it all up. The o-ring is a little more dirty than the others






With the EGR pipe off there was a large build-up of sticky carbon around the outside of that pipe at the shutoff valve end (pictured) but internally and all the way through at the other it was dry carbon and had the slightest dusting.


A wipe with a rag was all that was needed.





This was really gunny I couldn’t even see the intake temp sensor. There was a good 3mm thickness of sticky carbon around the internals of the valve. I’m not even sure I saw the Map Sensor protrusion.




Even though you see a cleaned intake manifold it was dirty and I thought it was borderline catastrophic initially, it wasn’t till I cleaned it away that I realised it wasn’t as bad. Looking through the mouth of it, the height of the bottom to top internally is small and I thought it were near blocked with carbon. Thankfully the clean pics show it as small in that area so if I could guess the carbon deposits were a good 3-4mm on both sides, more in other areas less on some. The intake for cylinder 4 was gummed up more than the other three which was interesting considering what I noticed for that cylinders port.

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If you could imagine it each plenum chamber looked to have about a sausage size amount carbon removed from it. If you could smear that amount of carbon around internally for each port that’d be as accurate as I could describe. It seems a lot but it’s not really considering it’s never be cleaned and how it’s driven which isn’t a case (for ownership) for a light Diesel powered passenger vehicle. Yet here I am still doing maintenance on the vehicle because it's a great car, I/we still find it hard to seek a replacement.


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Now the differences…
(in order of minor to major)


Engine note from the outside of the vehicle is on acceleration is nicer/quieter.


Cabin NVH from the engine is reduced , no rattles from something in the storage bin or door card/glove-box/centre console.


Engine feels like it’s got spirit, a keenness to accelerate.


Engine now does 60kph and 80kph at 1400rpm where as it use to be 2K rpm


Desired Acceleration doesn’t require more pedal input, as in I don’t have to readjust (press the accelerator) again to get to the point of acceleration that I want. Makes sense that now it can breath better it’s getting a better combustion and improvements are up across the board.


Soot has gone...not reduced but gone (okay slight exaggeration some must be there but I’m not seeing it) ...I’ve mashed he go pedal and done it up inclines where as per the last point above I’ve needed more pedal input this is where varying degrees of soot has always been seen, I’m not seeing that and I’m not needing to press the accelerator. This is the single most change I’ve felt/seen and love that it bits.


All this time I thought it were my injectors were looking likely to be the culprit and I did have a leakage test planned soon, well I’m not now. Its been a few weeks and nothing has changed its never felt better. Missus is chuffed and notices ‘something is different...better different’ which is nice because she's not a car person.


Now will the vehicle give me some peace and quiet....


It's probably one of the easiest jobs to do, but I do acknowledge the change in manifold to the MC, that's going to need looking at for your differences guys.


Enjoy your Friday and "Ave a good Weekend!!!"

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[bundybear75]

Thanks once again Cobrin, this is on my list of things to do.
, along with the glow plug replacement. Looking at that, I think that job might wait until the next timing belt replacement (which will be in about 12 months)

[cobrin]

No probs Bundy. Actually there was a bit of soot today, I think it was the build up of the weeks slow peak traffic. I noticed the smell (I was in the garage) when she arrived home Friday arvo, no doubt an incomplete regen. Could be time for another good run.



Apologies for the line code and typos, looks a mess, copy and paste from Libra Office is leaving those hidden lines of code. They weren't there when I were doing up the post only after I've posted it. That and the body of text isn't wrapping and I could have used a smaller resolution for the pics lol. Looks like the same from my last thread on the sump repair, at least I know where it now comes from now.

[NZ XR6]

If you use Paste as text then you should not get the embedded code.

Thanks for the info. Up until a few years ago, I mainly used my wife's car for local trips. But the Mondeo is my only option now as my wife has a work car, so it may be worth having a look as the engine is definitely noisier than it used to be.

However, it does not have the other symptoms you mention and still runs very well.

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[NZ XR6]

A quick question - do you need to replace any gaskets or O-rings?

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[cobrin]

I should have replace them all out of best practise but this stumble upon condition (and maintenance) saw me throw caution to the wind, get in there get it done and back on the road.