I recently took a look at the EGR valve on my 110K vRS - no suprise that it was quite clogged with black gunge. I'm guessing the intake manifold is probably in a similar condition so I plan to give it the pikey fire cleaning treatment :-)

One question - if the intake manifold is clogged, would the intake ports in the head also be clogged? Would the valve stems also be coated in the black gunge? If so, how do you I clean the intake ports without removing the head? It seems to me that if the ports are as clogged as the manifold pipe then cleaning the manifold should have little performance effect? Am I right?

Thanks.

I'd reckon never say never, if you clean up the inlet tract, surely the new incoming gunge building crap will start to seperate out of the air quicker as it travels along the now clean inlet tract, and that would slow down the rate of gunge building crap reaching the ports in the head, so I'd reckon that its worth it.

I'd reckon never say never, if you clean up the inlet tract, surely the new incoming gunge building crap will start to seperate out of the air quicker as it travels along the now clean inlet tract, and that would slow down the rate of gunge building crap reaching the ports in the head, so I'd reckon that its worth it.

Sure, that makes sense. I was more thinking if the engine performance is reduced due to intake narrowing, then you surely have to clean out the blockage all the way to the cylinders. If I leave a restricting blockage in the intake ports then is cleaning the manifold is a wasted effort?

Sure, that makes sense. I was more thinking if the engine performance is reduced due to intake narrowing, then you surely have to clean out the blockage all the way to the cylinders. If I leave a restricting blockage in the intake ports then is cleaning the manifold is a wasted effort?

Put a bottle of FORTE diesel treament in a tank of fuel, it cleans the injectors, egr etc, I swear by it after the RAC recommended it to me 4yrs ago, cost about a tenner of e-bay, but on second thoughts, cos of your milage, a strip down seems the better option, go for it...