Intake cleaning (TFSI)

[saksager]

Hi all

Just a quick question. I am thinking about cleaning the intake on my tfsi engine, but has anyone in this forum ever done that and with good results? What kind of products did you use to dissolve the carbon residue?

I took the PCV of yesterday, and saw a lot of oil residue, so perhaps I need to clean the intake at some point, but I am puzzled about which cleaning product I should use? I am not fan of doing it with seafoam or similar, and haven't been able to find a link to a proper manual solution.

Thanks

Anders

[martziniuk]

I presume you mean the inlet valves behind the inlet manifold.

Its quite a big job to do tbh, taking it all off takes a bit of time the first time you do it. When you get to the valves the oily gunk is set like tar and it's hard to get off. I tried to remove it with wooden picks but it was set too fast. I tried spraying carb cleaner and agitating but that only removed a small amount at a time.

I gave up in the end as I wanted to get the injectors back in for the K04 conversion.

115 000 miles

[saksager]

Thanks for the info. One of my friends has a workshop, where I might do it during a weekend, and he said that intake cleaner might do the trick, but I am less certain, which is why I ask. Does anyone know a good product for this?

So you did nothing and is just running the car like this with K04?

Which PCV fix solution would prevent this from happening again? I have looked at this: http://www.bshspeedshop.com/bshstore/products/BSH-2.0T-FSI-PCV-Revamp.html

But perhaps I need another system to be sure or to minimize it at least?

[martziniuk]

No product will shift that stuff without taking the intake manifold off. The Intake cleaner will probably be similar to the carb cleaner I used. I tried one valve for about 20 mins but lost patience. Yeah I just ran K04 as it is.

Water meth is the best solution to keep the valves clean and gives more power

Catch can will help a little but not much as the valves leak oil past the stem seals.

[bert13]

I've been looking into this topic of late as I have recently purchased a 2007 vRS with the 2.0TFSI engine and just over 100k miles on the lock. It has a slight misfire which is most pronounced when cold. I've change the coilpacks with negligable effect so now suspect the inlet is gummed up - as per martziniuks picture.

I've used ecotec power boost foam on a nissan primera some years ago with reasonable results ( http://www.ecotekplc.com/PowerBoost.htm) - its basically oven cleaner for engines, but at £30 a tin it's not cheap and if the engine is as gummed up as I think it will need multiple treatments (nothing will beat a good stripdown).

I've looked into Seafoam which is popular in the US and there are plenty of Youtube videos about it. It seems to retail at about £18 per can on ebay in the UK. Annoyingly it is $8.50 in Walmart in the US, but because its flammable you cannot put it in you luggage.

Another option is water, yes water (introduced slowly via the PCV pipe), which I've had a very quick go at (popular in the US check out Youtube once again), and judging by the crap that came out of the exhaust it does have an positive effect. One theory is that the thermal shock of water vapour on hot intake valve caused the hard deposits to crack off, but I expect most of the effect is due to simple "washing of the intake" which is effectly what a water meths system does as a by product of the way it works - and makes up for the lack of inlet "fuel wash" that this direct injection engine suffers from.

I expect this method would work eventually with a number of small and regular treatments (to give a chance for hard deposits to burn off in the cat before clogging it).

[martziniuk]

I had the cold start misfire before I took the above picture. After swapping injectors for the K04 conversion all misfires have disappeared, I didn't even clean the valves.

Do you have the you tube link for the PCV water treatment?

[banzaiman]

Try this company, Seen it on wheeler dealers. Suppose to work extremely well

http://www.terraclean.co.uk/terraclean%20testamonials.html

[Grizzle]

Try this company, Seen it on wheeler dealers. Suppose to work extremely well

http://www.terraclea...stamonials.html

have had a few friends try it one on a 150k bmw 325i and noticed zero difference.

Its a massive con.

[Metblackrat]

have had a few friends try it one on a 150k bmw 325i and noticed zero difference.

Its a massive con.

I think the empirical test done on Wheeler Dealers shows its not. Quite a factual test I thought.

[mr_awol]

How much is it?

Cheaper than the £2300 bill I ended up with for letting the intakes become caked in carbon I bet.......

[banzaiman]

How much is it?

Cheaper than the £2300 bill I ended up with for letting the intakes become caked in carbon I bet.......

How many miles were on the car when that happened?

[mr_awol]

How many miles were on the car when that happened?

IIRC somewhere between 30k and 40k

[bert13]

Having looked at the terraclean website I don't believe it will touch the intake build up on the TFSI engine. The The TFSI engine is direct injection - the fuel is injected directly into the cylinder. As far as I can gather terraclean is pumped in through the fuel injectors, therefore it will never see the intake. It may help, but decoke products have been around as long as combustion engines so I think this is more slick marketing than a good long term solution.

The reason this engine suffers and others don't is that in in-direct injection engines the fuel effectively washes any oil deposits (from the crankcase breather and valve stems) into the combustion chamber where it is burnt. The use of water meth kits will perform this "washing" in place of and better than the fuel vapour.

From what I have read on this forum and others the best treatment is a intake strip down. Ideally you'd take the head off, but that is getting very involved.

[zei20t]

Subaru Upper Engine Cleaner.