The Rescue Roomster is rather on the high end of the mileage spectrum at 160k, so I'm expecting to find a good collection of carbon on and near the intake valves (from burnt-on oil mainly).

Aiming to take the inlet manifold off tomorrow so will see the state of them then, at least as much as the limited view down the ports will offer (image of a shiny clean head from an ebay listing):

These ports face the rear of the engine bay too, so mirror involvement expected, and awkward reaching over...

A local VW group specialist said they could do walnut shell cleaning on it, and it probably wouldn't cost more than £500, which wasn't exactly the territory I was hoping for, price-wise! 😁

Looks to me like it'll be hard enough to judge whether any given valve is closed or open, let alone get anything in there manually to attempt to scrape and clean.

It could be partly a camera angle thing but the ports look very narrow close to the backs of the valves, presumably to generate swirl anticlockwise?

I suggested they could maybe make it cheaper if I pushed the car into their premises after having removed the inlet manifold myself, but the fella I spoke to sounded unenthusiastic about that idea.

Experiences? Prices paid? Anyone DIY'ed with the walnut shell/sandblasting kits you see on ebay etc? Any thoughts or info appreciated.

Cheers.

I know it’s not much help, but I looked at complete walnut blasting kits on eBay a a couple of years ago and they were about £300.

I did it manual way and cost me 30€

Can of car uretter cleaner spray, soak cyl. 1, 2 and 3, let valves complete flow in it.

Next day, that soot came off very rasy, with plastic tools and some picks.

If you have knowledge to pull out intake mainfold, you will easy finish it.

Thanks for that. Manifold is already off, surprisingly easy.

Tried to take some photos down the ports but really need torch, mirror, assistant. Had none of those.

Did note with satisfaction that the breather jet that I expected to be completely blocked does indeed appear to be.

Should look like this:

thats easy job now. turn engine to 4th cilinder valve sty open, that means that 1-2-3 are closed. spray little brake cleaner to see it valve seals properly. if yes, take bottle of carburetter cleaner add spray in ports 1-2-3 to the top. wait 12 hours, i left it to morning, you will se how easy dirt will come off, isung just plastic brushes and picks. i uset tools and stuff like that on pictures. cut a piece of this polimer mesh for cleaning copper pipes and fix it to some pick or little tweezers, with plastic zip ties, that i have not use strengh on fingers and detailed brush everything.

when liquid become black and thick, i pull it out with come cotton cloth, use compressed air too and see where depozits are left, then concentrate on them. same stuff carb cleaner and brushing.

all of that will cost you 30€, i wont never pay 700€ how much some garage ask me to, or skoda service i think 1000€. insane.

look before and after..

Not easy at all. Look at the image above of the refurbished, super-clean head and consider those views but with everything deep inside the port completely black and light-absorbing. Couldn't even see much at all with a device for looking inside the ear canal which my partner kindly offered. 😄

Access on a 16 valve engine (forward facing intake ports?) looks vastly easier for those lucky owners.

Even with mirror, light, help I couldn't see into the ports to really tell how much crud there is, let alone do anything about it.

At one point I had my head wedged upside down between engine and firewall, but still couldn't see well.

I've decided it's OK! 😆

In better news, the PCV system seems to be working properly now, pulling the oil filler cap down again at idle, if you loosen and try to remove.

Edited 25 June, 202525 Jun by Breezy_Pete

@imart143, thanks very much for your input though. 👍