[AW335TT]

Last Sunday I decided to clean my valves, car has about 112k miles on it, all of them from me.. and fkk were they dirty! Engine feels sooo smooth/quiet now. With the windows closed, at idle, I can barely tell that the car is on.

Heres some pics.

[Vish8895]

Very good!

How did you clean them? I.e what tools and products did you use?

[HawkeyeGeoff]

Nice man! This is the first thing I did when I bought my car.

[Meatos]

Did my intake recently using brake clean and copper brushes in different sizes from a weapon clening set. A cordless drill also helps out to spin the brushes making it more effective.
Did also use and vacuum suction tool to suck up the black mess and an air compressor plus vacuumcleaner to blow out some small copper wires from the brushes and anything else that is left in there

Welcome to E90Post!

[AW335TT]

Originally Posted by FCobra94

Welcome to E90Post!

Ive been here for 10 years haha.. but thanks!

[AW335TT]

Originally Posted by Vish8895

Very good!

How did you clean them? I.e what tools and products did you use?

Carb cleaner, brass and nylon brushes, turkey baster to suck up liquid, air compressor and the standard tools required to take everything apart.

[tylerboland01]

I did mine a few months ago with a modified harbor freight walnut blaster. Didn't notice much difference power wise, but the car ran significantly smoother. Been running TBI for the three past months, it'll be interesting if it makes a difference next time I take the intake manifold off.

[Donutz]

How long did it take you to complete this? I'm all about DIY, but can't decide on the brush/chemical method vs investing in all the tools to walnut blast.

[tylerboland01]

Originally Posted by Donutz

How long did it take you to complete this? I'm all about DIY, but can't decide on the brush/chemical method vs investing in all the tools to walnut blast.

Walnut blasting took a total of two hours, and that includes removing and reinstalling the intake manifold.

I'm not sure about the brush method, I did use an old wire brush from my gun cleaning kit too remove some stubborn chunks that were wasting my walnuts though.

[AW335TT]

Originally Posted by Donutz

How long did it take you to complete this? I'm all about DIY, but can't decide on the brush/chemical method vs investing in all the tools to walnut blast.

Id do it with a walnut blaster if I was doing it again.

I had a hard time getting the electrical box off the manifold, so I waisted a lot of time on it. Than I figured out a simple way and it took like 15 seconds -__-

total time was prob around 6 hours. I spent a lot of time trying to get as much build up as possible from the bottom. Walnut blaster would have done it a lot faster.

[langsbr]

Walnut blasting is amazingly simple to do. If you already have an air compressor, you have the hard part down. I did mine about a month ago and had to buy the port tool, wand, and media blaster. The 20lb one from HF works great. I spent more time putting thread tape on every connection than I did doing the cleaning!

HF also has a starter bump button for $10 that works great to cycle the motor.

I thought I was going to go thru media quickly so I bought 50 lbs. I didn't even use 10 I don't think.

The only issue I had was since I only have one air hose, I had to swap it between the blaster and my blower tool. DO NOT forget to close the valve going into the blaster! I only forgot a couple times lol.

[mike@x-ph.com]

[Vish8895]

Originally Posted by AW335TT

Id do it with a walnut blaster if I was doing it again.

I had a hard time getting the electrical box off the manifold, so I waisted a lot of time on it. Than I figured out a simple way and it took like 15 seconds -__-

total time was prob around 6 hours. I spent a lot of time trying to get as much build up as possible from the bottom. Walnut blaster would have done it a lot faster.

Please for the love of god tell me what this simple 15s method is!

We spent a good 45 mins trying to lever it off before giving up and replacing the HPFP without removing the manifold - spoiler alert, it was a PITA.

[AW335TT]

Originally Posted by Vish8895

Please for the love of god tell me what this simple 15s method is!

We spent a good 45 mins trying to lever it off before giving up and replacing the HPFP without removing the manifold - spoiler alert, it was a PITA.

I dont have a good pic, hopefully this helps. Get a flat head screw driver, put it where I drew the line, than rotate the screw driver so one side is pushing on the metal, the other on the plastic clip.. it should slowly start pushing the clip out.

[Vish8895]

Originally Posted by AW335TT

I dont have a good pic, hopefully this helps. Get a flat head screw driver, put it where I drew the line, than rotate the screw driver so one side is pushing on the metal, the other on the plastic clip.. it should slowly start pushing the clip out.

Thanks!

Yeah we tried that but the plastic was so brittle it just started chewing up the bracket

[AW335TT]

Originally Posted by Vish8895

Thanks!

Yeah we tried that but the plastic was so brittle it just started chewing up the bracket

another thing you can do is just uncrew the metal part off the maniford, thats actually what I did.

I couldnt get the clip loose, so I just uncrewed the metal bracket off of the manifold, its held on by 3 screws. You do still eventually have to get it apart cuz its almost impossible to screw it back on while its clipped together. Without the manifold in the way tho, you get a lot more room to work and try different things.

[AW335TT]

There it is, still clipped together but off the manifold.

[Vish8895]

Yeah we read about that online but unfortunately my ratchet bits were too thick to get on the back screw.

Next time I think I will have to get some thin torx keys rather than ratchet bits, hopefully wont be in there anytime soon though!