So, I tore down the entire intake system today. ICK! The upper plenum
was just as bad as last year when I had it off and cleaned it. The lower
was worse. And the heads -- wow, talk about crud.
I could see the valves fairly easily with a flashlight. The primaries are
pristine, but the valve at the end of the secondary has crud all over the
stem. I can see how extrude honing the head ports can benefit, the
passages are very rough from the casting.
I spent a couple hours, with the help of my father-in-law and wife,
cleaning the lower intake. Man, that stuff is baked on! The head was
hopeless -- I don't know what to do in order to clean it out and not get
nasty bits in the cylinders. I haven't even touched the upper yet.
The seals between the fuel manifold and lower were intact, but quite
hard. There was oil in between all seals and some leaking out of the
lower gasket onto the heads. Yuck. There was oil in one of the injector
connectors -- that can't be good.
I still want to get the injectors out of the rail and replace the
o-rings. I can't seem to find an injector removal tool anywhere. Can
anyone suggest a good place? I'm going to try Sears after failing to find
one at the auto parts stores. Napa might be a possibility, too.
One bad thing -- the little plastic grommets that hold the IMRC linkage
together disintegrated when I took the lower apart. Not sure how I'm
going to fix that, as they probably won't be in stock at any dealer and I
can't see any parts stores carrying anything like it.
I turned the stop screw for the secondaries so that they don't close
completely. I think this is critical in order to keep things from baking
on again. Without airflow, the oil just cakes onto the secondary
passages.
I replaced the fuel pressure regulator, too. Pretty easy, and might as
well while everything is apart.
Well, I'll be back at it again tomorrow. Hopefully I can find an injector
remover and replace those o-rings.
-Lance
