Manifold Cleaning

[Mirez]

Hi Mirez, you posted a while back with regard to cleaning your EGR valve that consumption had gone back up to high 40s just form doing the egr valve

Are your new gains in addition to this or as a combined effort ,ie egr valve and manifold?

Or does doing the manifold give a better overall response th the effort

It certainly seems well worth the effort tho,if only I could find the time to do mine

 

In addition. Just having the EGR done did improve the MPG quite a lot but the airflow is still restricted by the manifold. I found that high 40's were possible with the EGR done but you still had to be thinking about driving for MPG where as with the whole system done I can drive normally and it averages somewhere in the high 40's

Really they should be done as a pair, the airflow will be impeded by whichever one you don't do so the gains won't be as much. From a speculative science point I'd be wary about doing just the manifold, if the EGR's still cacked up you'll create a lower pressure chamber in the manifold which will create vortices in the air coming off the EGR gunk and the potential to suck big lumps of it into the intake. Plus if you've gone to the hassle of removing the manifold the EGR's already off.

[bigdave982]

Thanks for that Mirez,just added more pressure to me to do it !!!;)after all one of the reasons i bought it was for econaomy ,and with 130000 miles on mine im guessing it will be fully cacked up and barely breathing ,just need to get a new manifold gasket ,a day off ,be able to park outside AND no rain !!!

 

Im thinking sometime next year !!

 

Just as an aside ,I remember seeing on an episode of "Tank Restorer" or something ,the guys used domestic oven cleaner to removve gunk and crud from an engine ,reckon it might work a treat on the egr and manifold crap.After all both are carbon and oil deposits ,baked on by heat ,what do you guys think

 

Dave

[Mirez]

Providing its safe for use on aluminium then I see no reason why not, I only used FC because I had easy access to it and I didn't really explorer household chemicals - I'm told petrol is quite good at dissolving the crud as well.

[zorgman]

dont bother with all these fancy filters just simply blank the egr off completly at the inlet manifold ive ran mine for a good 3 yrs now with no egr valve at all used my mates tiny camera thingy and its as clean now as it was when i first done it approx 40k ive put on car. 3 ways to clean it is mr muscle oven cleaner, petrol and then set fire to it or in my case i used good old caustic soda used it for 40yrs to clean carbon off 2 stroke exhausts it turns the ali black but be careful it eats it.

Have a look at the yanky forums theres masses of tuning info on there all todo with tdi's. have to put my cat back on as new law out for mot states it must be fitted but a nice tube thru middle of it and hey presto cat but no cat, other new mot rules are

if you have towbar electrics it must work, new tester costs

[Scorpiorefugee]

About 3 years ago I had a severe exhaust blowing type noise which the garage eventually pinned down to the EGR valve but couldn't actually see where it was coming from. I took what seemed to be the easy (cheap) way out and bought a straight through replacement for about

[bigdave982]

hi Mirez ive been looking at your excellent "how to " guide (damn good work btw mustve taken ages.)

Anyway i was womdering if you think that by working undeneath you think its possible to just remove the manifold securing bolts ,dissconnect the heat exchanger water pipes and just lift the whole thing out of the top.After removing all the scuttle tray etc. Seems it would then be easier to take the egr etc off when out of the car.

 

thought id ask as you have been in there and seen it all before

 

Cheers fella

dave

[Mirez]

Humm I think you would struggle for space to be honest, the exhaust manifold is directly below the intake with the turbo bolted to that so you would be fighting it to get tools in.

 

You could disconnect the water pipes instead and leave the H/E attached if you really don't want to disturb the EGR pipework but in my opinion draining down the coolant system would have been much more hassle then disconnecting the EGR pipes.

[Keithb]

Having had my manifold cleaned although not sure if the EGR valve was cleaned as well, here is my update after a 3 week holiday to Italy.

 

MPG measured before cleaning 37 - over several thousand miles of mixed driving.

MPG measured over 2,200 trip 36 - laden to the gunwales with camping equipment + roofbox and driving over mountain passes.

MPG on motorway (laden as above) at 70 - 75 mph - 37 MPG

 

Since returning I've done a 400 mile round trip to Ipswich M3, M25, A12, no luggage and just the driver - 44 MPG.

I'm pleased with the result and feel that I'm getting a better fuel consumption now.

 

2003 TDI 115 BHP AUTO. Mileage 130,000

Cheers

Keith

[George106]

Hi, where could I get that ProVent catch tank, looked through the net and can't find any UK seller.

 

Thanks

George

[t-aslam]

Wow. That's a lot of crud for those mileages. Mine has done 178k and I've never got round to doing this. Will do this when I change the Cambelt at 180k. I do abt 4-5k a month and have put 100k on it in 2 and half years and so far the only things that needed changing are front wheel bearings, shocks, shock mounts, stub shaft and rear calipers. Oil changed every 6-7k with quantum platinum everytime. Will be interesting to see how dirty my galaxy's manifold and egr valve are.

[George106]

Hi guys,

 

finally I had a time to do a bit of cleaning in my local garage and I must say the manifold and the EGR was dirty. I also installed Provent 150 system to minimize the build up (I chose Provent 150 instead Provent 200 as the space in the engine bay is tight). I have done most of the cleaning myself and spent over two hours scraping the gunk with screwdriver out of the EGR and the manifold followed with carb cleaner. I took few pictures for the reference.

 

In total I paid 350quid for dismantling whole inlet manifold, EGR, intercooler, all tubes from/to intercooler and the manifold, temperature sender change, oil change, one driveshaft boot change (all parts supplied).

 

Also they helped me with fitting of the Provent 150 catch tank. This hose connection is temporary before I'l fir proper hoses.

 

George

[ramdisknet]

Anyone know what the orange liquid is that comes of the he when the left rubber hose comes off?

[f0ster]

hello

the buildup is caused by the crankcase breather pipe, it passes oil mist as well as the waste crankcase gasses, these gasses are not allowed to be vented to atmosphere and so they are recycled back in the the air intake, the resulting oil mist sticks to the inlet manifold where the heat is, inter coolers usually some oil in them from the same source, it is in liquid form due to being cooler, when it gets to the source of heat it starts to bake itself on, I do not know about the latest trucks but the older ones from about 7 or 8 years ago always vented these gasses to atmosphere.

[Rntaylor]

Hi

 

Found this thread a while ago and having read Mirez's words thought I'd tackle the job. In all it took about 7 hours over 2 days, but having seen the pile of crud that came out, well worth it. As Mirez said, it is a slow job due to blind access working on the back of the engine.

 

Next time I would partially drain the coolant and remove the coolant pipes from the EG cooler (or is it a heater for the coolant?). I would also remove that shiny heat shield that protects the solenoid valves behind it to give more access, just undo those 2 big pressed steel nuts then wiggle the plate out. I did a dry run by fitting all the parts together again but off the car. By taking lots of photos I had a good reference for exactly where to find the various bolt holes etc.

 

Make sure it is all done up tight. Had a real fright when the exhaust bleed pipe came loose and sounded as if the turbo was about to leap out! I made and fitted a blanking plate to replace the thin steel gasket where the exhaust is bled off. I now get an average of over 52mpg from my 130BHp Sharan.

 

Thanks Mirez!

Edited August 8, 2013 by Rntaylor

[t-aslam]

I still haven't got round to doing this. Got 239k on it now and can feel she's not as enthusiastic as she used to be. Will have a go today weather allowing.

[t-aslam]

Lol I just decided to do this today and man oh man.

Never again!

I cannot believe that my car has 239k and the manifold and egr were actually cleaner than all of yours. Don't know how to upload pics but my intake was actually pretty clean.