ADVICE! VW tdi Engine clean

[pistonhed]

Hi,
I took off my egr valve last week while bypassing it on my passat!lookin inside it couldnt believe the amount of sticky carbon :-S im gonna give it a good clean out and try to take a few years off it!

any advice on anything else might apreshiate a good clean in or around the engine while am at it aside from the egr and the inlet manifold?

The car has just turned 160,000 miles so think it deserves it. She's the 2002 VW passat sport(130bhp)

also; you think this will help performance once it's all cleaned?

Cheers

[RobCrezz]

I think you can get a kit that blanks off the EGR so you dont have to use it. As you say the intake manifold will benefit from a good clean. a new air filter would be good as well if the current one is really dirty.

[pistonhed]

Do well il have a look at it. might post before and after pictures if I do myself proud!

[JB!]

Brake cleaner & Blu roll I used when I removed the EGR on my old fabia VRS, make sure you don't push crap onto the blades, if you do brake cleaner will burn ok so just wash it off.

HTH.

[pistonhed]

Got her done today, there was some build up inside both the egr and the manifold. used 3 in 1 heavy duty degreaser and then burnt the carbon out of the manifold with the blow torch and air line.(saw this on you tube) Then used a bit of cord to pull a clean rag down through each of the ports once it was done.
the whole thing came up like new, pleased with it and im sure it's made a good difference somewhere along the line. that engine sits sideways so was a gift to work at.

cheers

[morgrp]

Clean out the breather system (often referred to as the PCV system on cars) - running on poor quality oil (not saying yours is of course)will carbon it up in no time at all

[pistonhed]

should I still clean the PCV if iv blocked off my egr? or are they unrelated? thanks

[redtwin]

They are unrelated. May be a better idea to replace the breather as they sometimes have a filter element that may not be too easy to clean.

This is the filter from my 330d. Fitting the new one eliminated visible exhaust smoke on hard acceleration.



I also cleaned my EGR and my intercooler. My intake manifold was plastic, no way I would have done what you did with blowtorch etc. I stuck to white spirits and a wire brush, didn't really notice any difference to running after though

[Defcon5]

Is there a difference between blocking it off properly and it being blocked up with gunk? Surely the outcome is no gas coming through on both?

[Classic Grad 98]

Defcon5 said:

Is there a difference between blocking it off properly and it being blocked up with gunk? Surely the outcome is no gas coming through on both?

The EGR valve is feeding the engine it's own dirt. If left open, then the EGR valve and the inlet manifold get clogged up. If you block the EGR valve off, the dirt isn't getting into the inlet manifold at all.

[redtwin]

Defcon5 said:

Is there a difference between blocking it off properly and it being blocked up with gunk? Surely the outcome is no gas coming through on both?

When people refer to blocking off an EGR intentionally they mean preventing exhaust gas and soot from getting into the intake airflow side.

To the left of the pic is where the exhaust gasses enter and this is what needs to be blocked off properly so you don't get soot build up. I don't think the airflow passage would ever get completely blocked up. The car would barely run before it came to that.

[Fastdruid]

The EGR doesn't half make a nasty mess inside the inlet manifold. Everything covered with a nasty slightly oil sooty coating.

I'm not that surprised the EGR system's stop working after a while, I took off the EGR manifold on my 1UZ-FE to scan the EGR flange to make up a cover plate and this was the state of the inside of it. God knows what the inside of the EGR valve is like.



Couldn't have been far off totally blocked, this was it once I'd cleared the worst of the crud out, not that it'll be used again.

[JB!]

Fastdruid said:

The EGR doesn't half make a nasty mess inside the inlet manifold. Everything covered with a nasty slightly oil sooty coating.

I'm not that surprised the EGR system's stop working after a while, I took off the EGR manifold on my 1UZ-FE to scan the EGR flange to make up a cover plate and this was the state of the inside of it. God knows what the inside of the EGR valve is like.



Couldn't have been far off totally blocked, this was it once I'd cleared the worst of the crud out, not that it'll be used again.

looks about right!!!!

mine was a more viscous black sludge, being sucked back through the turbo!

[Fastdruid]

Yeah, inside of the manifold was nastier, that bit 'just' has exhaust flowing through it so its just carbon.

I'd like to know what I could use to remove the carbon though, going to be impossible to scrape it off and just about everything I've found that'll dissolve carbon also dissolves aluminium...

Even the dishwasher wasn't much good (it improved it a bit) as I then had to spend an hour cleaning carbon flakes off everything before the wife spotted the mess (or it deposited them over the plates )

[JB!]

Fastdruid said:

Yeah, inside of the manifold was nastier, that bit 'just' has exhaust flowing through it so its just carbon.

I'd like to know what I could use to remove the carbon though, going to be impossible to scrape it off and just about everything I've found that'll dissolve carbon also dissolves aluminium...

Even the dishwasher wasn't much good (it improved it a bit) as I then had to spend an hour cleaning carbon flakes off everything before the wife spotted the mess (or it deposited them over the plates )

brake cleaner will make it liquid and "wash" it off, then it evaporates, leaving the carbon behind, so use in a parts washer or old container or something.

[pistonhed]

www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/a4/clean-intake-manifo...

follow this link its really good

[a11y_m]

OK, knowledge-lacking poster here so go easy on me.

Are there ANY disadvantages to blocking off the EGR? I've got a blanking plate for my VW T5 with the 2.5 5-cyl TDI and I've yet to install it due to worries about buggering up something else as a result. Am I worrying about nothing?

[k15tox]

a11y_m said:

OK, knowledge-lacking poster here so go easy on me.

Are there ANY disadvantages to blocking off the EGR? I've got a blanking plate for my VW T5 with the 2.5 5-cyl TDI and I've yet to install it due to worries about buggering up something else as a result. Am I worrying about nothing?

no downsides that im aware of.

EGR is only there for emmissions and that is it. to lower n0x levels by cooling the combustion process.

as said it feeds the engine its own crap and because diesel burns heavy you end up with carbon gunk everywhere.

you will probably get a warning light, but thats about it.

[Fastdruid]

Not just diesel, petrol leaves just as much of a mess. Maybe diesel does it a bit quicker but still nasty.

[a11y_m]

k15tox said:

no downsides that im aware of.

EGR is only there for emmissions and that is it. to lower n0x levels by cooling the combustion process.

as said it feeds the engine its own crap and because diesel burns heavy you end up with carbon gunk everywhere.

you will probably get a warning light, but thats about it.

Thanks. I might get around to fitting it sometime - only had the blanking plate sitting on the shelf for about 12 months...