Out of couriousity, I just removed my intake "overpass" tube on the 603 to investigate a seeping leak. Due to 16 years of the car running with the EGR valve hooked up, its a nightmare. I'm wondering if I can just bolt it back together and pray that nothing dislodges and gets sucked into the engine, or do I have to clean the tube, the intake manifold, and the attachment to where the EGR is?

I'm still in awe at the horror inside, its like road tar .


Also, what will be the best solvent for cleaning this disgusting mess?

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Jason

00 Subaru Legacy (fun wagon)
96 Nissan Sentra (disavowed)
82 300SD (garage queen, will run again hopefully)
87 300DT (Gone: 10/15/2010)

Diesel fuel, gasoline, paint thinners, brake cleaner, if you
have a parts cleaner, should work too.

Louis.

Thanks for the fast reply, but is it safe to start the vehicle without worrying about that stuff breaking free? If it does, how damaging is oil coated soot?

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Jason

00 Subaru Legacy (fun wagon)
96 Nissan Sentra (disavowed)
82 300SD (garage queen, will run again hopefully)
87 300DT (Gone: 10/15/2010)

If you are going to clean the crossover, it would be near pointless if you did not also clean the intake manifold too, and you'd have to take it off. Once off, peering into the intake ports that expose view of the valves, you'll likely be in for another shock too as there very likely to be as congested.

I wouldn't fool around with chemicals, have the crossover and manifold steam cleaned. Cleaning out the intake ports would be a challange since doing any kind of cleaning with an open valve may get crap down inside the chamber. Make sure each valve is closed if you try cleaning, and never use steam here.
I did mine painstakingly with a tooth brush (valve closed, turned engine with socket wrench clockwise, never CCW) and a little diesel, then soaked up the diesel with old rags. All six cleaned up very nicely, but did take a little time. Also ware gloves and don't get any on your skin, I have a brother who is dying from cancer after prolonged exposure to Benzene.

Good Luck..............Steve..............

Steve,

Thank you for the reply. Here's my scenario. Its 8:30 on a saturday night, the crossover is fairly clean now with a screwdriver poking and brake cleaner , I don't have anything near a "shop" and hoping that I can just bolt this back up and take it no my friend's shop and work on it there. However, my dad told me to unbolt the rest of the manifold, spray some commercial grade kitchen cleaning degreaser on it, and hose it off tomorrow. I'm just afraid that if i was to put it back together that chunks may fall into the engine and well... you get the picture.

Or I can go pick up some seafoam from my cousin's house and use that to clean it.

What should I do?

Also, no gloves at home.

__________________
Jason

00 Subaru Legacy (fun wagon)
96 Nissan Sentra (disavowed)
82 300SD (garage queen, will run again hopefully)
87 300DT (Gone: 10/15/2010)

The problem I see using oven-off or any degreasing formula is that because you cannot see very far inside the intake, you cannot insure that you get it all, and steam cleaning will better insure all is clean.

If unless there are clumps that are hardened, which I doubt, getting some of this residue into the firing chamber while running probably wouldn't be detrimental, certainly not a good thing but I wouldn't worry about it. The chief thing I see here is intake restriction and will very likely suffer in performance!