I replaced my glowplugs in the 603 the other day and noticed when I took the manifold off, my valves and ports were all covered in a thick brownie batter like soot, I had to go into deep meditation to keep from cleaning them but i did resist and just put the intake back on. I was not sure of the side effects if I were to just soak it all with brake cleaner and let it set overnight. 2 ports were real bad the other 4 were just real sooty. Does all that soot affect the performance that much? Shes got about 320k and runs strong and smooth, but does have some sluggish days for some odd reason. Any suggestions on how to clean this mess or should I just live with it.

Clean the intake. Best to leave that stuff in the head alone. If one chunk of that stuff gets into the engine... You are going to have problems on what sounds like a good running car.

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AJ

1985 300D (SOLD)

Cleaning the intake, in conjunction with disabling the EGR (for testing purposes, of course), should help you keep it clean. The soot from the exhaust gasses, plus a little bit of oil really turns into goo...

When you changed out the glowplugs, did you ream out the carbon? That can help keep your glowplugs from burning out at an elevated rate.

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1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

You could crumple up a little bit of those blue paper shop towels and stuff them down the intake port, so that they sit right on the intake valves. This should keep most of the chunks out of the combustion chamber (but that stuff is mostly soft and gooey, so I don't think it's a real problem). Then spray starter fluid (ether) liberally around each port sequentially and use the towels to wipe up the goo. Just use long needle nose pliers and a shop-vac to pull out the towels and remaining material.

The nice thing about ether is that it will evaporate completely if you let it sit overnight. I don't think the same can be said of brake cleaner, which could accumulate in the cylinder and cause hydro-lock.

Back in the day there were products available for this application. "Foaming Top-Engine Cleaner," I think they called it. Maybe not on the market anymore? Im sure it was nasty stuff....

Jay

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On the road, currently:
'83 300D (German spec.) 168k mi. - - Wolfgang (tucked snugly away for the winter!)
'87 300D 375k mi. - finally went over to "The Dark Side"
'87 300TD 225k mi.
Cannondale 66cm CAAD5 w/Campy/Jamis Aurora
Hujsak Custom Fixie/Landshark Track Shark Custom/Ahearne Custom 29'er

Any solvent that can run into the combustion chamber will wash the lubrication/oil from the cylinder walls and cause a dry start, preferable to not do so.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Thanks for the info, It seems like the work and risk is not quite worth what seems to be no real benefit. So am I correct in thinking if I disable the EGR this problem could cure itself somewhat? is their anyone that makes a delete kit for the 603 ? (for testing purposes of course) I could probably figure it out and fab something but I will pay a decent price for conveinence.Thanks