intake manifold cleaning on 95 E300D

[drgreenthumb]

I took the intake off today to clean it and found a couple of interesting things. The amount of carbon was incredible, especially on cylinder 5 (pictured). Is this amount of build up normal? There is a bit of white smoke at start up, could this be a bad glow plug? Would that contribute to added build up of soot? Two glow plug boots had electrical tape wrapped around them.

There was so much crud on the cylinder head I didn't want to put towels into the ports for fear of knocking it into the cylinder. Any advice on how to get this out without it falling into the cylinder would be appreciated. The intake will be taken in to have it steam cleaned tomorrow.

When I removed the intake I noticed something stuck in one of the ports (also pictured). At first I thought it was a chunk of carbon. Turns out it was a piece of some composite. I don't know where it came from.

I also found the wiring harness needs replacing as well as the crank case breather hoses. Let the fun begin.