intake manifold cleaning on 95 E300D
 

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.

more pictures

I have used wooden popsickel sticks/tung depressors to scoup it out while holding the nozzle of a shop vac on the intake port to pull the dust and loose pieces out. You will never get it all.....some of it will fall back in but it does not seem to phase the engine. The carbon deposit that accumulates in the intake manifold is only a fraction of the stuff that blows into the engine. Blame the EGR system........
Bought some handy disposable scrapers at Ace Hardware the last time I did the job ($1.80)....they worked great too!

The way to get this crap out of the IM is purple cleaner like castrol Super clean. Get a gallon or two and soak the manifold in it. It is amazing how well it works. I found a flexible round toilet brush is helpful too.
Steve

I also have a 95 and was going to do this as soon as the weaher gets a little warmer. After it's all cleaned, how would one disable the EGR. There is a valve/throttle plate that closes and forces the engine to pull from the EGR. If you block the EGR you would just restrict the airflow to the engine. There is alot of info on the older engines but not the non turbo 603's.

Or the non-turbo 606.