Necessity to clean intake manifold/valves

DubC

DubC

Greenie N00B Member
Greenie Member
so i'm not a total fool...most of the time. i realize that due to what our engine is that the back of the valves will get dirty as fuck. my question is about necessity. is it absolutely necessary every X miles? i'm sure each car is different based on several factors. i, for instance, installed a catch can at like 540 miles. i had a few issues here and there so there were some miles where a catch can was not installed, but for the majority of the time there's been one there. i unplugged my EGR solenoid at 37,000 miles. i planned to do a delete of that tube but read that this was hopefully the next best thing. my car now has just over 48k miles.

and if i do the delete, i believe i have to take the manifold off anyways...or it's easier to just do it at that time.

my big hang up is while i feel i'm mechanically inclined, i'm more than nervous to be 'that guy' and fuck something up. "oh, i had to turn the crank further to fully close that valve? now i have medium in my cylinders? walnuts burn up, right??" or not getting the gasket seated, etc.

didn't mazda think of this fucking valve thing during creation of this motor and in the several years they built it?

anyways, maybe i just need to nut up and do it. but i'd rather have internet bros tell me that i guess.
 
It's direct injection, which is just a part of having it. Cleaning valves regains power lost from carbon buildup. Corksport sells the blast kit now so it's a nicer option than the ol tubing and duct tape blast stuff.
 
Plan on doing it in the next couple weeks. Picked up the CS tool on sale a few months back, so like @Raider; said it looks like a quality piece that should make the job a lil easier.

Car is at 118k and has never had valves cleaned. Only plan on doing it once. Car still feels good so it’ll be nice to see if I gain anything from cleaning. Had the IM off last year and my valves had a lot of build up. Crazy carbon side growths coming off the valve stems


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Raider said:
It's direct injection, which is just a part of having it. Cleaning valves regains power lost from carbon buildup. Corksport sells the blast kit now so it's a nicer option than the ol tubing and duct tape blast stuff.
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I figured. Saw that kit. $60 seems steep for some silicon. Though I do know it’s a custom piece. Too bad no group buy or discount code.

I’d assume it isn’t an every 20k miles thing.


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60 bucks is cheap for a custom molded sllicone setup. I'll pay for quality. There are 75 dollar fmic kits on eBay, and 500 dollar ones. You get what you pay for.

As for how often, probably 50k or so. I did mine at like 70k, now at 148k and they were nasty last year when I saw em.
 
Raider said:
60 bucks is cheap for a custom molded sllicone setup. I'll pay for quality. There are 75 dollar fmic kits on eBay, and 500 dollar ones. You get what you pay for.

As for how often, probably 50k or so. I did mine at like 70k, now at 148k and they were nasty last year when I saw em.
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Well then I’m at the right time, miles-wise then. I’ll take another look at their kit.


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DubC said:
Well then I’m at the right time, miles-wise then. I’ll take another look at their kit.


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If you want to save on shipping become a 7th gear member. Partial joke, but if you plan on buy8ng other CS products it’s worth the additional cost.
 
Car is at 110k, probably never done either. I do want to do mine soon but nervous of what all is required and possibly getting walnut into the cylinders.

I wonder how many speeds have never had this done and been ok? Not sure if this is listed in the owner's manual as a maintenance thing. Probably a lot of owners not on forums who have no idea.
 
Yeah, pretty sure it’s not listed as a service item anywhere. Just follow the steps in the many tutorials out there. I used brake clean to make sure the valves were closed. If your that concerned about anything getting in the cylinder you can pop a plug and take a look see.

It’s time consuming. That’s about it. Not too difficult at all. Give yourself plenty of time because depending on the build up some valves may take longer than others.

After popping IM off. The valves for 1-3-4 were closed. Soaked with B12 overnight. Scrapped and blasted. Then turned over engine for 2, which had the most buildup so that took longer.

Replaced PCV valve, added AP gaskets, cleaned map sensor, cleaned IM, cleaned egr tube, changed spark plugs.

Car just runs smoother and happier.

Already have compressor. All in probably spent less than $175 for valve cleaning (CS valve tool, B12x2, walnut, gravity gun, HF picks and drill brushes) minus gaskets, pcv, and plugs everything

Is this a job to look forward too? Not for me. Hell, I was putting it off for the longest. But so glad I finally did it. Plan on sending a set of injectors out for cleaning this summer so I may clean valves agin in the fall while swapping injectors.



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macdiesel said:
Yeah, pretty sure it’s not listed as a service item anywhere. Just follow the steps in the many tutorials out there. I used brake clean to make sure the valves were closed. If your that concerned about anything getting in the cylinder you can pop a plug and take a look see.

It’s time consuming. That’s about it. Not too difficult at all. Give yourself plenty of time because depending on the build up some valves may take longer than others.

After popping IM off. The valves for 1-3-4 were closed. Soaked with B12 overnight. Scrapped and blasted. Then turned over engine for 2, which had the most buildup so that took longer.

Replaced PCV valve, added AP gaskets, cleaned map sensor, cleaned IM, cleaned egr tube, changed spark plugs.

Car just runs smoother and happier.

Already have compressor. All in probably spent less than $175 for valve cleaning (CS valve tool, B12x2, walnut, gravity gun, HF picks and drill brushes) minus gaskets, pcv, and plugs everything

Is this a job to look forward too? Not for me. Hell, I was putting it off for the longest. But so glad I finally did it. Plan on sending a set of injectors out for cleaning this summer so I may clean valves agin in the fall while swapping injectors.



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Click to expand...

That’s how my valves are sitting...I think. Can I like, rent that CS tool from you? :)


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Rgurleyjr said:
Car is at 110k, probably never done either. I do want to do mine soon but nervous of what all is required and possibly getting walnut into the cylinders.

I wonder how many speeds have never had this done and been ok? Not sure if this is listed in the owner's manual as a maintenance thing. Probably a lot of owners not on forums who have no idea.
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Getting the intake manifold off was the most annoying. Mostly cuz I didn’t know about the other 3 bolts that aren’t visible. Once it was off I felt much better. I’ve yet to clean them but Shouldn’t be too bad.

Don’t worry about some walnut bits making it into the cylinders. They will burn off when you start the car. Just don’t pump em in with an open valve :)


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I would like to see some good data of before vs after. Like a few datalogs/v dynos on the same stretch of road in around the same ambeint conditions before and after the clean.

May not be useful since every car has a different amount of gunk and is making a different amount of power, but I'm interested to see if g/s changes at all.

Clean valves certainly can't hurt, I will probably do it if/when I pull the mani to clean the injectors and do injector seals, hopefully within a year. But my car has ~60k so it isn't a big priority yet.
 
mangosmoothie said:
I would like to see some good data of before vs after. Like a few datalogs/v dynos on the same stretch of road in around the same ambeint conditions before and after the clean.

May not be useful since every car has a different amount of gunk and is making a different amount of power, but I'm interested to see if g/s changes at all.

Clean valves certainly can't hurt, I will probably do it if/when I pull the mani to clean the injectors and do injector seals, hopefully within a year. But my car has ~60k so it isn't a big priority yet.
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My car has just over 48k miles and I’ve had an OCC on it since 450 miles on the odo. I’m sure there were other ways to mitigate blow-by but an OCC is a good one. Here’s one of my valves before cleaning for your reference:

8eb000b4781d6bec387bd144b76c74ca.jpg



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DubC said:
My car has just over 48k miles and I’ve had an OCC on it since 450 miles on the odo. I’m sure there were other ways to mitigate blow-by but an OCC is a good one. Here’s one of my valves before cleaning for your reference:

8eb000b4781d6bec387bd144b76c74ca.jpg



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Dang, definitely not the worse I've seen but looks dirty even for having a OCC. I really need to do mine...
 
DubC said:
My car has just over 48k miles and I’ve had an OCC on it since 450 miles on the odo. I’m sure there were other ways to mitigate blow-by but an OCC is a good one. Here’s one of my valves before cleaning for your reference:

8eb000b4781d6bec387bd144b76c74ca.jpg



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Click to expand...
Damn... I wonder what my valves look like after 58k.
 
When I did mine, I used valve picks and long flatheads to scrape the gunk off. My valve gunk wasn't petrified, the gunk was still fairly soft. Scrape and vacuum as best as you can, then walnut blast and vacuum. Might have to blast and vacuum a couple of times in each cylinder, but as @macdiesel said the engine runs a million times smoother at idle and during acceleration.
 
Cleaning the valves is kinda like staring at a pimple thats white. once you see it you just have to take care of it. It is satisfying to see them all clean but it does suck a lot. Walnut shouldn't be a problem if it gets into the cylinder it should just burn up. Besides you need to let the chemtool soak in there and dosent drain out after a hour then theres no way walnut will get in there. @ 30k with a catch can and the egr hooked up my valves were unbelievable. Unless there is a shit load of buildup like 100k or more there shouldn't be much if any performance difference.
Make sure you do an oil change afterwards since the chem tool may make its way in there. I would also recommend a gun barrel cleaning brush since some of it behind the valve stem wont come off with media. The old one from my saiga worked great.
 
5doorsoffury said:
Cleaning the valves is kinda like staring at a pimple thats white. once you see it you just have to take care of it. It is satisfying to see them all clean but it does suck a lot. Walnut shouldn't be a problem if it gets into the cylinder it should just burn up. Besides you need to let the chemtool soak in there and dosent drain out after a hour then theres no way walnut will get in there. @ 30k with a catch can and the egr hooked up my valves were unbelievable. Unless there is a shit load of buildup like 100k or more there shouldn't be much if any performance difference.
Make sure you do an oil change afterwards since the chem tool may make its way in there. I would also recommend a gun barrel cleaning brush since some of it behind the valve stem wont come off with media. The old one from my saiga worked great.
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I had to go exchange my gravity gun and picked a set of nylon brushes. Figure that’s better than wire brushes and can try to get behind the valves. Hope none of that shit breaks off tho. I’ll done one final blow out of the ports before I say done. Have 6 valves soaking now. Have been some 11:00 last night.


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The HF gravity gun can be finicky. It may be best to slow feed the walnut so it doesn’t jam.


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