kael

Hey all, first timer question yet again. I pulled my intake manifold, was expecting the revealed valley to be...I dunno, full of coolant or something, from something I saw on blah blah blah.

Anyway, seeing the nice, clean, oiled covered valley which is obviously NOT a place for any sort of dirt, well, that froze me. I've got dirt and junk all over and around the intake manifold, how am I supposed to clean all this? There's no way little bits of junk won't fall into the valley.

Advice please!


Apologies for not considering the obvious, pull the engine and clean the whole thing, I'm simply not in situation that allows me to do so, plus I'm waay to new as well. March is coming and not having a running engine....well.

John A. Marker

Shop rags spread out in the valley to catch dirt. Shop vacuum over dirt first. Then hold the shop vacuum close as you scrap or wipe off the dirt.

Not difficult.

kael

Okay, I'll give that a shot.

Other concern is when I took the manifold off, there might have been some dirt then.

Maybe just wipe as much as makes sense and hope? Am I right here one little bit could end up ruining the engine?

Kevova

Change or atleast drain oil to lessen debris going through oil system prior to starting engine. A few single edge razor blades and some scots bright should clean surfaces. Be careful if using "wiz wheels" they can remove metal along with the old gasket.

Gibbles

When i did mine, i drained my oil first, caught it all in a milk jug.
power washed the engine the best i could, dried (used a leaf blower lol), removed, then cleaned any crap i missed with a shop vac.
i also drained my coolant to limit antifreeze draining into the oil.

Then i took that jug of oil and rinsed it down paying special attention to lifters etc.
​​​​​​​Drained into the jug again, then gave it one last rinse with the drain plug removed and let it drain straight into my catch pan.

Joe C

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FWIW most times when I'm pulling anything major on the engine, where I may open up the internals, I always give the engine an initial cleaning before I put a wrench to anything. for the most part, it's damn near as clean before I take things apart, as when re-assembling.

Tom400CFI