C4 Tech/Performance L98 Corvette and LT1 Corvette Technical Info, Internal Engine, External Engine

internal plenum cleaning

Old Mar 13, 2011 | 12:57 PM
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Default internal plenum cleaning

Some of you may remember my awful pics of my porting on a spare plenum. Needless to say, it went into the recycling bin this morning. Im sending mine off to be ported/siamesed by a professional.( Forum Member). I just took a scraper to the inside of the plenum and ran it across 4 times and each time removed a inch of carbon and there is still more! How do I get this **** out before I send it off to be ported? Gah, 20+ years of carbon is in that ****. Once it's cleaned, that alone will add a few hp.....Im rinsing it out with dawn soap and hot water but that carbon aint leaving still. Keep using water or what???
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Old Mar 13, 2011 | 01:17 PM
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Originally Posted by M.J.L.
Some of you may remember my awful pics of my porting on a spare plenum. Needless to say, it went into the recycling bin this morning. Im sending mine off to be ported/siamesed by a professional.( Forum Member). I just took a scraper to the inside of the plenum and ran it across 4 times and each time removed a inch of carbon and there is still more! How do I get this **** out before I send it off to be ported? Gah, 20+ years of carbon is in that ****. Once it's cleaned, that alone will add a few hp.....Im rinsing it out with dawn soap and hot water but that carbon aint leaving still. Keep using water or what???
Carburetor cleaner.

A few cans of it should do the job cleaning the gunk out of that plenum.
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Old Mar 13, 2011 | 01:59 PM
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I sand blasted the inside of mine and that worked very well.
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Old Mar 13, 2011 | 02:05 PM
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brake cleaner
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Old Mar 13, 2011 | 04:30 PM
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I suppose you could take it to a self-serve car wash and pressure wash it, but that could be a little messy.

Here's what I did. I took a 5-gallon bucket of hot water, mixed in some Dawn, and let it soak for a couple hours. Then, I used a NEW round toilet brush (a cheap one from the grocery store) and scrubbed the inside like crazy with it in the bucket, rinsed it and let it dry. THEN, I sprayed it with leftover throttle body cleaner and finished it, inside and out, with 2 cans of BraKleen. Damned thing looks almost new. (Throw the brush away 'cause you'll never get it clean).

This worked for me. Hope it helps.
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