Cleaning Upper and Lower Intake

[ViperPliskin]

'99 Explorer 5.0L - I'm rebuilding this engine for a Ranger swap. The intake manifolds, especially the lower, are very nasty. Can I soak them in degreaser or some other cleaner, like acetone?

If not, what's the best way to get the inside of those intakes clean?

Many thanks.

 

[jlsparky7]

Your best bet would be either an engine degreaser or if you have a welding tourch then you can burn the stuff out.

Alot of people soak there intakes in degreaser overnight and they turn out a lot better. Some like new.

 

[ohe_boy]

Does the above method work well enough for the upper intake so that nothing gets sucked back into the engine? I was originally thinking of just blasting as much of the insides as I can with a carb cleaner. But after thinking about it more, I may cause more harm by having an accumilation build up inside the upper intake and having it sucked back in.

 

[Ronin8002]

You could take them to a machine shop that does hot tank cleaning of parts. Then they will definitely get clean. Probably runs about 20-30 bucks.

 

[ohe_boy]

was thinking about going this route if there were no other homemade solutions!

 

[ViperPliskin]

Don't try this at home kids...

I ended up having a very hard time getting the muck out of the upper intake, even after several overnight soaks, so I gave it a shot of oven cleaner. Man, that stuff worked great. Friggin' intake looked brand new...took off a decade worth of neglect in just a couple of minutes.

About two weeks later I noticed that Easy-Off does more than take off the baked on carbon. It also does a great job of eating away aluminum. I didn't leave the cleaner on long, so I was able to sandpaper off most of the pits.

Hopefully, not the smartest thing I do on this build.

 

[ohe_boy]

Wow! I would've thought the same about the oven cleaners. Its a good thing I didn't try it out before I read your post.

Hmmm...maybe the safest thing to do is just leave the gunk in there? At least it'll be all intact instead of in a whole bunch of little gunk pieces just waiting to get sucked into the engine.

 

[Ronin8002]

I've also had luck using Simple Green and a small (toothbrush sized) wire brush. Non-toxic, non-corrosive and good for the environment