upper intake/ upper engine questions

[nssj2]

needing to unload some pre-finals stress, i tore into my mounty today to put a new spacer on as well as an AWESOME upper manifold from jtsmith. took 2 hours to get it out+alternator+thermostat. i noticed a couple things, and maybe you 302 gurus on here will know.

1) when i pull into the garage, i smell coolant. i maybe have to top it off every 6 or so months. no cracked hoses or signs of leaking. ideas?

2) there is some rust buildup inside the water outlet. should i be worried about the rest of my cooling system (150k on the clock)?

3) there is also a bunch of what looks like carbon buildup inside the lower manifold. id say a good 1/16" on some of them. should i just leave it or attempt to clean it?

Thanks fellas

 

[dmac0923]

was this before or after all the modifications

 

[nssj2]

coolant has been been for the last year. its in pieces right now, so before. this engine hasnt been pulled apart before.

 

[Orange1]

Carbon build up is very normal, I always see that when I open up any motor. It's from the PCV into the intake. The coolant is another issue, is it a white chalky residue or is it wet with coolant?

 

[nssj2]

ok cool. worth cleaning? see thats the thing, there are literally no signs of leaking. all the hoses are dry, there is no scaling (white residue) that would indicate a leak anywhere on the radiator or motor. like i said, it just kinda smells of coolant when i pull into the garage. i dont think its a head gasket because my antifreeze is as green as the day i changed it.

 

[team]

make sure the heater control valve isn't leaking. ALso, i ended up having to take the upper and lower off my x and scraping all the carbon out of my intaker runners and lower manifold runners to fix some idle/low rpm misfires. If i were that close I would pull the lower and scrape and clean.

 

[Orange1]

I'd clean it up as best as possible too. Pour a bunch of carb cleaner into to ports of the intake and lean it over to where it will puddle inside and not pour out. Let it penetrate around those corners that will be hard to get. Do that a few times letting it sit a few minutes at a time. Get a rag, thin and long maybe a wire coat hanger and push that through a bunch of times. I haven't ever had the chance to take off one of these manifolds but that is how I usually do on others and it works good. Use a brush where ever you can and the other method where you can't. Have fun it will take a while.

 

[nssj2]

ill hit it with a little carb cleaner and a metal brush. don't really want to pull the lower, in all honesty. ive been told the heater core might be whats causing the coolant smell.

also.... whats with the sticker on the throttle body saying don't clean? after 10 years, is this coating even there anymore?

 

[Orange1]

ill hit it with a little carb cleaner and a metal brush. don't really want to pull the lower, in all honesty. ive been told the heater core might be whats causing the coolant smell.

also.... whats with the sticker on the throttle body saying don't clean? after 10 years, is this coating even there anymore?

Yes it's still there, it's supposed to be some kind of teflon coating that helps keep it from sticking and seal well. There is a special throtle cleaner for fords because of that. I meant to just clean the intake figuring you had the throtle body off the intake already.