carboned up intake ports

vwdsmguy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Location
Syracuse, NY
TDI
2002 Golf black 5-spd
My TSI [other car] will eventually have build up on the intake ports and valves. Has anyone tried a spray cleaner in the intake air to clean these ports? The dealer service said it should be cleaned at 80K. I have seen real dirty ports in pictures and it's got to hurt power. If you cleaned the ports/valve, what did you use? This is common on direct injection engines. Would the carbon coming off the port get stuck on an exhaust valve or in the cat?
 
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Genesis

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 26, 2003
Location
Sevier County TN
TDI
'03 Jetta Wagon
Be VERY careful. If you manage to get a chunk of that down into a cylinder and it gets between the rising piston and cylinder head....
 

alex_tdi

Veteran Member
Joined
May 15, 2001
Location
Los Angeles, CA
TDI
TDI GLS, 2001, Blue
I've seen sprays for TSI engines, but they're not for diesel engines. The most common method is taking off the intake manifold, clean that, and then clean the intake ports mechanically. You'll need to rotate the engine so the valves are closed and then blast them with walnut shells medium.
 

wonneber

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 12, 2011
Location
Monroe, NY, USA
TDI
2014 Jetta Sportwagon,2003 Jetta 261K Sold but not forgotten
If your talking about a gas engine (TSI mentioned) then repair shops have a spray system that runs off air pressure to clean the intake.
It's not a cheap system.
 

Jay-Bee

Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2016
Location
Calgary, AB
TDI
2004 Golf TDI-PD
I ran a can of this before my last oil change, doubt it cleaned any big deposits but it seemed to have helped a lil.

 

BobnOH

not-a-mechanic
Joined
May 29, 2004
Location
central Ohio
TDI
New Beetle 2003 manual
Seems like product to keep the stuff from building up used periodically wouldn't hurt a thing. But if it has built up deposits and chunks can come off that can be a tragifail.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
We use the BG system here, but it won't get the really bad ones. It is more for prevention.

Some of the newer EA888 DI engines have a 5th injector in the intake manifold that prevents this from happening at all, but I think that is just found in some Audi models.

We often have the intakes off anyway to replace the water pumps that are always failing.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
On that engine (since it is thankfully 100% different than the EA888 engines) I would take a wait and see approach. I have yet to run across a peep of driveability trouble with those, and they were in the Jetta Hybrid before they came to the base Jetta S. So they've been around a few years anyway.
 
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