How to I clean intake ports in head?

Hi Folks,

I got the EGR cooler and intake pulled off the 03 Golf last night, and the intake is mucho plugged. Much worse than my 03 Jetta Wagon was.

So, in looking at the intake ports in the cyl head, they're also very caked/dirty. I know I can't really clean them in-place, so I guess I'll have to pull the head. Which leads me back to...how are you guys cleaning the intake ports and intake valves, etc, even with the cylinder head removed?

So I know I'd obviously need a new head gasket, but what about the following:

Are new head bolts recommended?
Is it recommended to get the head planed?

What else do I need to plan on doing when/if I pull he head on this thing?

Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rem

I'm sure someone here can offer some tips for cleaning the ports with the head in place.
I've always tried to not stir up any trouble there, but I would think if you make sure the valve is closed on the port you're working on and blow and vacuum it out when you're done you would be fine.
Yes, the head bolts are one time use.

To do a thorough job with the head in place, I would remove the cam and lifters. This will give good access to the area around the valves for scraping the crud off and will keep the valves closed so none will get into the cylinders.

There should be enough room to get a scraper in the ports to get the build up out of them, and a rag under the port will catch the chunks that fall out. If you can, giving it a shot of compressed air will get the fine particles out. If not, a shop vac will do a pretty good job.

When you are in this deep, it might be a good idea to do the timing belt if it is getting close to due for replacement.

You guys are making me feel much better...LOL. Maybe I'll do just that, and clean the intake ports with the head installed and see how that goes.

I really didn't want to get too far into this thing until I make sure it will run ok...it was running very poorly when I dragged it home last weekend.

When I did my intake cleaning my ports were quite full of crud as well. I could not stand to put a clean intake on an have a lip of crud waiting to break off and be ingested.

I did some searching and came on a tip to stuff the ports with cotton balls to prevent the crud from getting to the valves. Then you suck it all out with a shop vac when done scraping the ports. I did this, but also used the shop vac the whole time I was scraping to try and keep it from going in at all.

After I sucked the cotton out, I used some duct tape to seal a small length of vacuum hose on the end of the shop vac, then went into the ports with that to try and find any stray bits. Still cringed when I went to start it, but had no problems.

Best of luck to you.

Long ago, back when I did my intake manifold cleaning, I made some effort to clean the intake ports, for same reasons as OP concerns. I didn't use any cotton balls (but not suggesting I think that's a bad idea). I removed the valve cover so I could see the intake cam lobe and make sure the particular intake valve associated with the port being cleaned... is closed. IIRC, I used a small regular screwdriver as a scraper, being careful not to scrape on the valve stem. I sort of "reamed" the port openings, breaking junk loose. I used a shop vac, and I used a 90 degree PVC drain pipe, like 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inch from the plumbing department at local hardware store- I just duct taped it on the end of my shop vac hose- made it much easier to get the vacuum on the intake ports. I just used lots of care and repetition at vacuuming the port and trying to feel with fingers if there was any remaining junk. Maybe I just got lucky, but that's how I did it.

solvent and a shop vac

I don't pull the valve cover; it keeps the dirt out and is more comfy to lean on than the head.

I put the crank a little before #1 TDC. #1 and #4 are on exhaust or compression so both intakes are closed, do those, rotate the crank a half turn and do #2 and #3.

Start it up, then do the timing belt if it's planned (or do it first). Unless you're very confident/competent in what you're doing you should only do one major job at a time. Makes troubleshooting problems much easier.

I use hacksaw blades ground smooth and bent to various shapes.

Great stuff guys, thanks for the all the replies. I'll take any advice, tips, tricks or methods on getting the ports cleaned out.

Going to dig into it this weekend. After reading your replies, I'm not pulling the cyl head unless I have to for some other reason.

Cheers,
Rem

Rembrant said:

I'm not pulling the cyl head unless I have to for some other reason.

Cheers,
Rem

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great plan

I recommend using an air nozzle over a shop vac. I did this job once on a fully assembled engine outside of the car to see what was going on before doing it in the car. The shop vac does not clean the port out very well because air must go in before it can be pulled out. The compressed air forced everything out much better. It will be hard carbon - not a sludgy mes like in the intake.

I pulled the valve cover and worked on the closed cylinder. I put the valve cover on to prevent trash getting in there. I also taped over the other 7 ports to keep junk from going in them. I worked slowly with a flathead screwdriver.

Awesome, thanks for the all the replies with tips and how-to ideas.

I'll be working on it this weekend.

Rem

I made a device similar to a dental pick to break the carbon loose. Of course, a mirror, good light, modified vac hose tip, and compressed air used sparely are the other tricks to use.

I take the valve cover off and use a special cut piece of cotton cloth to keep the area covered. Obviously, you have to work with closed valves.

Some day, I plan to start a Thread showing what can happen if the Intake Ports in the head are not cleaned, especially those heavily packed with carbon. I have a head that without doubt, was destroyed by a chunk of carbon breaking off and going through the engine (must have hung under the valve, as it was hit and broken by the piston). The Intake had been cleaned and re-installed without cleaning the head ports. On that same head in another port, a chunk of carbon come off but only caused the valve to bend slightly... hitting the piston.

I've cleaned the ports in several heads with 100% success ........... thousands and thousands of miles later, no issues!

most manus have had an engine that cokes up the intake ports, you use walnut media and a sandblaster to get it out

I didn't screw with scraping mine out until I had the head off, cleaning the intake itself was plenty for the time.

If you do end up pulling the head off, get some new valve guides in it, the exhausts especially on these get very loose. Hog out the exhaust ports, too, they're tiny and there's plenty of room to enlarge them to even just the size of the ports in the exhaust manifold.

If only more people would follow this advice.

Unless you're very confident/competent in what you're doing you should only do one major job at a time. Makes troubleshooting problems much easier.

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Just wanted to thank all of you that replied in this thread. I finally got around to cleaning out the intake ports today.
I got a lot of crud out of them...there's no way I could have left them the way they were with installing a nice shiny clean intake manifold back on there.

I had the turbo removed as well, so I had lots of room to work back there. I made a catch area with those white shop absorbent towel/pads that are about 18" square, just so the stuff that fell out didn't land on the floor. Anyway, when I lifted the pads out from behind the engine, there was almost a cup full of black crud on them....and that's not counting what I got directly with the shop vac.

The wife gave me a handful of retired butter knives, and they made good scraping tools for both the intake and the intake ports in the head. I left one of them straight, and then bent the tips of the others into various curves and bends. I also used a seal pick set...stole Andy's idea above for a dental pick of sorts.

I didn't get them 100% clean by any means, but they're far better than they were.

Thanks again gentlemen,

Rem

Rembrant, I can relate to the amount of curd you got out.

I have pics but lately I cannot upload to my photo galleries ......

AndyBees said:

Rembrant, I can relate to the amount of curd you got out.

I have pics but lately I cannot upload to my photo galleries ......

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I was quite surprised actually at how much crud came out. I'd say the ports had 1/8" uniform build-up, at least at the entrance, but then tapered down some as the port narrows further in. The two middle intake ports were the worst.

Funny, but I suppose not all that surprising, I was talking to an independent VW Mechanic, and I told him I was going to clean the intake ports, and he told me not to worry about them...and that cleaning the intake was enough. I didn't have to clean them on my previous 03 wagon, but this Golf was really plugged up.

I think she's going to flow much better now.

I got the intake ports pretty clean for the most part, but I didn't get in as far as the valves themselves. It's good enough for now.

It appears that most of the build up occurs right at transition points. I had about the same on my head, but I only flicked off the lip (nothing flaking toward the valves) and vacuumed just to make sure.

On intake manifolds, to complete the cleaning and get in the impossible to reach spots, I shook small square nuts inside. Finished off with coins (US dimes, they have the rough edges). I wish that I had a scope to verify, but I'm pretty certain that the manifold was as clean as you could get it.

I'll be testing my skills on my wife's car next! Swapped out her EGR valve and found that her intake is really in need as well, though performance is much better than mine was. Biggest bang for the buck when it comes to improving performance, that's for sure!

UhOh said:

I'll be testing my skills on my wife's car next! Swapped out her EGR valve and found that her intake is really in need as well...

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I've only done a couple intakes so far, with this most recent one being the dirtiest. What I found super handy was a stainless butter knife with the end of it bent like the letter "J". It allowed me to reach almost every corner in there.

Well, in my opinion, cleaning the ports out is crucial in avoiding a "flake-off" from the mating edge of the head and the Intake.

Before you remove the Intake, there is a rather smooth and continuous "coat" of crud across the two surfaces (Intake port to head port). When you remove the Intake and clean it, the two surfaces no longer have that continuous rather smooth surface. And, just the act of removing the Intake will cause some of the crud along the edge of the ports to become flakey and loose. Thus, if you simply re-install the Intake, that crud is subject to break loose and possibly end up between the Intake valve and piston or caught under the valve and valve seat. Also, keep in mind, with a WOT (or typical driving) the Turbo is forcing in volumes of air up to 15 PSI and more with a tuned engine. There has to be tremendous turbulence where the Intake mates to the head with crud in the ports...........

I have a head that certainly appears to have been through the scenario above. The Intake port of the head shows evidence that a rather large piece of crud chunked-out. The Intake valve was broken and beat the hell out of the piston. One other Intake port has similar evidence that a piece of crud chucked-out as well. That Intake valve looks to be bent and doesn't seat flush.

I do have photos and hope to post soon.

Unfortunately, this incident happened to my brother's '03 Jetta. He purchased it from a reputable used VW entity (I leave that there.). They had serviced the car and placed it for sale. The sales pitch was: Intake cleaned, new TB job, and used Turbo installed. Well, just over 11k miles later, at 70 mph, total carnage.

So, in my opinion, if the Intake is removed, the head ports should be cleaned......

EDIT: Considering how bad the Intakes do plug-up, especially before the introduction of ULSD, it is my belief that some engines blew-up as a result of a chunk of crud breaking loose from the EGR area. We've all seen those pics of plugged EGRs. I've seen them plugged almost down to the size of a quarter or nickel..... And, those incidents could have been labeled as a TB job botched, etc.....

Embarrassingly, I admit to just carefully de-burred the carbon/tar at the edge of the intake ports on mine before reassembly...but the "proper method" would have been to thoroughly clean and overhaul the head after what I saw. Guilty as charged.

Honestly with all the money I spent and work performed during that period, my plan is to address this when I inspect cam/lifters...should they need replacing and I can plan for down time.

Don't feel bad, I cleaned and reinstalled a few Intakes without realizing the head ports need to be cleaned.......... got lucky!

And, I suppose it is possible for a chuck of crud to make it thru without doing damage to anything ..... valves, piston, rings (blow-by blast), and don't forget the blades of the Turbine in the Turbo ......... lastly, the CAT may catch some of that stuff!

AndyBees said:

And, I suppose it is possible for a chuck of crud to make it thru without doing damage to anything ..... valves, piston, rings (blow-by blast), and don't forget the blades of the Turbine in the Turbo ......... lastly, the CAT may catch some of that stuff!

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Since I just got this thing back up and running yesterday I thought I'd report back and say that the cyl head port cleaning worked great....and, I do believe a couple small chunks of crud did make it through the exhaust. There were a few small black pieces of carbon on the floor right where my tail pipe dumps out. I may not have even noticed them, but I stepped on one and it made a big black streak across the floor. I shop vac'd the other little specs up.

Anyway, after cleaning the ports as good as I could, I could still see some build-up on the valves themselves, but I just couldn't dig in there that far with any results worth the effort imho. I got the heavy stuff out of the ports, and it did appear to taper down the further in it went, so it's about as clean and smooth as it's going to get without pulling the head off.

That's all. Car is running great. Thanks again folks.

Rem

AndyBees said:

EDIT: Considering how bad the Intakes do plug-up, especially before the introduction of ULSD, it is my belief that some engines blew-up as a result of a chunk of crud breaking loose from the EGR area. We've all seen those pics of plugged EGRs. I've seen them plugged almost down to the size of a quarter or nickel..... And, those incidents could have been labeled as a TB job botched, etc.....

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And thats exactly why I delete the egr.

Can anyone who has cleaned their intake ports confirm whether or not it is necessary to remove the turbo? If it isn't necessary, would removing it make it that much easier to get in the intake ports that it's worth the trouble?

I plan on doing a manifold/egr/intake port cleaning soon. I want to plan ahead so I know exactly what replacement parts to order and whether or not I'll need to order the parts for a turbo removal/re-installation, (turbo oil line, exhaust manifold gasket, etc). I'm kinda hoping I don't have to remove it since the extra parts for a turbo removal/re-installation would be about $135 extra.

Not necessary to remove the turbo. Not really much easier with it out of the way.

JETaah said:

Not necessary to remove the turbo. Not really much easier with it out of the way.

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Unless one wants to clean the ports from below! (it's a joke, son)

I haven't seen this posted in the thread yet but BMW guys do in car intake cleaning with walnut shells! A few businesses offer this as a service, and they sell DIY kits. I've used them on a motorcycle head (off the bike). They work great if it is DRIED carbon. Any gooey mess, and the shells stick to the metal, and don't work. It seems kind of risky, but these BMW motors have to cost more than our cars, right? Though I'd never trade my 04 BEW for one...

Ok, so I've got everything removed and I've cleaned out the EGR valve, IM, EGR cooler, intercooler, and all the intake/intercooler piping. The only thing I have left to clean are the intake ports in the head.

I know most people just scrape the ports with a screwdriver (with the valves closed, of course) and shop vac the crud out of there. Since I'm cleaning everything to the point where it looks brand new, I'm wondering if it would be ok to scrape out as much as possible, and then spray the ports with oven cleaner to make everything squeaky clean. I know that there may be some leakage into the cylinder, but what if I were remove the glow plugs and put the shop vac there to suck out anything that may have gotten in? Does this sound like viable alternative to thoroughly cleaning the ports without removing the head? I plan on using a cheap, not so strong, oven cleaner (the same stuff I used on the intake manifold, which didn't do any damage).