Is there anything on the 5.0 upper intake that I should worry about rusting?
I had the upper intake sitting outside while I used carb and choke cleaner and a soft wire brush to try and get the carbon/oil out of it, and it started raining unexpectedly. (this is the dry season now)
The outside of the manifold was painted recently, and I even painted over most of the vacuum fittings. (figured I could sand 'em off lightly if the paint being there was a problem) However, some water made it inside the manifold.
Is this going to be a problem at some point? :dunno:
And no, I didn't leave the windows open.. :p :giggle:
Naw, you'll be OK as long as you get the water out before installing it.
Any problems, then, with using the water to flush out the building up inside there?
This thing has a TON of carbon/oil buildup in it. On the EGR plate, I had to take a screwdriver to the hole because it was almost completely plugged up.. and from there back into the upper (and lower) intake it was just caked on there and shiny. I was having some success dislodging it with the carb and choke cleaner (along with some of my fresh paint) :( but I wonder how much has built up in areas I can't immediately access.
Water is fine to get the crud out. I would recommend a carbon cleaner (combustion chamber cleaner). Spray it in, let it soak for a bit, then hose it out. The intake is nothing more than a chunk of aluminum, so a bath won't hurt it. Just be sure you get all the water out before reinstalling it...
I'm gonna need something that works better than what I have. Everywhere I was able to spray carb and choke cleaner AND brush it, it's pretty clean. Everywhere I can't physically reach still looks awful.
I'll have a look next time I'm @ AutoHole.. although now that my front brakes (on the '86) are singin', I have something a little more important to spend my limited funds on.
You could remove the freeze plugs on the upper intake if you haven't already. That should help you get at the plenum.
I've heard rumours that that seafoam stuff works, though the car has to be in running order.
Why would the car need to be in running order to clean a manifold sitting on my front doorstep? :D
I guess you're supposed to use the product by putting it in the intake or something and the running the car. It creates a wicked amount of smoke out the back end of the car from cleaning all the carbon out. Tho some people swear by it I guess others despise it. :dunno:
The car's not going to be running for a little while. I have to cut my car expenditures to an absolute minimum until I get this holiday out of the way. I'm stuck buying things like $2 cans of carb and choke cleaner and cleaning the manifold with a wire brush.. I can't even really afford to buy the new EGR and throttle body gaskets to put everything back together to run it. I'm thinking of duct-taping over the top of the lower manifold (I have it plugged with two clean bath towel rags) and letting it sit for a couple weeks, but I'm worried that the duct tape might stick TOO well to the upper-to-lower gasket and tear it up. (it looks to be in pretty good condition, so I don't plan on messing with it)
Maybe if my Ebay sales REALLY pick up in the next week or so, I can afford to get the gift out of the way and get back to the cars. Of course, it still takes 3-4 days for PayPal transfers to my bank.. :shoothead
(and yea, it's pretty sad when you can't even afford a couple gaskets.. but that's a couple gaskets, plus whatever I purchase to clean out the intake.. and right now I have $17 in the bank, $28 on the way from PayPal, another $15 or so IN PayPal, and the first of two gifts alone is going to cost me around $50-60.. I have a billing coming on 12/4 for $13.99 of that)