Intake Mainifold Carbon Build Up Cleaning *Pic Heavy*

[ActivS5]

Day 1 : Intake Manifold Removal
I would suggest you obtain a bentley manual for your A5/S5. Brian has one and it was a big help. You have to do some thinking on your feet through this process. The bentley does not give you the exact directions, but it definitely points you in the right direction and puts your wrench in the right area. As long as you are pretty mechanically inclined and use common sense, you can get this done.




















Day 2 : Cleaning
The fun part. Prepare to get dirty. Put some seafoam in a spray bottle and be generous with it. We used nylon pipe cleaners, small nylon and brass brushes, long narrow shafted screwdrivers, q-tips, and many hand towels to get inside the valves. Also, make sure to frequently get a towel inside the valves to pick up the liquid carbon/seafoam as it may be difficult to extract with a brush or screwdriver. I have an air compressor at my house and we would blast compressed air into the valves to blast out any excess liquid residue left over from the mixture of seafoam and carbon deposits.

[ActivS5]

Clean valves

[inNout]

Wow... looks nasty in there. I'm afraid to open my four banger up. Good stuff.

[S5xy]

Glad you were able to clean it yourselves! How long did the entire process take?

[ActivS5]

About 7-8 hours to remove the manifold. I had to look for things that were restricting the manifold so that took most of the time. When we do Brian's, I think it will only take 4-5 hours.

Cleaning took about 4-5 hours. We were very meticulous though. We Went through different stages of cleaning and found new techniques along the way and wanted to try them out.

[AudisticS5]

great writeup! just for reference... what is the mileage on both cars?

[Mops@Nemesis]

Nice work Chris and Brian...Im sure that makes you feel better about your car. Nice of you guys taking the time to share and answer questions.

[Bspec]

Nice write up and with pics! So did you feel a difference in the car?

Wish someone would do a write up for a 3.2 ;)

[Beast]

Does this happen in the 2.ot (sorry if dumb ques)

[Mops@Nemesis]

^me to for 3.2 hint hint.

[Beast]

^me to hint hint.

hey mop u still got those sline badges?

[Mops@Nemesis]

Yea man, as far as i know. Will just need to get in the toolboxes and find them. Need one?

[GSS5]

^me to for 3.2 hint hint.

i think the 3.2 FSI is just as bad as the 4.2..

[GSS5]

also curious about the mileage on the cars. nice job guys.

[Beast]

ya bro, ill send you a PM, GSS5 you know about the 2.0T?

[GSS5]

ya bro, ill send you a PM, GSS5 you know about the 2.0T?

honestly i have no idea. i don't see why not, considering the 2.0t is also a direct injection engine but the s4 guys with the 3.0t supercharged engine are acting as if the problem doesn't affect them. maybe FI helps to avert the problem?

[Mops@Nemesis]

What should i notice or look for if i may have any issue? Only thing i notice is a jerk/blurp about 1/3 thru first gear.

[ExhaustNote]

That was definitely an interesting and dirty job. That being said, I thought it was very informative and I learned a lot. It wasn't as tough as I thought it would be, it was just time consuming.

Not sure what mileage is on Chris' car but I have about 35k on mine. We're going to do mine in a few weeks and I'm tempted to give 034 a call to get my car on the dyno for a before and after.
My dealership already cleaned mine under warranty about 8 months ago but it's been feeling a bit underpowered recently and ironically enough, I misfired a few times last week and got a CEL. It would be interesting to see how much has built up since the last cleaning. Unfortunately I never got any before/after pics from my dealership so who knows how thorough they were. Considering how much of a PITA it is to get all the gunk off, I doubt they did a very meticulous job like we did.
Anyways, now that we've done one car, we know the process and will document a lot more when we do mine. Hopefully we'll be able to put together a DIY if you guys would be interested.

[ActivS5]

great writeup! just for reference... what is the mileage on both cars?

All the pictures are from my car. My car has 65k on it. I don't DD it anymore and drive 100mi a day to work and back so it's going to get maybe 3-4k miles per year from now on.

Nice write up and with pics! So did you feel a difference in the car?

Thanks! I have to get a new fuel line and gaskets for various parts, so I won't be able to put it together until about Wednesday. I'm hoping for the best. I'm going to schedule a dyno run in the next week or so and see the difference. I dyno'd last month so I have a base.

[ActivS5]

Brian doin' work.

Before:



After:

[aLTTP]

^^^ big difference.
how does the it roar now? i know todd1010 did his. and it's like a renewed beast

[ActivS5]

I haven't put it back together yet, I need to get some parts. Hopefully they will be in stock tomorrow, doubt it though.

[elf_cruiser]

ecrew - please please please don't put the pcv hose back on when you re-assemble...

[ActivS5]

I've looked into that, bypass of sort sort? Catch can? How about pressure imbalances? Drawbacks other than failing emissions?

[TheDapperDriver]

thats alot of work man
good job!

[bknewtype]

damn looks to tedious for me. ill stick with the dealership for this job lol

so when exactly do u know u need to bring ur car to get carbon buildup cleaning done? when it throws a cel? performance loss/engine misfires?

[MonzaA5]

Does this happen in the 2.ot (sorry if dumb ques)

Never heard of anyone having carbon buildup problems with a 2009+ 2.0T

[crisp74]

That was definitely an interesting and dirty job. That being said, I thought it was very informative and I learned a lot. It wasn't as tough as I thought it would be, it was just time consuming.

Not sure what mileage is on Chris' car but I have about 35k on mine. We're going to do mine in a few weeks and I'm tempted to give 034 a call to get my car on the dyno for a before and after.
My dealership already cleaned mine under warranty about 8 months ago but it's been feeling a bit underpowered recently and ironically enough, I misfired a few times last week and got a CEL. It would be interesting to see how much has built up since the last cleaning. Unfortunately I never got any before/after pics from my dealership so who knows how thorough they were. Considering how much of a PITA it is to get all the gunk off, I doubt they did a very meticulous job like we did.
Anyways, now that we've done one car, we know the process and will document a lot more when we do mine. Hopefully we'll be able to put together a DIY if you guys would be interested.

i would be very interested. thanks very much to both of you guys for doing the work and taking pics.

[todd1010]

Good job!

One thing I will mention is that I used a very small wet/dry vacuum attachment to suck out any carbon/seafoam residue, which worked very well.

[S5xy]

damn looks to tedious for me. ill stick with the dealership for this job lol

so when exactly do u know u need to bring ur car to get carbon buildup cleaning done? when it throws a cel? performance loss/engine misfires?

Your dealership will only clean it under warranty if it's throwing an error code. Make sure that they don't just clear the code but actually clean it.

[ActivS5]

damn looks to tedious for me. ill stick with the dealership for this job lol

so when exactly do u know u need to bring ur car to get carbon buildup cleaning done? when it throws a cel? performance loss/engine misfires?

I didn't have a CEL or any indication of build up and my valves were caked, as seen in the photos. Major performance loss. Some people have misfires when the build up gets really bad and that will throw a CEL. At that point, the dealer will cover it under warranty.

i would be very interested. thanks very much to both of you guys for doing the work and taking pics.

Not a problem, I think Brian and I learned a lot through this process too. When we do his car, we will make a DIY.

Good job!

One thing I will mention is that I used a very small wet/dry vacuum attachment to suck out any carbon/seafoam residue, which worked very well.

I have an air compressor at my house and we would blast compressed air into the valves to blast out any excess liquid residue left over from the mixture of seafoam and carbon deposits. I think a vacuum would have been cleaner though haha we will try that next time. I'm not sure if I have a fitting that small though!

[elf_cruiser]

I've looked into that, bypass of sort sort? Catch can? How about pressure imbalances? Drawbacks other than failing emissions?

You just get a universal breather from vatozone, some heater hose, clamps, and expandable rubber plug (1-1/4" dia). Setup the breather on the valve cover, and the rubber plug fits into the oil separator. The PCV hose stays on your shelf in the garage, in case you need to take the car in for maint, emissions, etc. You can hook it back up in like 5 minutes...

[todd1010]

You just get a universal breather from vatozone, some heater hose, clamps, and expandable rubber plug (1-1/4" dia). Setup the breather on the valve cover, and the rubber plug fits into the oil separator. The PCV hose stays on your shelf in the garage, in case you need to take the car in for maint, emissions, etc. You can hook it back up in like 5 minutes...

I would be very interested in seeing your valves to see what they look like. Can you remove you intake manifold to show us, I know it's a lot of work but it would be worth it to see if your setup works? How many miles do you have on your car and what mileage did you put this breather on your car?

Did you ever get that CEL looked at, I'd also be interested in seeing what exactly this was. I know you said they aren't connected but this car almost everything is connected. I had a Parking Brake Lever malfunction which turned out to be an airbag ignitor.

Also post up some photos so we all can see.

[todd1010]

I didn't have a CEL or any indication of build up and my valves were caked, as seen in the photos. Major performance loss. Some people have misfires when the build up gets really bad and that will throw a CEL. At that point, the dealer will cover it under warranty.



Not a problem, I think Brian and I learned a lot through this process too. When we do his car, we will make a DIY.



I have an air compressor at my house and we would blast compressed air into the valves to blast out any excess liquid residue left over from the mixture of seafoam and carbon deposits. I think a vacuum would have been cleaner though haha we will try that next time. I'm not sure if I have a fitting that small though!

I picked the attachments up at Sears for like $9 bucks!

[elf_cruiser]

I would be very interested in seeing your valves to see what they look like. Can you remove you intake manifold to show us, I know it's a lot of work but it would be worth it to see if your setup works? How many miles do you have on your car and what mileage did you put this breather on your car?

Did you ever get that CEL looked at, I'd also be interested in seeing what exactly this was. I know you said they aren't connected but this car almost everything is connected. I had a Parking Brake Lever malfunction which turned out to be an airbag ignitor.

Also post up some photos so we all can see.

Oi - not sure I can spare the time to pull the intake off just for the sake of some pics. Anyone tried a snake cam through the throttle body? Car had 5K at the time, and has 20K now. Idles smoother than when it was new, and still pulls as hard as ever. I can use Dynolicious to prove that my 0-60 times haven't changed in 2 years, if that would help? The CEL has been on for a while and whatever it is, it's not affecting the engine at all. If it wasn't running great, I would be figuring out why. Honestly, it's just simple logic though. If no oil is going into the intake - how can it get on the valves??

And I know that I'll get the "But it's an Audi, not a GM!!" but I've done these same PCV setups on 3 different motors in the rockcrawler, no issues with any of em. Aside from oil leaks out the breather when you roll over. I fixed that, though, by running long PCV breathers from both valve covers, criss-crossing under the engine, and coming back up the opposite side. So either way you roll over, the oil won't leak out, it just gets trapped in the breather hose.

[todd1010]

Oi - not sure I can spare the time to pull the intake off just for the sake of some pics. Anyone tried a snake cam through the throttle body? Car had 5K at the time, and has 20K now. Idles smoother than when it was new, and still pulls as hard as ever. I can use Dynolicious to prove that my 0-60 times haven't changed in 2 years, if that would help? The CEL has been on for a while and whatever it is, it's not affecting the engine at all. If it wasn't running great, I would be figuring out why. Honestly, it's just simple logic though. If no oil is going into the intake - how can it get on the valves??

And I know that I'll get the "But it's an Audi, not a GM!!" but I've done these same PCV setups on 3 different motors in the rockcrawler, no issues with any of em. Aside from oil leaks out the breather when you roll over. I fixed that, though, by running long PCV breathers from both valve covers, criss-crossing under the engine, and coming back up the opposite side. So either way you roll over, the oil won't leak out, it just gets trapped in the breather hose.

Interesting because you mention PCV breathers from both valve covers. I just went and looked at my engine I have one on the left side of the car connected and the right side has a cap on it, this is all factory. Wonder why they didn't connect both sides to the PCV?

[todd1010]

ecrew,

While you have some downtime waiting on some parts. I'd get some Mass Air Flow sensor cleaning and clean the MAF sensor and also clean the throttle body. I'd also do a throttle body alignment when your all done.

Another thing I'd do is change your spark plugs. I think I read you have about 60k miles which would be a good time anyway. I checked mine today just to see if they were covered and they weren't. They were actually pretty clean.

Oh, and I noticed your upper intake manifold is different than mine. I know you have a 2008 but I didn't realize they changed that part, interesting. It also looks like it's made of aluminum? Mine is plastic and looks smaller, from the photos.

[ActivS5]

Interesting because you mention PCV breathers from both valve covers. I just went and looked at my engine I have one on the left side of the car connected and the right side has a cap on it, this is all factory. Wonder why they didn't connect both sides to the PCV?

Interesting, same with mine.

ecrew,

While you have some downtime waiting on some parts. I'd get some Mass Air Flow sensor cleaning and clean the MAF sensor and also clean the throttle body. I'd also do a throttle body alignment when your all done.

Another thing I'd do is change your spark plugs. I think I read you have about 60k miles which would be a good time anyway. I checked mine today just to see if they were covered and they weren't. They were actually pretty clean.

Oh, and I noticed your upper intake manifold is different than mine. I know you have a 2008 but I didn't realize they changed that part, interesting. It also looks like it's made of aluminum? Mine is plastic and looks smaller, from the photos.

Good call on the cleaning. I don't want to change my plugs until a week after I get my engine all back together and all the the carbon deposits have left the building. Some of the deposits fell down the open valves and some are still in weaker states in the valves.

[elf_cruiser]

Interesting because you mention PCV breathers from both valve covers. I just went and looked at my engine I have one on the left side of the car connected and the right side has a cap on it, this is all factory. Wonder why they didn't connect both sides to the PCV?

It really doesn't matter - Chevy just likes having 2 for whatever reason, maybe in case one gets plugged up? Current motor in the buggy is a vortec 6.0 - You guys know what a PCV system is supposed to do, right?? One breather is perfectly fine to allow the pressure differential with no issues.

[GuzmanA5]

What color is the other S5 in the garage? Is it Daytona Gray? Looks amazing...