Carbon Cleaning Question, Need advise!!

[Freeaudia6]

So I tore my intake manifold off to get to the leaking oil filter housing. Took a look at my valves and man they are awful!! I have all the tools to clean them but my question is do I have to worry about the chunks of carbon falling past the open valves and into the cylinder ? Will it hurt anything or will the chunks just dissolve in the combustion chamber? I was going to just scrape and clean them then blow it all out with compressed air. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks

[hilmar2k]

You'll want to rotate the engine until the valves are closed on the cylinder you're going to clean.

[SinCityA6]

Obviously, you want to try and keep as much of the carbon from falling into the cylinder as possible, but if some does get down in there it should not be of concern.

[JPJ2007]

I know I need to do this, at 211k miles I cant imagine how bad it is.
My local dealer wants $1,300 for the job.

[Freeaudia6]

Thanks for the replies, I ended up turning the engine to get to the other valves. What a pain, I have 140,000 on mine and the carbon build-up was terrible. Honestly , the procedure isn't terrible. What sucks is getting everything off to get to it. I ended up breaking the extremely brittle "union" on the intake manifold so I will have to wait to re-assemble. Thanks for the help.

[Freeaudia6]

There's no way I would pay $1300 for someone else to do it. I think I have like $70 in it so far. And that's including the oil housing oring and oil filter, along with the intake gasket.

[JPJ2007]

Take any photos?

Did you follow a diy online somewhere?

Yeah I'm not paying the dealer lol. Just figured I'd call and see... they also wanted $1,400 to change the thermostat and water pump. lol. No way.

[Freeaudia6]

Sorry, no pics. I just followed the Bentley for the intake removal. As far as cleaning, there are some write ups. I found this one after that seems pretty good.
http://www.a5oc.com/forums/audi-a5-s...s/73553?page=1

[2003svtjrc]

Be careful with big chunks of carbon falling into cylinder...apparently this happened to my s6 with the p.o. Causing 8k worth of receipts...


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[Freeaudia6]

I'm fairly confident that no big chunks fell in. I used a shop vac to suck out the big chunks, then blew each port out with air to make sure nothing was left. Honestly, I can't imagine with the build up being as bad as it was, that chunks didn't drop in while running prior to the cleaning!! I guess I will find out here in a few days. Hopefully it's all good!!

[JPJ2007]

I'm guessing you noticed a difference after the cleaning huh.

I'm waiting until this fall to try and clean it. Need it cooler outside not having a garage.