Cleaning intake/valves with canned product. Good idea or not?

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paokara777

New member
Hi
So I was about to do an intake/valve clean on the SHO and i started googling to find what product seemed to have the best reviews and how well they worked. Lots of good reviews about seafoam, and people use the variant that you feed a line into the throttle body and idle the engine while squirting the can. Then there is the CRC one which you spray into it while you rev it to 3k.

THEN i found a video where a FordTech (?) talks about how any valve cleaner type product can cause turbo failure and to stay away.

Suggestions? My fuel mileage is going down and I'm losing power so I'm sure i have some gunked up valves (motor has 140k on it, i've heard that you start seeing junk even at 10K!!!)

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/crc-gdi-ivd-intake-valve-turbo-cleaner-11-oz.-05319/11019388-P
Or even the seafoam variant that goes into your throttle body.
 
Best first step is to scope the problem.  USB borescopes are pretty decent nowadays,  and very affordable.  You could just go in with cleaner, but if there is indeed masses of carbon present, you could break chunks of carbon off and end up killing the turbos.  Ford generslly has done a better job of keeping the coking down in GTDI engines,  but 140k can still be a challenge.

Seafoam is probably ok, it is not a harsh cleaner,  There are now professional  strength cleaners available ftom BG and Valvoline among others that will work better, but again first step. .. scope.  glock-coma has done this before, hope he chimes in.
 
Just posting the reply from the PM.
Pretty much exactly what SHOdded mentioned

I’ve never used seafoam, I had my intake valves cleaned with the bg intake cleaning process awhile back.
The results were not extraordinary....
i have some videos on YouTube showing the results.
Just search sho bg intake cleaning.
I had a bg authorized shop do the service.
I used a bore scope camera to document the before/after results.
While they did get cleaner it seems to clean the first couple cylinder after the throttle body the most.

Depending how dirty or how hard the deposits are, it can cause damage by loosing pieces that are to large.
Then under hard acceleration they can fall off and hit the turbo vanes at high speed.

It seems like it would work better in 1k increments until they a clean rather than all at once.

IMHO the best solution is to remove the intake manifold all together and clean the valve manually
 
I guess with any type of Induction Cleaning would advise precaution especially on high mileage vehicles!

I would be concerned about chunks of carbon forming while entering the Turbos and ultimately damaging the Fins as kindly suggested by SHOdded above!

I had the Ford Dealer perform an Induction cleaning roughly @ 20K due to a rough idle and low mpg and proved to be effective with good results.

Here are a couple links and good articles for ya.  Z

http://easygdi.valvoline.com/

https://www.valvoline.com/about-us/press-room/Valvoline%20launches%20groundbreaking%20fuel%20system%20service%20for%20gasoline%20direct-injection%20systems

http://www.underhoodservice.com/solving-carbon-deposits-direct-fuel-injection-engines/

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DIY Below!
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@ZSHO
You said the Ford dealer did it for you

Do you remember how much it cost?
My SHO is due for an oil change soon might look into getting this done while it's there
 
I had my manifold off recently and took a look at the intake valves and it wasn't pretty.  A lot of gunk and buildup.  I'm at 160k miles with original everything.  I don't think i would use a product like this given the lack of experience anyone has had with these engines and this product and I'm not trying to be the guinea pig here at the expense of my car.

I don't think ford has any approved way of cleaning the valves, but i could be incorrect.  The only option i'd probably consider is a walnut blasting and that's it.  That seems to be the safest way of going about cleaning the valves since everything just gets vacuumed out instead of sucked in.  You spray a product like this down your intake and deposits have only one place to go.
 
paokara777 said:
@ZSHO
You said the Ford dealer did it for you

Do you remember how much it cost?
My SHO is due for an oil change soon might look into getting this done while it's there
Click to expand...
The Ford dealer quoted me $99.00 for the procedure IIRC. 
They did insert the liquid through the Plenum on Top of the intake manifold while the other was a gas additive for the tank.  Z
 
If your seeking for a cheaper alternative would just purchase a couple of cans of CRC GDI Cleaner or Amsoil power foam cleaner by removing the vacuum port line high-lighted in Blue and spray some cleaner while the vehicle is running as seen on the video below.
I would only use a small amount over an extended period of time which is probably safer alternative to gradually,effectively clean any carbon buildup or oil blowby that has accumulated overtime.
Its important to note that the instructions should be followed exactly as per manufacturers specs on the can and use @ your own risk may apply here and user results may vary depending on mileage,idling!
The only reason mine was performed was due to a rough idle and poor mpg as stated above!

http://www.aa1car.com/library/intake_valve_deposits_gdi_engines.htm

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Yeah my MPG is tanking and my power is down too (this is track verified, not just how it feels)

Also i have had problems starting it in the cold.

I have started to point the finger at carbon build up

I want to try something like this as a diagnostic step almost, i like your idea of doing small amounts gradually to prevent large pieces of carbon breaking off

I imagine the best way to do this is to do it at every service from new to prevent this happening altogether!
 
Another alternative is to talk to Brian at BND Automotive, see if ACES IV can help you resolve the issue gradually.  IIRC, intake valve deposit prevention/cleaning is one of the effects of this additive, yes in a DI system.
 
Since you have never cleaned before i would also take it apart and clean. What I did before meth was chemtool b12 in a chemical sprayer and spray directly at the butterfly valve with intake pipe off. Also only about half of a can at a time, it heats the cats really good.

o yea you need someone in the car to modulate throttle so it doesn't die. We do 3 other lexus vehicles the same way.
 
SHOdded said:
Another alternative is to talk to Brian at BND Automotive, see if ACES IV can help you resolve the issue gradually.  IIRC, intake valve deposit prevention/cleaning is one of the effects of this additive, yes in a DI system.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was thinking about how this issue could be prevented altogether in a similar way they prevent it with detergents in the fuel, and I was wondering if (since the sludge comes from blowby crankcase pressure that gets pushed back into the fuel) they will develop a special oil that has some sort of cleaning agent that will, when mixed in with the fuel, clean the valves. But then i realized that would be the same as having detergents already in the fuel and also its not the unburned stuff causing the problem its the burned stuff so i dunno. I'll leave it to Valvoline to think about it.
 
Not really any shortcuts to cleaning up buildup.  Maintenance regimens, sure.  But ideally u start from a known, good baseline.  I would suggest talking with Brian regardless.
 
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