That, was gross.
 

So, I'd noticed a bit of a quirk in my idle. When the AC would kick on the engine would feel like it stumbled a bit. I know the compressor was on the way out and is taking a little more power than usual but it isn't THAT much more.

I decide to give my Idle Air Control Valve (IACV) a look at since i've done a Throttle Body (TB) cleaning already(or so I thought). To get this thing flushed well I needed to remove the TB assembly and look what I found! A disgusting unseen part of my engine.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...8066c8a934.jpg

And then the intake manifold. Looks like I need to cut off some of my EGR pipe one of these days. Too long for my tastes. I cleaned as well as I could in there while all of the liquid gunk flowed down into my intake ports.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...970638cdac.jpg

My TB cleaned. The intake looked similar when I was done.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...740f1e06bf.jpg

Can't say I really feel anything other than the gratification of knowing at least part of my intake is clean and the idle cleaned up immensely(only because of the IACV cleaning). I'm happy overall with my intake design I just want that egr pipe shorter and less intrusive.

I'll say this though, I've never owned a car that belched as much smoke as I saw this one do today when it FINALLY started. All that gunk and cleaner fouled the plugs and I guess was oily. It took a good 3-4 minutes to get it started and have it run for more than 5-6 seconds without having to floor it.

wow that is nasty!!! how many miles were on it? i bet it could still benefit from some seafoam to really get the valves cleaned up.

how is your o2 sensor?

Just rolled over to 109k this weekend.

Actually, none of that is fuel if that's what you are thinking. The runners are a good 20-24 inches long each so the injectors are WAY far from that part of the manifold. That buildup is all from EGR.

The O2 sensor should be okay, OBD2 usually throws a code for that. I got my craptop for $20 this weekend but need to find a way to get an OS on the HDD without a working floppy or CD drive(i have to make the drive bootable for the install to start and it's turning into a HUGE PITA). After that, I can stream OBD2 data and make sure it's working okay.

If I knew I was going to keep the car for a while I'd just remove the intake manifold and manually clean the valves and make sure the injectors are clean and calibrated.

i dont think its all from egr. i think its largely from the pcv system. in which case it is condensed oil fumes.

I forgot about PCV... good point!

My 76 Federal Z car had no EGR so there was no buildup in the manifold or anywhere else. 77 had EGR and goop was in those. The combination is almost like tar.

regards
gary