EGR crud

[missfixit70]

Cleaned out my intercooler, pipework & hoses in the last few days, took the elbow off at the forward end of the air intake manifold where the egr used to enter before I removed it 18 months ago, this is not a very clear photo, but my hands were covered in tarry gunk at the time



I reckon there was a mound of tarry crap about 5- 8mm high opposite the egr inlet & the manifold had a goodly layer of the same. couldn't be bothered taking it all off, so carefully cleared out the manifold with a petrol/diesel mix soaked rag wrapped around a rod & scrubbed the inlet elbow in the the same mix before replacing.
Bear in mind I remove my EGR about 18 months ago & this crud was still sat there I wasn't getting any especially smoky tytpe symtoms, I just hated the idea of the EGR chucking all that crap back into the air inlet. So for any of you thinking you may have problems with your EGR, you probably have.

[lizard]

Well wot can I say, smoke no more crud, you know it make sense.

[brorabongo]

Was there any sign of muck in the intercooler/hoses?

[missfixit70]

Yep, but not from the EGR, rodded through the pipes & hoses with a drain cleaning flexi jobby with a petrol/diesel soaked rag cable tied to it & flushed the intercooler with the same about 3 times, soaking it the shaking back & forth until it ran clear( was black the first flush), then degreased with a citric degreaser & then washed out with washing up liquid before thoroughly rinsing, leaving out in the sun for an hour the carefully drying with a hot air gun. Cleaned the vanes through with engine cleaner aerosol stuff then rinsed it through.
Along with the ATF change & spending a day doing a Holts 2 part rad flush on the cooling system after replacing the remaining hoses with silicon ( 17 in all - 3 made up from a spare bleed hose) it feels like a different vehicle, be interesting to see if it makes any difference to economy, hard to check cos it just wants to play now, hard to drive sensibly

[mikeonb4c]

Yep, but not from the EGR, rodded through the pipes & hoses with a drain cleaning flexi jobby with a petrol/diesel soaked rag cable tied to it & flushed the intercooler with the same about 3 times, soaking it the shaking back & forth until it ran clear( was black the first flush), then degreased with a citric degreaser & then washed out with washing up liquid before thoroughly rinsing, leaving out in the sun for an hour the carefully drying with a hot air gun. Cleaned the vanes through with engine cleaner aerosol stuff then rinsed it through.
Along with the ATF change & spending a day doing a Holts 2 part rad flush on the cooling system after replacing the remaining hoses with silicon ( 17 in all - 3 made up from a spare bleed hose) it feels like a different vehicle, be interesting to see if it makes any difference to economy, hard to check cos it just wants to play now, hard to drive sensibly

I'd be very interested to hear more about that Kirsty. How exactly does it feel better? If that really is the case then I could be tempted to get to grips with mine, time and bad back permitting

[missfixit70]

Feels more lively, although it could just be relief that it all went back together ok without any dramas & worked ok Hoping there is an improvement to mpg, but I won't be disappointed if not. Also be interesting to see if the engine now runs any cooler.

[brorabongo]

Might give mine a clean out then, but I'll wait till summer. I did notice the intercooler fins were blocked up with crud/leaves etc, that can't help with the cooling.

[bigdaddycain]

Once again Kirsty..well done! can't wait to ya get chance to do mine...

[mikeonb4c]

Once again Kirsty..well done! can't wait to ya get chance to do mine...

Oi! get in the line please and no queue barging big boy

[dom_e]

Dredging this thread back up.....

How long does it take to clean out the intercooler pipework Kirsty / any others who've done this?

I presume there are no coolant/fluid changes involved (it's an air to air system?)?

Is it worth it in terms of performance / MPG gain?

Is there anything to watch out for - e.g. leaving any loose gunge that could get trapped somewhere it shouldn't?

Ta

Dom

[missfixit70]

Couple of hours maybe?
Difficult to say what gains in power or mpg as I did it in conjunction with a load of other jobs, but it's increasing the efficiency of the air cooling & flow, so it can only be a good thing.