Intake manifold is off, working on vacuum hoses

[TriX5]

Yesterday received one vibration insulator, one was missing on my IM. I checked in the ports with the bore scope and luckily it is not in there. The IM was off once before when the dealer replaced the GPM and glow plugs, it probably was lost then. (Leave it to the pros....) Can't remember if that was a recall or courtesy. Anyway, the one insulator was $15, not cheap but better than unavailable.

The vac regulators for the turbo change-over and waste gate actuators appeared this morning and I picked up the vac reservoir/sensor bracket from Tischer. The vacuum valves also came and now just missing some more vac hose. The next two days I am busy with non-vehicular stuff so this is on hold till the weekend.

[TriX5]

Today it was time to rig up the vacuum block with the new Vacuum Reservoir / Connections Bracket and the new Pressure Converters as well as the new EL-Valve for the turbo bypass. After the painful process of extracting the reservoir and the steel bracket as one unit, I concluded it would be way easier not to put it back that way. I put back the steel bracket with the converters first and the reservoir only after all the hoses were installed. As mentioned before, to get the hoses off the waste gate and the LP-EGR valve from below the car, you need to remove the stiffener plate and the plastic cover from the passenger side frame rail, then reach in from below. I had installed these already a few days ago.

I mounted the new converters on the steel bracket and the new EL-valve on the secondary steel bracket which I had left on the engine. The EL-valve slots in front to back, difficult to explain but easy to see when you are in there. Once the steel bracket with the converters was back in its place, I cut and installed all the new vac hoses on the actuators, valves and converters except for the red hose which was cut to size but need not be connected to the EL-valve yet. Once I had rigged it all up, then slipped the reservoir over the three studs on the bracket and connect it with the three M10 nuts. I used a magnetic socket to avoid them going AWOL.

Then it was time to figure out the connections, they are not interchangeable except for the temp sensors on the Cat/DPF. The pre-cat temp sensor (next to the O2 sensor on the Cat/DPF housing) goes to the yellow/blue-yellow/brown and the pre-DPF temp sensor (furthest back on the DPF) goes to the gray/white-brown lead. For reference the temp sensor on the LP-EGR valve goes to the red/yellow-brown/white lead. Last thing was to connect the red hose to the EL-valve.



****I think that to get to the pressure converters it is probably not necessary to remove steel bracket from the valve cover nor disconnect the electrical connections other than the turbo bypass EL-valve (since it is mounted on the secondary steel bracket and it also happens to be the easiest to disconnect). I would disconnect the two hoses on the diff pressure sensor and the hose of the exhaust pressure sensor to make it easier to move the reservoir out of the way. Once the three hoses and the EL-valve are disconnected, cut the red hose at the EL-valve and the hose running to the large actuator (turbo change over) under the vac block. (The remainder of the latter can easily be removed using a small box cutter or a scalpel) Now the shield needs to be removed from the reservoir, lift it from the back (hard cause the harnesses from the ECU will fight you) and then pull it clear to the passenger side. Once you have the shield out, undo the three M10 nuts holding the reservoir to the steel bracket. The reservoir should now have enough movement to get at the converters to replace the hoses or replace both. ***

[blue dragon]

I did the vaccum reservoir and the pressure converters and lines last year. It was not a fun job at all. This started with one of the 3 converters failing and throwing a code leaving me in limp mode in the middle of a snow storm heading to the airport to pick up my sister.

[TriX5]

The vacuum block is back on the car and most of the hoses are on. Today my mightyvac tester arrived. So, hopefully tomorrow I can check the three actuators on the turbo. I'm intrigued by the vacuum actuated motor mounts, I doubt they will hold vacuum but we'll see.

The intake manifold is taking a lengthy bath in purple power as of 5pm today and judging by the consistency of the liquid after running it through twice, I will need at least two more jugs of PP to clean it (which I went to get after dinner). The stuff that came out is super black and viscous.

I think I will reinstall the swirl flaps for now, just not convinced that the motor will be the same if I delete them. I am wondering if I could get some o-rings flexible and thin enough to slip them on the shaft from the outside to provide some additional seal though I know it would not be anywhere near perfect.

[TriX5]

So, I got three gallons of Purple Power and frankly didn't expect too much from it. I made a plug for the throttle body opening from a plastic bag and some rags. Put a bolt into the MAP grommet and with the ports pointing up it holds precisely a gallon of liquid. Looking into the intake opening there seemed to be a fat cake of carbon gunk stuck to the innards of the IM.

The first gallon of purple power I let sit overnight and it looked like spent motor oil when it came out, unbelievably black and viscous. Looked promising in terms of cleaning power but clearly needed more. So, I drained the first lot and put the second gallon in, which sat soaking for two nights. Drained it this morning and peering in to the intake opening looked quite promising! No more caked on gunk in my field of view. Not bad! On to phase 2.

I had borrowed a Karcher pressure washer from a friend to clean the pavers on my patio (had to fix the pressure switch first but that is a different story! :--) and decided it might just work on the intake manifold to blast out any remaining gunk. I put a work glove over the air intake using quick ties and cut off one finger of the glove to stick the wand in to the IM to avoid it all blowing back on me. Laying it with the ports down in my oil drain tray worked like a charm. A couple of gallons still came out black but after a few more tries it was mostly clear. However, a lot of solid gunk still came out that I could scoop out of the bottom of the drain tray. I went at it with the pressure washer until no more gunk appeared.

I plugged the holes anew and left it soaking with the last gallon of purple power. Tomorrow I will give it another shot with the pressure washer and hope to be done with it. Before bolting it back on the head I will run a borescope through to assure there are no chunks of carbon anywhere in there. I don't want the engine to swallow any large pieces even if they are soft.

In a nutshell, quite impressed by the ability of the Purple Power to dissolve this stuff! In terms of difficulty no more than a 2 of 10 but on the scale of gross and horrible a solid 10!!! :-) More later, will try and shoot a picture of the borescope images if I can.

[crystalworks]

^Good to know. Thanks.

[TriX5]

This morning checked on the chemical experiment with the intake manifold and still looks very black, I may have to go for Purple Power gallon #4. First will let it sit overnight one more time. Then pressure washer tomorrow and the next PP treatment after that. Doubt I will go for #5.....I want it back on car to see if all of this leads to any improvement!

So now that I have another day or two, decided to put my new Mightyvac vacuum tester to work. Most everything seems to works as advertised but the motor mounts get up to 15 vacuum then fail. Pretty sure those need replacing.

Finally went to check the EGR cooler (which couldn't have failed as I replaced it only 10k/18 months back....before I shipped it to Europe). Aaaaarghhhh, it held vacuum but no movement of any kind.... :-( Tried to move it by hand, no luck. Try to move it with pliers, nothing! Finally decided to remove the EGR cooler altogether and with channel lock pliers I could move the valve but only with a lot of effort! Half a can of WD-40 later (and a lot of elbow grease) it moves but not as freely as I'd like. Left it to soak with a good dousing of WD-40 on the inside. [EDIT: It is a Behr/Hella unit]

I am starting to wonder what hasn't failed in the emissions control system? Daaaang! Don't have time to work on it every day and this starting to be a long haul....

Added some pics. The IM turned with ports pointing up so that a few corners will be soaked that were not previously treated laying it down. The EGR cooler in resting position (valve is open) and activated with the mightyvac. Finally, the EGR cooler bolts on the left are much easier to undo if the lower intake duct is out. It is held in by a bolt (ext torx) and the connectors at the top.

[Dieselfan]

Nice job! And thank you for sharing.

[TriX5]

Dieselfan, UR welcome :-) Trying to add some details about the process that I found hard to find despite many threads on this topic.

Last week I was reading Sunny-J's thread on his maintenance adventures and I decided to order the seals for the vacuum pump as he had done from DUDMD. Arrived quickly and in order from across the country! Good service. Over the weekend I cleaned the swirl flaps with some purple power, that stuff is amazing and very strong (it dissolved the orange paint in my oil catch tray.....)

So, the parts all having arrived, I decided to start the engine up today. The vac pump comes off easily and the seals are easily replaced. Then put the EGR cooler back on and the lower intake duct. Finished tying down all the hoses and wires. Assembled the intake manifold swirl flaps and motor, EGR valve. (decided to put the throttle body after the IM was installed. Popped the IM on the engine......and realized I forgot to put the 12 seals on the intake ports.... I had only begun to tighten 2 bolts but definitely felt a bit silly. One little trick is to get the IM lined up is to keep the front of the IM lifted and spot it going on to the rear stud, then lower the front of the IM. It fell in to place easily....twice.

After wrestling with the covers I removed from above the ECU and searching for the front reinforcement bar which had fallen behind a box.... . Then the ever fun bit of re-installing the fan and the charge hose.

The motor started easily and ran quite smoothly. Not sure which of all the items I cleaned and/or replaced makes the difference but I'm sure that after 150k miles none of it was excessive. Deleted the codes with INPA and none reappeared but I have not driven it as the bottom covers are still off (plan to service the trans and do an oil change. More of this in a few days.

[TriX5]

....where have they been all this time? Decided to take it iff the jack stands and give it a whirl. The improvement in performance is insane! I even have brakes again! So, I guess my vacuum system was seriously messed up. Cleaning up the intake and swirl flaps probably also made a significant difference.

I saw some posts of people with E90s who had a lot of improvement from changing the pressure converters. And this tallies with that experience. I am so pleased that I decided to tackle this at last.

Next stop, transmission and TCase service.