Intake manifold cleaner


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Old 03-31-23, 05:46 AM
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Intake manifold cleaner

I have the intake manifold removed from my engine (2011 Acura TL) and want to clean it thoroughly. Seems like the consensus is to use Purple Power, except it is corrosive and I've seen it etch aluminum in the past. Is there a better alternative? Foaming engine cleaner/degreaser perhaps?
 
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Old 03-31-23, 06:27 AM
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Clean is in? Outside? Inside? Remove dust and dirt or remove gunk inside and outside?
 
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Old 03-31-23, 06:44 AM
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Inside and out. Gunk, caked on carbon. Every nook and cranny. Using pipe brushes.
 

Last edited by mossman; 03-31-23 at 08:19 AM.
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Old 03-31-23, 01:20 PM
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Kerosene, water, and dish soap?
 
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Old 03-31-23, 01:33 PM
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Glass bead sand blasting!
 
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Old 03-31-23, 07:16 PM
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Well, I don't have access to one of those, so I'll have to resort to some sort of degreaser. How about foaming degreaser (contains kerosene), rinse with water, then chase with carb cleaner?
 
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Old 03-31-23, 09:51 PM
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b12 chemtool or carb cleaner does a decent job at dissolving deposits inside the intake but for the outside would likely use a detergent or degreaser.
 
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Old 04-02-23, 07:15 AM
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kerosene is well known excellent cleaner. you just have to soak stuff in it and use good brush. any foam degreasers i used, ain't worth the money. or, spray ones. outsode indeed is best done with blasting. inside - soaking and then brushing and flushing. wire brush or stiff plastic brush on flexible metal handle, like ones, used to wash bottles inside, is suitable.
 
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Old 04-08-23, 05:18 PM
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I ended up using engine degreaser, a bottle brush, and flushing with water. The manifold is actually two halves joined with some sort of gasket material so I didn't want to use anything too strong. The two halves are bolted together but they aren't meant to be separated (the manufacturers parts diagram shows it as one unit and there's no procedure in the service manual for separating it). Looks fine now.
 
 

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