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Author Topic: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!  (Read 20651 times)

Offline ducman77

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #15 on: October 15, 2016, 11:06:30 am »
Yes I spoken to them as wasn't sure about driving without a specific map but said it's fine with the n75 unplugged. I should imagine a hybrid k03 would require as much dedication when it comes to mapping.

Yeah got a hpfp with autotech install in the garage too

Dude! You've got all the bits ready to go!! It'd be rude not to :happy2:

What's the N75??

Offline v4rley

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #16 on: October 15, 2016, 01:56:01 pm »
Yeah it's just the fitting and mapping  :signLOL:

N75 is adjoining the turbo and controls the boost

Offline ducman77

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #17 on: October 17, 2016, 10:34:10 am »
Yeah it's just the fitting and mapping  :signLOL:

N75 is adjoining the turbo and controls the boost

Cheers buddy - will store this little nugget of info in my brain for later :happy2: :happy2: 

Offline ducman77

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2016, 10:52:55 pm »
Mini update;

Took the car across country to go to friends wedding. Managed 40MPG by driving like a complete granny. The computer reckoned I was good for 840kms (520mls) from a full tank. It's never been that good before!! And that's with my thermostat stuck open. So I reckon the cleaning has in fact helped my MPG

Then when I was finished with the wedding I took her for a proper burn. Throttle response and power in the higher revs has definitely improved. The car just feels "better ". Definitely think this is a worthwhile job despite the work involved. I'm actually looking forward to doing it again in a few thousand miles :smiley: :happy2:

Offline FJ1000

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #19 on: October 25, 2016, 11:28:24 pm »
What would be great would be a more scientific before and after comparison.

If somebody else is planning to clean their inlet valves, perhaps they could log their peak MAF reading before and repeat afterwards? E.g. Get the car warm, then log the peak MAF reading as you take the car to redline in 2nd gear; pretty easy to do with an OBD2 Bluetooth dongle (e.g. ELM327 from eBay) and an app called "Torque OBD".

My suspicion is that carbon build up is not really a massive issue on the GTi, and increase in airflow after a clean will be small.

I dyno'd mine at 88k miles, never cleaned, and it made 197bhp (stock). My RS4 on the other hand made 383bhp (even after receiving a couple of cleans in its life), up to 427bhp after a clean.


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Offline ducman77

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #20 on: October 26, 2016, 08:25:15 am »
What would be great would be a more scientific before and after comparison.

If somebody else is planning to clean their inlet valves, perhaps they could log their peak MAF reading before and repeat afterwards? E.g. Get the car warm, then log the peak MAF reading as you take the car to redline in 2nd gear; pretty easy to do with an OBD2 Bluetooth dongle (e.g. ELM327 from eBay) and an app called "Torque OBD".

My suspicion is that carbon build up is not really a massive issue on the GTi, and increase in airflow after a clean will be small.

I dyno'd mine at 88k miles, never cleaned, and it made 197bhp (stock). My RS4 on the other hand made 383bhp (even after receiving a couple of cleans in its life), up to 427bhp after a clean.


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That would have been a cool thing to do!!
Wish I had thought of that!

I think you are right. I think the forced induction gets passed the issue of dirty inlet valves pretty handily. Where as a high revving naturally aspirated car like the RS4 Will suffer a lot more if its inlet tract is clogged :happy2:

Offline pudding

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #21 on: October 26, 2016, 09:42:03 am »
I suppose it comes down to spending a weekend on it for a small improvement vs doing other things with your time  :smiley:  I like working on engines, but leaning over the engine for hours doesn't do my (43 year old) back any good any more!

The benefits are:  All that crap is removed for peace of mind, and your knowledge of the engine improves a lot.

With the RS4, you have 8 cylinders worth of a slight reduction in flow, which adds up.  With a 4 pot FSI + boost, it's really not that big a deal really.  I think at best the idle, cold start and part throttle improve.  The mid and top ends won't change one bit  :smiley:


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Offline ducman77

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #22 on: October 29, 2016, 10:17:13 pm »
but leaning over the engine for hours doesn't do my (43 year old) back any good any more!

The benefits are:  All that crap is removed for peace of mind, and your knowledge of the engine improves a lot.

You're right about your back buddy. Myself and my friend are of a similar vintage to yourself :wink: and we were both complaining about our backs the next day :laugh:

There was deafening silence from him when I said I was looking forward to having another crack at it when we're fitting the S3 injectors and K04 :rolleye:

Offline Pesky jones

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #23 on: April 10, 2017, 02:46:22 pm »
Going to do this at the end of the month when I fit my s3 injectors. Have a few questions....

1) I have brand new s3 injectors so do I need the injector seal and rebuild kits if they are brand new? Do I need the tool that comes with the kit to remove/install the injectors? Link below
http://www.akstuning.co.uk/genuine-oem-parts/253-genuine-fuel-injector-installation-seal-kit.html

2) How do you know when you have closed the cylinder fully, is it just watching the valves reach a point before they start to travel back down? Cylinder one & cylinder four im presuming you can get TDC through both the reference marks on crankshaft and the ref marks on exhaust cam shaft. (when both crank and camshaft line up - cyl 1 is TDC. When just the crank ref marks line up - cyl 4 is TDC). I dont want to "think" the valve is closed and there's actually a little gap and get a load of carbon/chemicals down there.

3) Leak down test. Can you explain how you did this a little further please

4) For scraping and cleaning, you say brass is the best material you found?

5) I want to be sure I get all the loose carbon and debris out - whats the best way?

Offline ducman77

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #24 on: May 10, 2017, 09:38:57 pm »
Sorry for the Long delay in responding to your questions pesky-Jones. I haven't checked this thread in a good while!

1) if your S3 injectors are brand-new they should come with brand-new seals so no you won't need a new seals kit. And I suppose in an ideal world you might have the special tool for removing the injectors but I just pulled them out and they just push back in so I don't think you really need the tool.

2) & 3)  when you remove the inlet manifold three of the inlet valves will be closed and one will be open. At all times in the cycle, three will be closed and one will be open. So thankfully, you don't need to worry about finding TDC etc. To confirm for sure, you perform a leak down test. This involves pouring a small volume of petrol onto the valves which appear closed. Wait about 15 to 20 minutes and you should still have exactly the same volume of petrol with none of it having "leaked down" into the cylinder below.

Then carefully tape over the one remaining inlet valve which is obviously open. And you're ready to crack on with carbon scraping without any risk of it getting into the cylinders.

Then when it comes time you can either turn the engine over by hand (down on the crankshaft pulley) or you can give it a very quick click on the starter motor (as per the video above) to close the valve which was open. This will randomly open up one of the three which you have already cleaned. But  it will definitely close the dirty one that you have yet to do! Hope that all makes sense?? In the YouTube video linked at the start of the DIY the dude explains it also...

4) Brass. Yeah. I bought a kit which had a selection of brass, nylon and steel brushes. The nylon brushes were great but not really that abrasive. So they only did light work on the carbon. The brass brushes were great!! They really horsed into the carbon. But they got mangled up pretty quickly. The steel brushes I was too scared to use as they seemed very stiff and abrasive and I was worried that they might do damage??

If I had my choice again I would've bought a selection of just brass brushes :happy2:

5) This is where the 12V petrol siphon pump that I bought off eBay comes into the mix!! You'll see a photo of it in the thread above. 

The 12 V siphon pump sucks all the cruddy, carbon, petrol, cleaning liquid gunk and mess out of the inlet. I actually had an old Hoover to hand which was quite handy also for sucking out any of the remaining dried flakes at the end. Then you use Q-Tips and lint free cloths etc etc to finish up. You will know yourself when it is all clean and you're happy with it.

Basically it is really a very simple cleaning job. The hardest part is actually getting access to the Inlet valves. Once you are there it is just like cleaning anything really. Lots and lots and lots of elbow grease! Give yourself loads of time to do it and you will know yourself when you have done a good job :happy2:

Just one word of caution. I am pretty sure I noticed absolutely no difference in how the car drives before and after the carbon cleaning. I think the forced induction 2.0 TFSI engine is designed to run with a certain amount of carbon on the inlet valves without any headaches.

I'm not sure that it runs any better with the carbon cleaned off! Unless your build up is absolutely chronic.

I know that in the highly strung naturally aspirated  V8 Audi RS4 engines etc it makes a big deal to have the carbon cleaned as it can really hamper their performance. But on our turbocharged engines I'm not sure the carbon is such a big deal from a performance point of you.

I'm still very glad I did the job as I like the idea of the inlet valves being clean. But if you're looking for a performance gain I'd be afraid you might be a bit disappointed!

Hope all that helps, and as stated earlier sorry for the long delay in responding

Offline v4rley

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #25 on: May 28, 2017, 09:15:42 pm »
Though I'd hijack your thread @ducman77

Did my valves today, i walnut blasted.


Offline fab5freddy

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #26 on: May 29, 2017, 08:15:07 am »
Great job @v4rley there almost gleaming  :happy2:

Offline 99hagued

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #27 on: May 30, 2017, 12:14:00 am »
Though I'd hijack your thread @ducman77

Did my valves today, i walnut blasted.



Cracking job there mate, what walnut blasting kit did you use if you don't mind me asking and can you feel any different

Offline pudding

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #28 on: May 30, 2017, 10:07:16 am »
There's all manner of media blasting kits online mate.   BMW use a clever inlet port to connect a hoover to, which stops bits of walnut getting everywhere.  Not seen anything like that for VWs.  Not hard to make, so not sure why no one's done it yet.



 


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Offline v4rley

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Re: DIY inlet valve cleaning Mk5 GTI - Picture Heavy!!
« Reply #29 on: May 30, 2017, 10:19:20 am »
@fab5freddy thanks pleased with my effort

@99hagued Not sure on difference, as did multiple tasks (rfd, rs4 valve, loba hpfp). brought a cheap blaster of eBay for £10 that fitted on a compressor line and adapted the end with some copper pipe also adapted a silicone hose:



@Pudding obviously can see my attempt at replicating the BMW kit. The BMW does fit our inlet to but are about £90 for the atttachment but not readily available in the U.K.  Someone in America has 3D printed versions for about £50