2.7L auto - throttle body and intake manifold cleaning

I plan on cleaning my intake manifold and throttle body when I do a tune-up this weekend. When I use to play with Hondas, all I did was remove the intake and basically spray throttle body cleaner inside the butterfly opening and brushed it with a toothbrush. Is it the same concept cleaning this 2.7L or do yall have better recommendations? I was also wondering if you guys recommended using seafoam in there to flush out gunk I couldnt clean? I have 219K. Thanks

 

bump! anyone? Anyone use seafoam? does it really work...i think i might try this but whats the best way to use it? through the gas or the vaccuum? thanks

 

I used break cleaner and a brush to clean mine. Also sprayed the ports to clean them out. worked fine..

 

About 3 weeks ago i ventured into this project, but i did not however use seafoam. I completely removed the entire intake manifold system and used xylene, throttle body cleaner and some long brushes and shop rags to get everything out of intake plenum, runners and throttle body. My theory is that seafoam will get some of the crap out but not all of it. Your still gonna have baked on sludge in there thats gonna take many of treatments to get out. Honesty your best bet is to get all your supplies ready (new gaskets, cleaners...ect,) then tear into it. Should only be a two day project if everything goes right.

Also to i installed a PCV catch can to prevent the formation of sludge in the future. I utilized a water separator for an air compressor and it works great.

Also be careful with your choice of cleaner on the throttle body, supposedly there is a silicon coating on the butterfly to prevent the buildup of sludge. Make sure you use THROTTLE BODY cleaner because this will not strip that coating off. If you use Carb cleaner you will remove that coating and it will make it harder to remove sludge buildup off the butterfly in the future,

 

Thanks for the reply! I wasn't planning on taking the whole throttle body apart lol. I was just planning on removing the intake pipe so I can access the throttle butterly. Then just using a long brush and throttle body cleaner to clean out what I can reach with the brush. Do you think this is good enough? What's the difficulty level of taking apart the whole throttle body and what is this gasket you speak of? Thanks

 

any pics of your catch can setup?

 

what gasket are you talking about 043RZ? is it difficult to take apart throttle body? what is the difficulty level for taking apart the throttle body? thanks.

 

Honestly if you really want to get all that gunk out of the intake assembly, your going to have to pull the entire intake system (pics coming soon of the process ) The new gaskets that im talking about are as follow:
1. Intake manifold gasket and Intake Plenum gasket (both gaskets come together, got mine from Advanced Auto Zone)
2. Throttle Body Gasket (Advanced Auto Zone)
3. 2 EGR valve gaskets (Dealership unfortunatly)

I will note that i did run into a problem with Advanced Auto getting me the wrong gaskets... Apparently Toyota made the 3RZ in the Tacomas both in the California emissions standards and Federal standards. Mine was the California standard. This means that the end of the intake manifold going into the head is a different shape then the Federal ones (California intake ends are oval, Federal has 2 circles per intake port). So just have them order both types and whichever one you dont need just bring back. Trust me i learned the hard way. This project was suppose to be a 2 day project turned into a week long project because i was waiting on parts.

Depending on how mechanically skilled you are, it is very straight forward and easy to do. Just take your time and take pics of different angles of your vacuum lines and connections to help encase you forget where one goes.

Let me get my photo bucket account up and running again and ill do a mini writeup with pics

 

First thing i did was take a few pics of my connections and vacuum hoses as a "just in case"







And some homegrown scaffolding if your lifted



Next thing i did was pulled the intake tubing and, vacuum lines, sensor connections and throttle body off (remember to take pics of your vacuum lines and sensor connections to help with reassembly as needed)



Next i removed the Intake Plenum form the intake manifold (make sure you unbolt the EGR Valve from the back of the Intake Plenum and remove completely along with wiring harness mounts and sensors)







Here are some pics of what my Intake Plenum looked like. Note my truck only had slightly over 100000 miles on it and to me this is kinda bad, but this is what happens when the PCV vapors get put back through the intake system and yes this is normal believe it or not lol

Picture looking down past where the throttle body mounts to the Plenum



Plenum runners





I also pulled the IAC valve off the bottom of the throttle body and cleaned thoroughly along with the throttle body itself. These are notorious for sticking and causing somewhat of a rough idle. DO NOT use anything other than THROTTLE BODY CLEANER on the IAC and throttle body itself. NOTE!: The gasket for the IAC Valve is also a dealer item!!! Not to expensive though.





Now on to removing the Intake Runners





Now on to cleaning everything up. I used Diesel fuel to first soak the Intake Runners and Plenum to help loosen the majority of the gunk, then started brushing and running shop rags down each runner. Then after that i used Xylene to remove more of the baked on crap and finally finished everything up with a few cans of carb cleaner (yes you can use carb cleaner on the runners and plenum, just not on the throttle body). Hears some pics after cleaning









I also took a a few moments to clean the intake port on the head as well with some Xylene and a rage.



Now time to reassemble. Hear are the gaskets that i was talking about and the mess up with my truck being California Emissions...

Top gasket is for Federal Emission Tacomas, Bottom is California. Not sure if when exactly the break was but like i said either find out for sure what your engine is or just purchase both gasket sets and return the one you dont use



Same goes for the EGR valve gaskets as well. The Gasket to the right is mine (California), one on the left is Federal.



Now reassemble everything making sure you torque everything down to the manufactures torque specs!!!

Hear are the pics to my PCV Catchcan and its working like a charm. All i used was a Kobalt water separator for an air compressor. Also you will need some brass pipe fittings to custom make your connections!! I simply utilized part of the old PCV hose going to the Plenum and put a 1/2 inch pipe nipple in the stock hose then reduced it down to 3/8 to accommodate the Catchcan. I also bought 5 foot of Transmission Oil Cooler Line at Advance Auto to use for my new PCV tube which you will see in the photos below... (im going to take another pic tomorrow of fittings i used so you can visually see what i did).



And hear is the Catchcan doing its job

 

WOW! what a write up! You should make a whole DIY for that. Thanks for the effort. I will definitely have my laptop up and running with your post as I do my intake manifold cleaning! How the heck do you keep your engine so damn clean? Thing is brand new looking. Very nice work bro and thanks again. You should make this a separate DIYer. What is the purpose of the catch?

 

Thanks man!! To keep everything clean looking, at the end of every season (summer and winter) i degrease and wash the engine and undercarriage down with Krudkutter mixed with 25% Krudkutter and 75% water. I put that in a pump up garden sprayer and spray everything down, let sit maybe take a brush to some things then rinse it down. Where i live they tend to use alot of road salt in the winter and i have about a 1/4 mile dirt gravel road leading up to my house. After awhile things tend to get a little grimy, especially after winter. Like i said i do the undercarriage to to help prevent any corrosion.

The purpose of the catch can is to prevent combustion gases and oil vapor form going back into the intake manifold and gunking everything back up. The catch can simple pretreats the gases by means of removing the oil/gas vapors before it goes back into the intake to get burned. Every vehicle produces blowby. Blowby is when combustion gases escape by the piston rings and end up in the crankcase. These gases mix with oil vapors and need an escape route or the gasses will build up and blow out seals. So once you clean the intakes you will never have to worry about pulling the intake back apart again. The catchcan will need to be emptied every oil change, but i feel one extra step in an oil change it worth the peace of mind.

After i did this i did notice that my truck idled smoother and felt like it ran better and crisper. All in all im happy with the results

Hear are pics before and after modification





And hear is a pic of the fittings from the intake going to the new hose.

 

I just wanted to thank you all for posting the pics and for the added technical comments.

Last week my truck started idling higher than normal, and it also threw a code for the throttle position sensor. After doing some searching, I came across this thread. Instead of just buying a new sensor, I decided to remove the throttle body and do some cleaning.

Because of being lazy, I ended up doing it twice. The first time I just removed the intake tube and cleaned inside the throttle body as far as I could with an old tooth brush and throttle body cleaner.

After putting everything back together, the idle was still high. So I decided to do it right the second time around, and removed the throttle body as I should have done the first time.

Some things I wanted to highlight based on my experience:

- Good idea on taking pics before starting in case you forget where some of the vacuum lines go

- You must remove the entire throttle body to do the job right. There is no way you can clean all the dirt behind the butterfly with the throttle body still attached to the intake. Even though I got a LOT of dirt out the first time around without removing the throttle body, there was so much more I couldn't reach with just the tooth brush.


- Although it is a relatively easy job to remove the throttle body, there are two coolant lines that can be a PITA to remove. Not rocket science but lots of patience - especially if you have big hands. I could barely squeeze my hands in there with a set of small pliers to break the metal clips loose.

- Definitely need to remove the IAC to complete the cleaning job. There was so much dirt inside those passages.

-You must have an impact screw driver - just in case - to remove the four screws that hold the IAC in place underneath the throttle body. Those screws are tight! After reading on this and other forums, it is very easy to round them off.

-About the gasket and o-ring: Autozone and/or other local auto part stores will not have the o-ring that goes with the IAC. That is a dealer only part, not too expensive. I think I paid like 4 bucks for it. The gasket for the throttle body can be found at autozone for like $1.50, lol. I ended up replacing both even though I didn't really needed it.

I did not remove the rest of the intake for a more in-depth cleaning as shown on the pics above - because I needed to get the truck back on the road quickly. But that is something that I will do in the near future.

Anyway, the idle is back to normal now. I assume it is because of all the nasty dirt that came off after I cleaned the throttle body.

Once again, thanks all for the good info

 

wow, nice write up. you should take the pics and narrate a video on yourtube for a how to video, they don't have one for the 4 bangers, most everything like this is only the 6 cylinder videos

I noticed the pcv catch jar already has some oil sludge in it, how long did it take to collect that much?

 

Not a problem man! Im glad the writeup helped in your process. As for the coolant line clamps i do agree that they are a bit of a PITA to get to, but extended handle needle nose pliers are what i used. They really come in handy. I got my set at harbor freight. Just something to keep in mind for when you pull the entire intake.

 

Every oil change (3000 miles) its ready to be dumped and its good for the next oil change

 

wow that's pretty often, its amazing how much that is.

I cant help but wonder what positive effect cleaning everything like new actually has on the engine? I mean the film on the sides of the passages is not hurting anything so I guess im saying the throttle body is the only real "needed" disassembly and cleaning required as far as I can see, the rest is just cosmetic.

I do agree the catch can idea is a mod everyone should do and something they should figure out how to do at the factory, you should create a "how to" mod tread for it so others can see it or just take what you have here and do a "how to" intake cleaning thread as well

 

The added disassembley probably wasent needed and i dont have any real data to back up the necessity of intake runner cleaning... but i will say that as i removed the intake from the cylinder head the grim was thick and pebbled like (rough to the touch). My theory is that the added texture took away from the smooth surface of the inner intake manifold which could create turbulence and restrict a smooth entrance or air into the combustion chamber. Like i said i have no data or proof that the added cleaning made a difference, but for me it was piece of mind and i know what i have now . And also know it wont build up again.

It was suggested that i do a separate sticky for this mod, but im not sure how to.

 

Awesome write-up. Great pics and advice. Many thanx for taking the time and effort to make this valuable DIY maintenance available. I really like the catch can idea.....brilliant idea..................

 

yep, that's kinda what I was thinking.

as to the sticky that's not for you to do but to have it done for you, you create a new separate "how to" thread and then one of the mods will be able to pin it to the top of the first page of this forum making it a sticky.

 

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