2.7L auto - throttle body and intake manifold cleaning

Subd

 

Good writeup and nice photos. And although the cleaning of the runners likely didn't gain you much in overall fuel economy, as you said it does reduce air turbulence which allows more air to enter the cylinders thus giving you more HP. I'm sure the throttle body cleaning did the most for you. At 100K miles, why not do the cleaning and especially if it is this easy and you plan to keep your engine for a while longer, this is cheap maintenance, just have all your parts ahead of time. I'm just over 50K on my truck and it's too early for a job like this.

Interesting take on the crankcase gases to pass it through a separator. I'm a but shocked that it works and I would be curious to see what the runners look like in another 100K miles, seeing if it really did reduce the buildup.

 

How did you decide which catch can to buy ? I checked ebay and there are many at a large range of prices. I can't find the kobalt catch can 0221024 when I Googled it. Do you have a link ? Thanks for any reply.

 

It's an air/water separator for an air compressor. Check Lowes as its a Kobalt branded piece.

 

Thanks. I'll check it out as air/water separator rather then catch can.

 

Many catch cans can be found online. Mostly boosted motors run these because it generates positive pressure in most crankcases/valve trains. I'm going to build one for my mk4 out of a metal surplus canteen when I can find one at the army store.

 

I don't have a boosted motor so I don't need a catch can - correct ? Thanks.

 

Nope not at all. You can keep it the way it was from factory.

 

Ok so hears an update from when i did my catch can install. As winter approached and the temps began to drop, i noticed that i would have to empty the catch can in between oil changes, due to the added condensation the engine was producing. So i upgraded to the next size up catch can from Kobalt item# 221014 ($24.00) and am in the process of custom making my own mounting bracket for the firewall. Will update with pics soon.

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

I did this too, I think I have some pics in my build.. cleaned out the injectors while I was at it too.. It did help a little but I wouldn't say it affected things a crazy amount.. The thing that probably helped the most was that some of the vac lines were clogged inside of the throttle body and intake manifold. A few months later I realized I should have ported and polished my intake. I just ordered a flex shaft grinder from harbor freight with sanding cones and am going to completely take my intake off again. Also going to port out this 04 exhaust manifold I just got from camel back toyota. YouTube has some really good videos on porting and polishing.

 

Thank you 043RZ! This is a badass write up. I was able to clean my throttle body this week but I wasn't able to remove the iac for cleaning. But at least my throttle body looks 100 times better. Here's a pic of your Kobalt air regulator I found at Lowe's. Thanks again for giving me the confidence to at least clean my throttle body. It was god awful. I think next time I can dive into the plenum and runners with more time/courage.

 

Some pics of the throttle body..

 

What year and mileage on your truck ? Thanks.

 

Ive wanted to do this in the last 5 vehicles ive had but have been to lazy. I hate that they design them to vent into the intake system. Maybe Ill find some motivation and do it to the tacoma.

 

Your very welcome man. Im glad it was of help to you!! Also one other thing, make sure you take the little nipple contraption at the bottom of the clear bowl and silicon it shut... I forgot to put that in my post. See, whats suppose to happen (she hooked to a compressor) is that nipple is spring loaded and opens up to allow water to drip out when the pressure drops below like 5psi. However were using these differently and there's no positive pressure in the PVC system to keep that thing closed so you will have a leak. Here's the fix... Disassemble that valve and remove the little spring. Then smear some silicon on that valve before reassembling it back in the bowl. Problem solved and a completely sealed unit.

 

Dude I got super high idle now, like 2k rpms. That and my throttle wasn't returning I would rev it up slightly and the rpms would just stay there. Adjusted the throttle cable and it falls now when you let off the gas but it's still idling extremely high. And yeah we noticed that little barb on the bottom was causing a leak but we plugged that and it didn't help one bit. Also I wanted to ask you if you reused your pcv valve on top of the valve cover when you integrated the separator, I'm guessing you did.

 

97 200+

 

Yes I reused my pcv and you need to to regulate vacuum. When did this high idle happen? Right when you started it up after the project? Also dont mess with the throttle linkage... Not sure when the conversion of obd2 came into affect but the idle speed is not adjustable and I already set via the computer. Sounds to me like you have a vacuum leak or you have a vacuum one hooked up wrong

 

O wait I see now that the butterfly was hung open and you adjusted it to close completely. My bad, I thought you were trying to lower the idle speed by the cable lol