Burning Oil Check List

That’s the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Outside of your picture to the north is the Brooklyn Bridge. It connects Brooklyn to Manhattan.

When my brother moved to Brooklyn over 15 years ago we had an F250 with a 16 foot trailer traversing across this landscape.

My old man lost his cool as we had to double park to get the unloading done. New Yorkers are an impatient bunch.

I remember him uttering as we crossed back into Pennsylvania: It feels good to be back.

 

Thank you both. I'm actually in the Visalia area. I knew I would be convinced to try to tackle the EGR

Is there any benefit to removing the EGR with the intake manifold off? I think I want to complete the re-install of the intake manifold and PCV valve during the early part of the week and maybe just leave the car in the garage through the week and then do the EGR. I am afraid I'll start losing parts and running out of hose clamps if I remove the EGR now. But if it is just as easy (understatement from what I've read) to remove with the intake manifold in place then I would rather do that and try to tackle it later in the week once I get the PCV valve and manifold gasket.

I did the brake clean on the intake manifold yesterday, but I feel like I am missing a lot of gunk from deep inside. If I remove the sensor and wire harness connection point would the Oxi-Clean be a good soak for that as well? I read on another thread to use dish soap or Kool-Aid.... definitely don't want to do kool-aid. But didn't see Oxi-Clean as a recommendation.

I really need to get inside the tiny holes at the bottom of each runner on the manifold. Those things are clogged to hell and I'm afraid my tiny wire brushes are pushing it in deeper even though they are also getting a lot of gunk out. I'm hoping a soak will loosen it and float it out.

 

Read my previous post (suggestion #1): if you drain 2 liters of coolant there's no need for hose clamps. And if you don't do the drain, hose clamps are not effective anyway: you clamp the hoses, pull them off, and all the coolant that was in the cooler (above) drains out, lol.

A minor one: isolating your down time.

Yes you should get those. Pipe cleaners might help; I should have had some. I did brake clean first, then a bunch of Oxi-Clean soaks. The latter did help a lot to open those passages, but you never get it shiny clean: the plastic interior is semi-rough, definitely not a high-end polished intake.

Here's the intake having an Oxi-Clean soak. Note the brown discoloration at each arrow; those are the EGR channels bubbling out crud.



(Note the EGR pipe is attached; it makes a handy pour point: put a funnel in, pour in the Oxi solution, till it starts coming out of the passages, then pour into the intake ports as well. In this orientation, maybe with just a little shim at the top of screen end, the oxi solution will fill the whole zone. Lift up at the port end, and it'll flow down to the other end, where the throttle body attaches. You want to back out the throttle body studs for safe keeping, they're kinda fragile. Torque value is in the previous post attachments, something like 4 foot pounds, 48 inch pounds, really low). I think it's an E6 Torx socket for those. You need E8 Torx socket for the EGR studs, btw.

 

Thanks again. I am doing the oxi on the intake manifold right now first soak and it is working a charm. How long do you do each soak for? Should I give it a rinse with water in between or will that just rinse away some of the other oxi?

My throttle body actually looks really good but I think I'll clean that while I have it out. Any issues with using brake cleaner on it or should I get the actual throttle body cleaner?

 

For cleaning the throttle body, spray it on a rag and wipe the rag to clean the butterfly valve area.

Do not spray it into the opening as those light components will give your engine fits on startup.

 

I let the Oxi-Clean solution sit for about an hour, rinse out with lots of hot water, and repeat a few times. Oxi is not as effective on the intake manifold as the EGR cooler, it just seemed like it was never going to get it spotless, but it certainly gets in all the corners, and gets it effectively clean. I would do 3 or 4 cycles, coupled with a little mechanical cleaning, say bristle brushes, pipe cleaners, tooth brushes, and dub it done

I would use throttle body cleaner (aka carb cleaner), a little on a rag, wipe the barrel and the blade. Some throttle bodies actually have a little lube at the blade pivot point IIRC, so don't just spray. Using a dampened cloth on your finger will keep you away from that joint.

Did you know, you don't have to disconnect throttle body coolant lines, you can just unbolt the throttle body from the intake manifold, disconnect electrical connectors, and lift it out of the way. Tie it against the inverter with some twine is handy.

 

OK this is great thanks. Gave the throttle body a good wipe down with some throttle body cleaner I picked up.

I will plan to just drive my truck all week while I wait on parts department to open so I can to get the PCV and gaskets. By the way, I did take the PCV valve off and it shakes but definitely does not pass the blow/air test from that repair manual you posted, so I'll just replace it.

Question: Is there a substitute adhesive to the "toyota genuine adhesive" referenced in the repair manual? I noticed that in the NutzAboutBolts video they didn't even put any adhesive on the threads.

I'll still first reinstall the throttle body and intake manifold then dig into the other EGR components later in the week. I'll feel better trying to drain the radiator when I have everything assembled first. I'm almost tempted to just assume the EGR cooler & valve are filth and buy a new set and get everything put back together while it cleans.

 

A spare is handy.

You can get the cooler from the salvage yards in Rancho Cordova for about $50. Not too bad.

Or if you want, I could bring my spare with me and you could bring yours to clean and we could swap .

Let me know .

 

Maybe we should just stop doing 10k oci

 

Thanks all for the help. I did end up replacing the PCV Valve as well.

Went ahead and cleaned the EGR Cooler & Valve yesterday and today as well. I don't know if its because I've been driving my manual transmission 4x4 6cyl truck around all week or what, but my Prius feels super smooth now. Hopefully it is a result of all the actual work I put into it and not just in my head. Did about a 10 mile test drive at varying speeds 10-80mph, and about 5 minutes of idling and no CELs or visible leaks.

About the only concerning thing I saw during the whole process was a some sort of threaded bolt/nipple coming from the engine block (? maybe a transmission?) (in the vicinity of below the EGR valve) that was absolutely caked with clumped-up oil. You can actually see it with everything assembled. If you look at where EGR pipe connects with the EGR valve - go back (toward driver) about 1-2 inches, and then drop straight down until you hit solid metal that is the bolt that seems to be depositing gunk. Any thoughts on what may cause that? Should I tighten it?

For me, I think the biggest pain was torquing down the bottom, hidden bolt/nut on the EGR, as expected. Second biggest pain was getting the clamp back on the EGR cooling hose nearest to the exhaust. Third biggest PITA was actually getting the clamp around the pipe at the intake manifold coming from the air box - I actually still don't think this one is fully seated the way I would prefer, but I was tired enough of fiddling with it.

I feel EGR removal was actually easier than fitting. I think that is actually a result of the my socket varieties (small extenders, deep sockets, medium sockets) always being just a hair too long for those EGR nuts/bolts. Definitely is a benefit to have a wide variety of 12mm sockets and stub extensions.

Definitely dropped the EGR/Exhaust gasket when removing the EGR and did a run to Toyota to grab a new one. Lost a wiper bolt just being lazy.

I did Oxi-Clean on the EGR Cooler followed by a pressure wash. I then ran it through Oxi-Clean again and a lot more carbon came out. So I don't think the pressure wash gets all of the materials as effectively as the Oxi-Clean. Admittedly, I was not super aggressive on the pressure washer for 15 minutes, as suggested. I probably only actually held the head of the hose into each hole for about a total of 15-30 seconds each. The remainder of the time was kind of using the side of the spray from the pressure wash hose - about 5 minutes per hole while rotating around like a vertical rotisserie.

Sheered a bolt on the cowl sub-assembly. I actually recall I did this last time to when I changed the spark plugs. NutzAboutBolts spark plug video has a note about 9 ft. lbs. on those bolts. For anyone looking to do this later, definitely don't pay attention to that - hand tighten those. I have sheered two of them now on two different re-assemblies.