2012 bought with 157k miles

Have you got the cowl and wipers off? That out of the way the Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve and cooler are must/does. If you drain two quarts engine coolant (from rad drain spigot), it’ll drop coolant level enough that the Exhaust Gas Recirculation system is dry, no spillage when you pull off it’s hoses.

when reassembled pour the coolant into reservoir. It’ll maybe end up a little high, but should settle down with a few drives.

having a 2012 I think you DON’T have coolant bleed bolt, but leaving the topmost hose off while pouring the coolant back in will achieve same function, allowing air to escape.

 

That's more or less how my intake ports looked. Bit of carbon from the manifold up to about where the injectors poke through, then pretty clean from there on down, where they bathe in the yummy detergents from the top-tier fuel. Valve stems look downright shiny.

 

I hate salt...

 

Yes. Don't obsess over it! If the valves looked like this, you'd want to clean them for sure.



If everything downstream of where the fuel injects in is clean as a whistle, it won't be sponging up fuel like that, and you've got a little bit of carbon upstream that you don't like to look at but isn't significantly restricting airflow, with the manifold back on you don't have to look at it.

I kind of wiped mine perfunctorily with a shop towel and called it a day.

 

Just looking at your pics your intake ports are considerably more gunked up than mine were at 100K, but I suspect the intake manifold on my car has been replaced and perhaps the intake ports were already cleaned.

Same goes for your EGR pipe pics - looks about 50% more clogged than mine, but that also makes sense as your car has 50% more mileage.

And that pic on the salt on the air intake is crazy. I didnt even look at mine to see! They do use salt here, though I dont think quite as much as in the midwest.

 

I am in Alberta but very close to the BC border.

I'll take a picture for you of the PCV valve that I just took off my car and post today. To be honest I didn't really closely look at it. Just swapped it out as a preventative maint item since it was cheap and I had everything apart.

 

@AW82 - I re-read your post about crud on the PCV inlet on the manifold. Mine certainly had crud in it but I didn't really inspect the colour (hard to see against black background) Almost looked like oil sludge but I cant be sure. It also doesn't help that I am colour blind either!

 

You should visit when the borders open again! Yes, a very far drive from you, but you can always fly to Calgary or Vancouver and rent a car.

I installed my OCC but I didn't install a bracket. Right now its just sitting in the little pocket at the front drivers side - the 1/2 inch fuel line hoses I used are pretty stiff so its not really going to move around much. Dont even know if it needs a bracket, but I will probably zip tie it at some point. It isn't sitting perfectly flat (its on a slight angle) but that doesn't bother me much. I opted not to mount it under the car because I want to make sure I can empty it with a quick pop of the hood. I know that makes it higher than the PCV valve but hopefully I still get pretty good effectiveness out of it. Just setting it in that pocket down there is 2-3 inches lower than mounting it with the 3D printed bracket I see some people using.

 

I couldnt find 3/8" hose meder at any of the local hardware stores. I was eager to get on with the project and I found 1/2" PEX hose joiners at the local hardware store and bought them just to try out. I was suprised when I cut the PVC to intake tube in half with a bit of a struggle I could get the 1/2" joiners inserted into the hose (its quite a tight fit, hopefully it doesnt crack/burst in cold weather, but on the other hand it is so tight I didn't even need clamps).

Then the oil catch can from amazon also has 1/2 inch fittings as an option, and my local car parts store had 1/2 inch ID fuel line. It all fit together quite nicely and made for an easy install. The 1/2 inch hose to half inch fittings on the oil catch can were also tight fits, requiring no clamps.

I actually planned the entire thing out based on 3/8th inch, but then shipping of a 3/8 hose mender was taking forever on amazon. Also I read that the PCV hose when cut in half is just a bit big for the 3/8 hose and you need to make sure its clamped well. So I am guessing that the actual ID of that hose is somewhere inbetween 3/8 and 1/2 (maybe 10mm?).

Anyways I htink you can do it a number of ways, probably just based on what fittings and hoses are easiest to find for you.

 

I feel like 3/8 plus a clamp or 1/2 with or without a clamp will work fine.

I did and I did put the steel scrubber in but didnt think much about it. Was the hesitation that metal pieces might come off it and get sucked into your engine?