DIY EGR cleaning made easy

Yes, my sweetie (marine bio person, oceans oceans oceans and used to have several aquariums) mentioned that. Chloramines remain a while in water supplies. However, having done a bit more research I am not concerned about that avenue of risk:

* Typical SS (18-8 304) has no issues below 100ppm chlorine/chloride
* US EPA permits up to 4ppm at the water treatment plant. Typical home drinking water result is up to 0.2-0.4ppm

So typical municipal drinking water chlorine isn't an issue. Pools and other situations, particularly rural wells etc... That's different. (we had a well and had to do chlorine shock treatments regularly...)


Chloride/Chlorine Levels and Stainless Steel Alloy Selection - Penflex

Chlorine ppm Levels in Drinking Water - AlpHa Measure

 

Good to know.

Next time around I'm going to try lye solution, on the cooler.

The pipe between EGR valve and intake manifold is also stainless steel, but absurdly easy to clean.

 

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but I have to add I have now multiple times used a natural Pine ”oil” based household cleaner, in Sweden called Såpa.

It seems to be called pine soap outside of Scandinavia and this is a 100% natural pine tar that has been soaped chemically.

Its dissolves soot and carbon like magic, as natural compounds from organisms used to forest fires often do.

In Scandinavia it’s used for many household cleaning tasks, including ovens and dried out carbon deposits (as in an EGR). It also does not harm platsics at all, which seem relevant for that EGR manifold…

With the help of a drill brush my EGR pipe and manifold feels and looks like new, and smells like a damp forest day.