Topic: EGR and Intake Cleaning

[94SRUNNER]

I am wondering the best way to thoroughly clean my intake plenum and throttle body. Also has any one ever cleaned out there EGR system.
If so does this help. I know that this is where most of the black crap comes from in the intake system. Any advice would be great.

[5spd]

The best way is to remove it from the engine and take it apart then soak it with oven cleaner or in a bath of cleaner for a bit. That will soften the gunk up.  Then using a long flat flexible blade scrap the gunk out then power wash it or carb/brake cleaner it out. I did this on 3 plenums and it made a big difference in throttle response and smother running. The EGR is simple enough, take it of and run a wire up the nipple and clean it that way. The EGR port runs the lenght on the plenum also, so clean that good when you have the plenum off with a bottle brush and hard wire.

[94SRUNNER [OP]]

Thanks, I will be giving it a try this weekend. How long would you say to soak the plenum.

[5spd]

If you have a tub deep enough for it then let it sit for about 30 min at the most, you can use you putty knife or very long screew driver to scrape the gunk, when its soft enough then go to work....and its a rreal mess, have lots of rags and carb/brake cleaner. You will need new gaskets for the plenum to the intake runners also, get the intake gasket kit thats about 6-8 bucks+/-. Remove the upper plenum from the bottom, that way you will not have to take the entire intake manifold off the truck, which is not nessesary just to clean the plenum.

[kneedownnate]

Just remember not to get any cleaners or solvents on the tps, ask me how I know!

[seanc]

Hot water parts cleaner

[Marlin]

I remove the throttle body, all the fittings, nipples, brackets, ect., and both the 40 mm soft plug at the end of the mainafold [same as the block plugs], and the 18mm egr soft plug as well.

Soak it as long as needed in carb cleaner, and reassemble.
If it is really plugged up, i scrap off whatever i can remove first.

[94SRUNNER [OP]]

I know this is a dumb question, but I will ask just to be sure. What effects do solvents have on a TPS?

[kneedownnate]

Well, if you go to autozone the effect will be $170 less in your wallet, from toyota just bend over to see the effect.  I had a perfectly good working 91, took off the throttle body to clean it and got some cleaner in the tps and it wouldn't run right after that.  Had the tps checked out and it was definately bad.  Just avoid getting any cleaners on it, aside from maybe a contact cleaner or electric motor cleaner, but make sure you read the label and see that it's ok. 

[94SRUNNER [OP]]

After hearing the bit about ruining the TPS, I stopped by my local Toyota dealership and checked the price on it and to my suprise is was only $90. I also stopped in to order the gaskets for my intake rebuild.

[kneedownnate]

Wow, that's way cheaper than I had expected, but I have seen a few instances where the cheapo store parts were considerably more expensive than the factory parts.