Inlet Manifold cleaning

Any of you peeps got any tips for cleaning the oily crap out of an aluminium inlet manifold ? Somebody somewhere must have done this before but I cant find any threads regarding this.

I picked up a used TD5 one on eBay for the price of the postage (£6) so it was a bargain cos its worth more as scrap even if I dont use it.
Somebody told me to soak it in a caustic soda solution for a week and then to jet wash it. Will this work ?
I was thinking of soaking it in petrol but caustic soda is cheaper if it will do the same job.

I got the manifold because I want to drill and tap a fitting for my turbo boost gauge so that it reads the actual manifold pressure and not straight off the turbo outlet.
If I bugger this one up then no harm done.

Cheers.

Managed to get the search working properly and the concensus of opinion is that oven cleaner followed by a good jet wash is the way to go.
May need a few applications but apparently the end result is as new.

I don't suppose you have an autoclean oven? And a wife who's going out for a few hours?

Used to do my 2 stroke bike baffles like that - when Mum was out...

If she's reading this, sorry Mum, but it was 30 years ago, so can't cut me out of the will.

Actually .......

We do have such a beastie.
Wont it get too hot for an Aly manifold ?????

Got me thinking now though.

660C for pure Aluminium - read the oven manual.... think ours went to about 400C

The catering trade never bother with fancy cleaners. just stick all the extractor fans on full and throw everything on to the multiple hobs. Turns all stuff to ash.

i have used parafin to clean out such gunk in my intercooler, just make sure you rise and dry out to get rid of fumes, i used a hair dryer!

I'd be a bit careful about using caustic soda or oven cleaner (basically the same stuff). It's a good degreaser but if you remember your school chemistry, caustic alkali dissolves aluminium.
Comma Hyperclean is quite good. You can wash it out with water when you've finished.

I guess I'll have to do it the messy way then with parafin and brushes.
I'll let it soak for a wek and then give it a good wash with the jet washer.
Cheers for the advice.

got a mate who restores old vespas,he chucks all the dirty engine parts in his dishwasher,they come out like new.
his missus goes bloody mad at him every time he does it though!

I reckon my missus would put me in the dishwasher if I even hinted at doing that. Er indoors is not to be messed with.
I've bought a gallon of parafin and the manifold (along with several other bits and pieces) is now quitely soaking in a suitable container at the back of my shed for the next week as I'm away on business. This I like because it takes no effort on my behalf.
When I get back I'll give it a good power wash and let you know the outcome.
It cant be any worse than it was. Those poxy EGR valves have a lot to answer for. I took mine off when I got the motor and it sailed through its MOT so much so the guy doing it wanted to buy it.
Told him he should have failed it and I might have considered it but as its just passed then no chance.

I mixed up some caustic solution and soaked an old piece of Aluminium just to see what would happen.
It turned black within 30 minutes and began to fizz.
When I took it out after 24 hours it was honeycombed with small holes so the moral of this story is:

DONT USE CAUSTIC SODA TO CLEAN ALUMINIUM PARTS.

My manifold has been soaking in a mixture of parafin and white spirit for several days. At the weekend I'll get the bottle brushes out and give it a good power wash. Most of the crud seems to be coming loose and dissolving into the mix.

steam clean works well

I cleaned the TDI pipework/manifold/intercooler out (had an EGR breathe through it for 90,000 miles) and it was pretty grotty.

I started by filling it with kero and it did soften it, but didn't disolve it as well as I would have expected. I then used methanol and it did a slightly better job, but the key to cleaning it was after a good soak (only 30mins) give it a a good brushing (expect to bin the brush at the end). Each time I did that I just went over it to remove the softend stuff letting the kero get a chance to work at it all until the last layer just rinsed right off and I could see bare metal again.

Yep I guess there's no short cuts to this messy job.

billy boy said:

i have used parafin to clean out such gunk in my intercooler, just make sure you rise and dry out to get rid of fumes, i used a hair dryer!

Click to expand...

Yep, I'm with Billyboy - Paraffin & a cheap long handled bottle washing brush

This is what I did.

1) Got a propane torch and warmed the manifold up until the oil gunge burnt off and turned to soot. This took about twenty minutes and made lots of smoke so it was a good job I was outside and not in my shed.
2) Let it cool down whilst having a cuppa.
3) Got the pressure washer on it and blasted it inside and out until it was all shiny. A few stubborn bits were left but nothing too worry about and they were easily shifted with wire wool and a long stick.
4) Gave it another blast with the washer to make sure no wire wool was left inside.
5) Now it looks all shiny and ready to modify with a tapping for my turbo boos gauge.

Thanks for all the input.