So I pulled my plenum off (intake manifold? whatever you call it, that black crazy looking plastic molded piece).

I just put breathers to delete the PCV lines from the valve covers to the intake so I figured I'd break it down and clean it out while I am at it.

Got it all off and DAMN... Butterflys on the inside were solid black after 50k. I broke the butterfly assemblies down and put the pieces in a parts cleaner till they were nice and shiny then reassembled it all and put some dielectric grease on the moving parts to keep it all turning smooth. Seems like my throttle is slight more responsive. I also got down into the block and cleaned out some black **** in there too. Same with the throttle body, clean and shiny.

I am hoping the breather will help keep everything from gunking up...

For those wondering what I used to clean everything. DO NOT USE CARB CLEANER! I used MAF sensor cleaner that is plastic safe. Whatever you use make sure it is plastic safe and make sure you don't spray anything on your o-rings.

 

Fyi ya thats the air intake manifold

wow I guess I might need to look into cleaning mine, about 90,000miles I bet the CMCVs (the Butterflys) must be bad

do you think running a little seafoam in via the PCV inlet would clean it up or that it has to be taken off to be cleaned?

 

Hrmm, I dunno, I have never run seafoam out in the open to actually witness the cleaning power.

I went to it with a lent free rag and some of that MAF sensor cleaner and most of it came off but there were some parts on almost all 8 of them that just wouldn't come off, plus you can't get to the bottom side of it (I guess it would actually be the top side) without taking them out.

A little soak in some Amsoil and then I very lightly scuffed off the remaining gunk with some scotch-brite and rubbed them down again with a lent free rag.

They weren't that hard to take apart, 5 torx bolts for each assembly, there are some little clips that if you aren't careful when taking them off you can ruin them (it's like a washer with 4 tabs pointing inward that when you clip it on it doesn't want to come off) and they hold the arms that actually turn the things on.

Once you get those off the back of the intake manifold, you can remove the actuation arms and pull the square rod right out. The CMCV's should stay in place if you go slow and you can just grab them right out. You may want to spray some cleaner on them to loosen the stuff on there to make the rod easier to pull out.

All in all it was a fun little project. Took the better part of 6 hours but only because I paid very close attention to detail in cleaning everything and the fact that I was at work so I had to stop and get the CnC's operating again every so often and whatever else was goin on. I am growing more and more attached to working on my car, done everything myself since day 1 including suspension work and all.

IMO if you are gonna do it, go ahead and do it all the way and get everything shiny. If you don't wanna pull it, just seafoam it and be done. Also, if you are gonna pull it off, tape the hole on the block and go ahead and clean everything else you can't get to when the intake is installed. There was a lot of dust and leaves and whatnot in mine.

 

as I have a strut tower brace I'd have to take that off to remove the intake

I think I'll try the seafoam but I still plan on getting ether some CMCV deletes or an intake manifold without CMCV's (CMCV's were an idea of ford's to improve gas mileage, and some power can be gained by deleting them)

if you choose to delete your's it'll be easier as the 09 CMCV's can be deleted easier than the 05-early 08 though it does require a tune if you opt to delete the CMCV's

http://www.brenspeed.com/05-08-musta...te-plates.html

I think I'll just try seafoam for now and then do either the deletes or a new manifold so I don't have to remove the brace more than once

 

I would put a oil separator on the drivers side vs a breather. Drivers side is the side that generates a lot of oil. Better into a can than spraying all over your engine bay.

 

Ah, hrmm.. did not know that =P

Thanks for that tidbit of knowledge!

I think I may do that when I upgrade my cams.

 

Breathers are not a good choice unless you like wiping oil off of your engine bay daily. Get a good catch can instead.

 

+1 to the catch can, breathers are kinda old school for for the s197 IMO

 

I like the look of the breathers, I am planning on cleaning up the engine bay and painting/polishing a few things as well as adding some painted covers. I ran it pretty hard the last few days to see if I would get a lot of blow-by but the only oil I saw was on the breather itself and it wasn't engine oil it was just a small amount of excess from the K&N oil (I maybe put a little too much).

 

Another thing with the breathers. You can't just put them on and go. You need to have your car dyno tuned. Otherwise, you are sucking in gobs of unmetered air and your car is not performing anywhere near it's potential. The S197 is built to be a closed system and anything short of dynotuning won't change that.