Just wondering if Throttle Body and Carby cleaner is alright to use, to clean out an intake plenum prior to fitting it back on the car?

I sprayed a little bit of what i had left into the manifold i just put on my car, but it was still dirty so before i fit my new one i wanna get it a decent blasting.

Can you also spray it directly into the lower intake manifold without issues?

yeah thats stuff is the best to clean em out. they wont stay clean for long tho.

Not if he has excessive blow by. Install a catch can if blow by is an issue and your intake will stay clean for years to come.

Fitting a catch can to a third gen is not really worth while, if there is that much blow by, fit a new cheap engine.

The third gen venting system is actually very good and provided is clean will do a far better job than a catch can will. This will also ensure that you do not get excessive pressure in the rear bank and end up with blown seals and gaskets

Ummm $50 for a catch can or $1000 for a motor right lets all fit new motors if we get crap in our intake.
All motors that old will have some sort of blow by, fitting a catch can is a cheap and effective solution provided its plumbed properly.
Catch can will actually do a much better job as any oil will be collected instead of thrown right back into the intake.
I would of kept mine installed but after nearly 10K my intake was still spotless, so no need.

Seems that the third gen specialist has now answered ..... again

A third gen will not spout as much sludge into the intake as a second gen, I have some cars here I service with well over 400k on them and provided the intake is given a quick clean at each service, which should be done anyway, no need to make the engine bay ugly with ricy catch cans.

You are entitiled to your opinion, I will stick to experience and factual information thanks.

OP, if you want to install a catch can, which BTW in some cases can be a fire hazard as well as dangerous and also in some cases defectable, go ahead, if you want to do this properly, just do as you initially stated, get a good can of carb cleaner, give it a good clean, tb and intake pipe as well (remove your maf from it first) and then provided you give it a quick clean when you service you will not have an issue. If your blow by is that bad it clogs up after 5000k, well then the $1000 is a better option than a $50 bandaid as i would think your oil consumption will be quite high as well as the smoke from the back end as wel :)

thats right, becuase the way a spark ignition engine works in a 3rd gen is totally different to that of a 2nd gen, or 380, or any other engine.

Catch can is 100% fine provided you dont re-route one of your spark plugs into the catch can line. So if you dont do this, you should be sweet.

Also, everyone doesnt have $1000 to just pay peoplpe to replace engines willy nilly and sometimes people DO need a temp solution so in this case a catch can is 100% fine.
Only defectable if it's not re-routed back into the intake. Run this in line with your PCV = 100% road legal.

Enjoy your clean intake, and $950 saving. :D

Ummm, no, we are not talking abotu spark and timing here, we are talking about crank case ventalation here, very different in a second gen to a thrid gen to begin with

Also, can you please tell us all, as we are all listening to your wisdom, how routing the catch can into the PCV is going to stop the vapour from the BREATHER going into the TB and appropiate piping. If you have a look at a third gen, this is on the oppersite side of the engine, oh wait a second, it is on a second gen as well something in that for all of us I think

The only way you can do this is to plumb the breather into this catch can, the cure all of worn engines which dont use spark to run apparently, and then to also cut your PCV pipe and route this through. Now what about the can it self, you mount that somewhere, hope that the pipe you use is appropiate for oil and vapour, you need to make sure that you plumb this in a way to ensure that a back fire through the TB will not ignite the gasses and also the oil in this legendary can as well

Back to real world here, if you want to stop this, just clean it every now and again, if your engine is that worn that in a few hundred k's then it is likely that there is much more wrong with your engine than just a bit of blow by and it id due to be replaced.

Oh, and just re reading your post Paul, PCV DOES not route into the intake piping so now sure why you would be doing this and screwing up the entire engine crankcase pressurisation system, the PCV runs from the front rocker cover, at the timing belt end, into the inlet manifold. The valve is a check valve to ensure that you do not get a back fire going back into the rocker cover and blowing the top of your motor off

Ummm, no, we are not talking abotu spark and timing here, we are talking about crank case ventalation here, very different in a second gen to a thrid gen to begin with

Also, can you please tell us all, as we are all listening to your wisdom, how routing the catch can into the PCV is going to stop the vapour from the BREATHER going into the TB and appropiate piping. If you have a look at a third gen, this is on the oppersite side of the engine, oh wait a second, it is on a second gen as well something in that for all of us I think

The only way you can do this is to plumb the breather into this catch can, the cure all of worn engines which dont use spark to run apparently, and then to also cut your PCV pipe and route this through. Now what about the can it self, you mount that somewhere, hope that the pipe you use is appropiate for oil and vapour, you need to make sure that you plumb this in a way to ensure that a back fire through the TB will not ignite the gasses and also the oil in this legendary can as well

Back to real world here, if you want to stop this, just clean it every now and again, if your engine is that worn that in a few hundred k's then it is likely that there is much more wrong with your engine than just a bit of blow by and it id due to be replaced.

Oh, and just re reading your post Paul, PCV DOES not route into the intake piping so now sure why you would be doing this and screwing up the entire engine crankcase pressurisation system, the PCV runs from the front rocker cover, at the timing belt end, into the inlet manifold. The valve is a check valve to ensure that you do not get a back fire going back into the rocker cover and blowing the top of your motor off

blaa blaa blaa, catch can will work just fine.

;1368173']blaa blaa blaa, catch can will work just fine.

Please note that the above comment and the maturity
is strictly intellectual property of TUFFTR ...... and anyone who wants information can PM me for bank details before I say anything.

Does not hurt to now and again admit that you are not exactly posting up reliable or correct information and also just to add, a can of carb cleaner is also cheape than $50 bucks your catch can apparently costs :)

For anyone who doesnt feel the need to be sold a new engine.

I will repeat;
A catch can................works fine.

one thing i found when i cleaned my tb for the first and only time in the life of the 245xxx km te motor, is that i needed to reset the ecu in order to make it idle at 750rpm again. i guess it was due to there being alot of gunk in the tb and when it was cleaned, the learned throttle position for idle was too much. i could have waited for it to relearn over time, but the reset was needed anyway.

just a thought if you have this same problem when you finnish cleaning it all

QUOTE='[TUFFTR];1368179']For anyone who doesnt feel the need to be sold a new engine.

I will repeat;
A catch can................works fine.[/QUOTE]

Clearly you are 100% right here and refuse to read what has been written.....as usual

If the TB is cleaned of oil, ALL of the breathers are not blocked (no I dont mean spark plug leads, not that I can even fathom with all of your experience how you could mix up a spark plug lead and a breather) then the issue of oiling up the intake system will not be an issue. Even a car with a little more blow by will not cause an issue as the third gen uses a slightly different PCV system ie the part that is plumbed into the inlet manifold (not the distributor) and allows some of the blow by gasses to be drawn into the combustion chamber and reburnt. IF there is a case where this system is not working in a sufficient way, then there are issues which a catch can, while for a month or 2 may be ok, in the end the car is going to need some serious work done to it

If the above is not correct, ie the clean works, why waste money on rice? After all, on a non track car, a catch can is just that.

Bellto, the issue you had may have been that as the years go by, the TPS has been adjusted and the TB not cleaned thus the when you cleaned it was out of adjustment. I would personally just grab the manual and do a quick check to see if is in range now to be sure

Ok so Mal if i take the upper intake manifold off, and spray lets just say, "a whole can" of carb cleaner into the lower manifold (while still in the car) will that cause any issues? Also where will the sludge deposits go?

Bellto, when i cleaned my TB it did idle quite high for a while, just drive it for abit and then you will find it will settle itself.

Not even going to bother reading your re-buttle.
Anyway, Personally peaandham, you can use a good rag soaked in carb cleaner and clean it all off with your fingers. I went a step further and just took the lower intake manifold off and cleaned the whole thing off car. I re-used the old metal gaskets and they were fine.

;1368318']Not even going to bother reading your re-buttle.
Anyway, Personally peaandham, you can use a good rag soaked in carb cleaner and clean it all off with your fingers. I went a step further and just took the lower intake manifold off and cleaned the whole thing off car. I re-used the old metal gaskets and they were fine.

So you wouldnt recommend spraying it into the lower plenum though? I didnt think it would a good way to do it.

Theres no harm in doing so, I just dont like taking chances so I just disassemble everything lol

the issue i had was nearly 2 years ago when i got the car, the reset fixed it.

the only problem i can see with spraying carb cleaner into the lower intake while still on the car is that if there is fumes left in the intake once its all put back together, it may cause some running issues when first started. like an intake backfire or something.

I would not clean a manifold if still attached to the motor, there really is no reason to clean the lower manifold unless the PCV system is blocked.

If you are going to take it off, it needs to be re attached in a particular way, read the manual, dont just use the RFT method some around here seem to go by, this will cause many issues. If you dont have blocked breaters but want to give it all a clean out, there is a product by Nulon, is a foaming cleaner, is fantastic and will do a great job at cleaning the manifold and all the sludge and rubbish in there.

To use this stuff, simply get the engine warm, take off the intake tube, spray in all through the manifold, let soak, get car going again and spray the remainder of the can in through the breather hole int he intake pipe (not in thorugh where you apparently connect your spark plug lead to your catch can which is then plumbed in thorugh the other side of the motor apparently) This will give your intake system a good clean out

If you are going to do your TB, remove it and take it apart, in my old web site, www.madmagna.com i have a walk through on dismantling your TB and cleaning and then re assembling. From memory this was actually done on a Third Gen TB back then so will be same either way anyway

that sounds interesting, what's the name of the foaming product by Nulon, and can those of us who are not in the trade get it?

i've always used subaru upper engine cleaner for this sort of stuff - would be interested in seeing what the equivalent Nulon product is like.

Funny enough it is called Nulon Foaming Air Intake Cleaner, shoudl be avail anywhere Nulon is stocked

Interesting read this thread! lol

It should be good to clean out the manifold, I think its the same muck that builds up on the TB as in the manifold. I think off the car is a good idea, if you spray it in the manifold while its on the car then any muck it cleans off is going to drip down and likely go through your engine. If its not too bad and you don't want to pull the intake apart then I don't think the muck is going to go anywhere in a hurry. If the manifold is off the car, a paintbrush, rag, and a little pan of petrol should clean it up too, and at $1.40/l comparet do $7/can or so, petrol is surprisingly cheap as a cleaner, but I would avoid getting it near anything plastic or rubber. Just dont smoke or put it back on the engine dripping wet or rub your socks on carpet or anything like that while you do it in case of fire.

nulon throttle body and carby cleaner... $12 a can from repco.... great stuff
works on just about anything (tar glue stains) and is safe on paint...... yes i no its safe because i used it to get all the sticky shit off after i took off me spoiler....:P

Petrol is a bad idea as it is going tonwash rubbish down into your engine and also past the rings. I know money is tight but fair go trying to save 5 bucks if younare that hard up take the bus

The nulon foams and clings to the inside of the manifold thus softening up varnish etc you then start engine and this stuff gets dragged away and burnt. When you complete the treatment same applies and is not in anyway harmful to your engine. Btw is closer to 15 a tin :)

Funny enough it is called Nulon Foaming Air Intake Cleaner, shoudl be avail anywhere Nulon is stocked

Subaru Upper Engine cleaner also does the trick.

Petrol is a bad idea as it is going tonwash rubbish down into your engine and also past the rings. I know money is tight but fair go trying to save 5 bucks if younare that hard up take the bus


No no not on the engine, only with it off the engine washing it out onto the floor. Im not a fan of cleaning dirt off things if I dont know where the dirts going. I feel safer with it sitting in the manifold than in a puddle by the valves, but if the manifold has to come off the engine I'll give it a good scrub while its off.

Subaru Upper Engine cleaner also does the trick.

Yup, this stuff is great, from what I remember when I used to work at a scoobydoo dealership this stuff was actually based on the Wynns De Carbon system which is similar to the system I use now for injector cleaning


No no not on the engine, only with it off the engine washing it out onto the floor. Im not a fan of cleaning dirt off things if I dont know where the dirts going. I feel safer with it sitting in the manifold than in a puddle by the valves, but if the manifold has to come off the engine I'll give it a good scrub while its off.

If you are going to clean, please do not use Petrol. Use a good degreaser, Kero, Diesel or similar, petrol is far too flamable

Mal , when i clean out my TB , i remove the ISC motor to avoid the cleaner getting onto the O ring on the tip. is that still a good idea?