GDI Intake Valve Cleaning

Another thread to a 1.8 EA888 Gen 3 carbon cleaning
Not really. Water pump/t-stat leak often, injectors leak, piston ring lands fail catastrophically and the cam chain still stretches.
The ring lands failing seems to be an earlier issue on these (at least these engines in the MQB VWs) that I've read about and more on the tuned side of things.
 
Here is a link to a similar thread (carbon cleaning w/pics) posted over in the Euro section recently showing essentially the same engine at 73K miles/3 years modified with >2x stock power, Top Tier 93 fuel, ~5K changes with approved oils (primarily Liquimoly including engine flushes), Liquimoly fuel additives (DI Jectron) each change....but with lots and lots of full-send hard driving.

 
The ring lands failing seems to be an earlier issue on these (at least these engines in the MQB VWs) that I've read about and more on the tuned side of things.
More common on the tuned ones but it happens on the stock ones as well. Rumor is that ring lands were weak on the 15/16 era EA888 engines and in combination with LSPI, things can get hairy under the right set of circumstances.
 
More common on the tuned ones but it happens on the stock ones as well. Rumor is that ring lands were weak on the 15/16 era EA888 engines and in combination with LSPI, things can get hairy under the right set of circumstances.
My 2016 ea888 Gen 1 piston #2 failed under LPSI at 105,000 miles before I even had issues with IVD. And that was using almighty Motul 502.00 oil that shop uses (because they keep forgetting to use the Redline oil I supply).... that was a strategy of continuously using fuel injector cleaner with every tank (around an 1 oz). Keep the injector nozzles clean to keep the atomization of the fuel at as optimal conditions as possible.
 
looks great + as i always todays cars are a "crap shoot" + early newer tech is usually worse until its sorted!! only own a PI car + truck + prolly will outlast me! eventually more will use both like VAG overseas as it works better for their tougher pollution standards!!
I remember during the auto tech classes at the J.C. the BMW techs in the classes would report on the problems and intake port deposits with fuel injected in the early 1980s . The gasoline was dosed with cleaning additives and the problem was solved. New tech means new problems. Internet experts usually increase the reactions on their followers.
 
For 100k that does not look like too bad of a before pic. 50lb all gone like that fast, did you use a vac or some sort of device to recoup at least part of that? Or vacuum off the rest of the engine bay afterward and then strained for another run?
 
looks great + as i always todays cars are a "crap shoot" + early newer tech is usually worse until its sorted!! only own a PI car + truck + prolly will outlast me! eventually more will use both like VAG overseas as it works better for their tougher pollution standards!!
the twin injection thing isn't some novel innovation by VAG

Toyota has been doing the twin injection thing since 2006, in particular for certain Lexus engines. Now it has trickled down to Toyota branded engines.
 
2015 Audi A3 2.0T, 97K miles.
EA888 Gen 3 engine

Mostly highway driving and the owner has a heavy foot.

Oil changes are done every 10k using synthetic and generic filters, but I doubt he uses an Audi spec oil.

No misfires, but it did have a somewhat rough idle at cold start up.

Before - Cyl 1:
View attachment 88366
Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the other cylinders before the cleaning was performed. Cylinders 1 and 2 were much cleaner than 3 and 4.

After:

Cylinder 1:
View attachment 88367
Cylinder 2:
View attachment 88368
Cylinder 3:
View attachment 88369
Cylinder 4:
View attachment 88370
All of the carbon was soft and sticky. I think solvent may have been almost as effective as walnut blasting.

I gave cylinders 1 and 2 a follow-up cleaning after taking those pictures. I found some leftover carbon on the backside of the stem.

The process is fairly quick once the intake manifold is removed. Set the cylinder to TDC and make sure the intake valves are closed. Using a pick, carefully “pull off” the sticky pieces of carbon deposit from the back side of the valve stem and the edge of the valve. It takes well under 30 seconds of blasting, per valve, to remove most of the debris. Then, I blow out the remaining media with shop air, scrape off any large or stubborn bits that were missed, and follow up with another quick blast (few seconds). At least for this vehicle, that approach got the intakes valves near perfect.

I bought this machine for the job:

View attachment 88377
This is the factory BMW tool for intake valve cleaning. I have never used the HF equivalent, but this BMW tool works extremely well. The bad news is that it consumes an absurd amount of media. I went thru almost 50 lbs of the HF Walnut media (fine grade). And I only blasted each cylinder for 30-45 seconds total.

Cleaning the intake valves does appear to have resolved the rough idle and has greatly improved the throttle response. I recognize that these are subjective improvements, not objective. Although it was nice to do, cleaning the valves was not entirely necessary.
what is the yellow layers in intake
 
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