Would it be possible to glimpse the intake side of the valves with a borescope sent through the spark plug hole? This would be to see if carbon buildup is a problem.
Inspect intake side of valves with borescope?
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dnewton3
Staff member
Yes, but obviously the engine has to be rotated so that the valves are open for each cylinder to have the intake at max lift. However, you'll not see much; it's not like valve lift is .750" in a "normal" engine. It will be easy to see the edge of the valve, but the dark portion near the valve stem is going to be difficult; you're likely going to be very poor results. But it costs nothing but time, so it may be a fun experiment.
You'll want to remove the intake for good boroscope/endoscope photos. I did this back in March when I pulled the intake to replace spark plugs in my Rav.
What vehicle? Some have ports or sensors on the manifold that can be removed to put the scope into. I can see at least 2 cylinders worth of the intake valves on my VWs without doing anything but removing a sensor or snaking it up the breather hose port.
This would be a 2019 Honda Insight. I was curious if anyone had tried this and I didn't expect a full view of the intake side of the valve but maybe just a "glimpse" and perhaps just enough of a glimpse to see if the valves were reasonably clean or heavily gunked up.
I'd still try going through the intake first.
