Six months ago I had to clean the carbon out of the upper plenum on my 97' 4.6L V8. I took the whole upper plenum off of the intake spider, cleaned it up, and noticed a little better throttle reponse.

Since I had the plenum off, I saw just how nasty the intake spider was, even after using two cans of SEAFOM.

Now I plan on removing the plenum again and polishing the damn thing.

What I would like comments on is this: Since I will have the plenum off, would I see a difference if I took the intake spider off and give that a good cleaning, and get rid of the 108K Miles of crap that has baked into the intake?

I have never taken a V8's intake off, but it can't be that hard....

 

im not sure what gains you'd have but i did the same thingon my 98 4.6 with 73,xxx miles, and it runs alot stronger now than before. I never did the seafoam thing either. Ill be interested to hear replies.....

 

do a PCV valve bypass it spits oil into ur intake making it all gunked up like that

 

I hate to ask, but what is a PCV bypass?

 

heres what i did

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...hlight=pcv+mod

my gas milage is better and there is no more detonation and my intake stays really clean

 

I will try it. Hopfully it will also quiet down my PCV valve also.

Damn thing is a chatter box at idle.....

 

all i did was pulled appart the old PCV / u will need the rubber ends off of it. get some 5/8" hose about 30" will do. then u need a 1/2 inch copper T fitting some hose clamps and a bolt to screw into the hole that is in the rubber end that goes on the original PCV... im sure u didnt follow so i'll make a list its pretty simple i mostly just played it by ear when i did it.

1/2" copper T fitting-plumbing section
30" of 5/8" heater hose- autozone
hose clamps and zip ties...
and a hold to screw into end of the old PCV port boot. works great for me any more questions ask

 

Thanks.

Tomarrow I plan on pulling off the Throttle body and Plenum to clean and polish. Also to figure out why I have a low freq droan (air flow related) when the engine is cold (below 50') that will go away when I open the throttle a bit.

I thoughts on this problem is when I removed the upper ends a couple of months ago (warmer weather), I used gasket sealer, and may not have used enough so there might be a small vacumn leak between the throttle body/plenum or plenum/intake that goes away when the engine heats up.

My engine does heat up faster than normal due to I have removed my engine driven fan and have the Troyer dual electricals. These things are great.....

 

not gonna like bash on troyer or nothing but is cheaper just to do it urself twin 16" zirgo fans.. will run u about 190 bucks for 2 of the 3300 CFM models.. then all u gotta buy or make is the AC switch.

 

I thought it was a good deal when I did it.

I researched the proper fans, then asked myself how I was going to mount them. More research.

Then ask how I was going to control them. Then did the research on that.

After all that research I decided that the $300.00 it cost for the complete kit from Troyer was a better buy for me, over trying to piece together a system that MAY or MAY NOT work together well, and I would have only saved about $60.00.

I am a Electrical/Computer Engineer by trade and a retired Submarine Chief Fire Control Technician so the electrical and machanical part was way simple and I liked the design of the fan controllers in the Troyer kit.

The instructions were good. I have the primary fan set to trip at 199' and the secondary fan set to trip at 222'. What I have found is that the F-150 radiator is VERY efficient and the fans normally never trip on when doing over 20MPH...

The only mod I made to the kit was wiring in two 12V indicator lights, to tell me when the fans were operating and installed a switch on the non-AC driven fan, so I could turn that one on if I so desired.

Over all I am very satisfied with the kit.

I have over 100K miles on the truck and it still runs like new, and I have had to take it to the shop only one time in nine years....
I have owned three GM products and they were garage queens.... NEVER again..... one bad one is an anomoly. Two you just go on the wrong side of the percentages. Three is just bad engineering.....

I dove it off the lot in March of 96....one of the very first ones in the Tidewater, VA area....

 

we got ours april 12th and the fans all come with clips kinda like pull ties to mount them to the ratiator. and i found the fand new from a seller on ebay for about 80 bucks each and they come with the temp sensor and switch. i duno im a penny pencher and i enjoy doing stuff myself:-p

 

Most of the time I like to do things myself also.

Currently, I am polishing the inside of the upper plenum to remove all of the roughness. The inside is very rough. But with a dremel tool and lots of different bits and polish it is getting better. Its slow going but I think it will be worth it.. I should be done later this evening. We will see tomarrow....

 

shipkiller - I've had good success using cartridge rolls in my electric drill to do the final polishing. When I've tried to put the rolls in my electric die grinder, it just destroys them.


ported intake elbow

 

Ok, I must be stupid, but I have never heard of a 'cartridge roll'

What is it?


I have succeded in smoothing out the plenum. While it is not mirror smooth it is 500% better. Still working on it though.....

I have cleaned up and smoothed out the Throttle body but I am uncertain whether to remove the butterfly and polish it out of the TB. I am worried about the fit after I am done....

I don't think I will remove it. Just being safe...

 

I don't have any picutres, but it is essentially sand paper/emory cloth that is rolled and glued together so you can screw it on a mandrel.

At the home improvement stores, they also sell rolls that fit onto a rubber fitting (turn a screw to expand the rubber so it holds the cartridge roll).

I just ported and polished my TB last weekend, it runs well and I've had no problems.

ported TB