So....I had a couple hours to myself today, and I decide to start eliminating some of the possible causes of my lean codes/pinging. I cleaned the MAF without incident. I checked the vacuum guage without a problem. Then I decided to clean the throttle body. In doing so, I shot the tube off the can of Carb Cleaner through the throttle body and down into the intake.


I removed the throttle body and could see the tube in there with a mirror, but once I got the 36" tool retractor down there I managed to knock the tube out of sight.

Im going to have to remove the intake manifold tomorrow morning...so does anyone have any words of wisdom for me?


And feel free to make fun of my situation.

 

that really sucks man lol. one good thing is you can check the condition of that coolant line behind the water pump. those are known to leak and intake has to come off to get to it. you have a 97 so im assuming she has some miles on her.

 

Thanks Keith...I'll do that. Any one else with suggestions of things to do while I've got the whole thing ripped apart?

 

clean out the caked on carbon in the lifter valley

I've always been terrified of something like that happening, good luck

 

Dammnn , I lose tools all the time under my intake - never have inside yet lol..

That does suck man , I lost those little injector hats inside the manifold and had to pull it and found quite a few of the tools I've been missing on top of the block..

Make sure you have a new set of manifold gaskets before you start - drain the water out of the bolck . Try to keep your coils from getting wet - I would just pull em..

Good luck

 

Just a little red tube... it will melt.

-Brian

 

Shop vac? If it is a 4.6 then there should be an intake manifold runner control on the front of the lower intake. Pull it off to see if you can see the little red straw. You have to remove the alternator ot get the intake off so try this first.

JMC

 

Yeah, great idea - a shopvac, clean the filter in the vac real good so your @ full suck power - that should do it

 

Thanks guys. Gonna try the shop vac. I couldnt get it out of tha garage earlier due to the positioning of the cars, but my buddy helped me do some pushing and now that things are rearranged, Im going to give that a shot. Hopefully, the shop vac hose will fit through.

 

Aren't you supposed to remove the throttle body to shoot cleaner in it?

 

If the vac trick doesn't work, I'd look the other way and start her up. Don't rib me for sayin that. It shouldn't damage a valve or piston if it makes it that far. If it gets hot enough to melt, it may smell funky for a few minutes, but that should be about it. I'm not saying I'm 100% correct, but what could it damage? Someone I'm sure will correct me if my thinking is way off base. Make an attempt to retrieve it, but don't rip the thing apart for it. (disclaimer: this is my opinion!) Oh the things that got dropped into carbs.....

 

The hose on the Shop Vac probably won't fit. Try getting a smaller flexible hose and taping it on the end of the hose to see if it will reach.

I used 1/2" clear tubing like you would use for ducting the water from a portable air conditioner...

Good luck

 

Shop vac didn't work, so I went ahead and disassembled everything. Got the upper and lower manifolds off and got the damn tube out. Im replaceing all intake manifold gaskets. Anything else I should do while Ive got everything torn apart? The water pump line looks good. Should I clean all the ports and everything with carb cleaner to remove the carbon, or just let it be and hope I can put it back together right?


Thanks everyone

 

i'd scrub the intake manifold out, especially if it's dirty in there. I find that rock salt/rubbing alcohol or some sort of degreaser (salt = abrasive, alcohol breaks up the gunk a bit) works pretty well when poured in then scrubbed out with a semi-stiff brush with a flexible metal handle. I got my from The Gas Pipe for bout 5 bucks.

 

That sounds like it would work

I used abrasives and sanded the crap off the first time with a worm/flex bit , so it could run threw each channel . Sears hardware has some nice attachements for your drill motor. You could really do a nice job on er if you had the ambition and time. Lots of elbow grease if you want to get it to the polishing process..

Depends how far you want to go with it..

Have fun