How to clean injector seats?

[generic]

I'm replacing fuel rail gaskets and injector o-rings and am almost ready to reinstall the fuel rail, but there is a lot of grime and carbon build-up in the injector seats. Is there a way to clean them out without dumping the crud down into the manifold?

I don't have a shop vac and I wasn't able to get enough suction from the small tube I attempted to rig up to the household vacuum (almost smoked the motor, lol). What about a greasy rag on a stick (and what kind of grease)?

Or would the crud safely burn up in the cylinder and pass through the cat?

The pics are of probably the worst one of the 6 seats (same seat but shot from different angles). Not the best quality pics, most of the crud is carbon and located on the chamber-side of the seat, but there looks to be a few tiny grains of sand/grit on the seats (I did my best to blow the crap off the manifold before removing the injectors).

Also, is that amount of carbon normal at 150K miles? The injectors looked really good at both ends and only required a quick spray of intake/carb cleaner to brighten them up inside. Does carbon here mean I have leaky intake valve seats?

 

[willy]

From the picture it looks like your lower intake is cracked but since your that far into it just pull the lower intake and clean it all up its not that much work

 

[generic]

If, by cracked, you mean that line-looking thing to the right of the seat, then no, it's not cracked... just went out and looked and it is a machined bevel (er, notch rather), and is there on the other intake ports also... whew!!! had me scared s**tless LOL!

 

[97RangerXLT]

careful use of a q-tip and seafoam.

other than that, Willy has the easiest answer you have gone this far, it is only 8 more bolts to have the lower intake out and clean it really well.

it will also make installing the injectors and fuel rail a bit easier.

Do get the OEM one piece Ford lower intake gasket from Ford tho... when I did mine, it was only 2 dollars more than the three piece felpro unit.

AJ

 

[generic]

Got 'em all cleaned up! I rigged up a scraper from a dowel rod and a ball-point pen cap (see pic):

1. Cut out a notch in the cap to create a trough, this allows the end to scrape the crud, which then falls into the cap.
2. Insert the dowel rod securely into the cap. Tape or glue it in if there's any doubt about the cap staying on (you DON'T want to lose it down the manifold!)
3. Use a q-tip gobbed with Vaseline to coat the crud and injector port so the crud won't just crumble off into the manifold.
4. Carefully insert the scraper tool past the crud and scrape outward towards you, periodically wiping the collected crud off the scraper with a shop towel. Go slow and steady, a pen light and inspection mirror really help to monitor your progress. The carbon can be a bit persistent, might have to gently tug a bit to get it to break loose. If it's not breaking loose, you may have hooked the back lip of the injector port
5. Once the crud is all out (doesn't need to be spotless), then use q-tips and Seafoam to clean it all up (thx AJ)

Also, it really helps if you plug the ports and clean all the dirt off your manifold before cleaning the ports. Disregard this if you're taking the lower intake manifold off. You can use bottle brushes or other items to clean the injector ports if the manifold is off the engine

 

[97RangerXLT]

Cool, glad you got it to work, and I like the pen cap tool. Necessity is the mother of invention

AJ