Day 1 ~ Intake Issues

Talk about restricted airflow

  In preparation for an engine overhaul or replacement, I began by doing a little cleaning up and rearranging things the other day to make room in a really tight area. Today I started tearing into the thing by taking apart and removing the intake assembly: filter's fine, air-charge/temperature sensor fine...throttle-body honeycomb screen nasty with debris. Yuck! I'll have to double-check my seals upon reinstallation. I spent the afternoon disassembling and cleaning the various components on the throttle body. Somehow, my MAF sensor survived the garbage and is fine.
 That's a relief. However, the throttle itself was stuck in place by corrosion buildup from oil and antifreeze. What in the world? I can only figure the oil came from the EGR pipeline. The whole intake manifold is nasty with the residue. It's no wonder I was having misfire codes in cylinder 3 (a benefit of ODBII is ability to know what's malfunctioning sometimes). I'm sure I'll discover when I pull the head how oil was getting into the exhaust in the first place. This one may or may not be worth rebuilding, but I'll learn a lot from pulling it apart and may be able to reuse some parts on another 3800 I called about in Raleigh.

   So I got the intake and throttle body off today, removed the hood, drained the radiator, and labelled some wires. With the a/c already out of charge, I'm ready to label and disconnect (in that order hehe) the remaining wiring connectors, hoses, and fuel lines (yes I relieved the pressure and disconnected the battery already. Thanks Dad, I knew you'd be commenting that otherwise). Almost ready to pull the engine... First I have to gather my engine stand and trusty assistant Velvet. She helps me out quite often and I have to give her props for sure. That's all for tonight. Now to figure out pics and throw 'em in.