'02 3.5 intake manifold cleaning?

[eric_55435]

Hello everyone. I am SO glad I found this forum. Since reading several threads, I have cleaned the throttle body and mustered up the ambition to change the front 3 plugs. There was a sizeable difference in performance, so I thank you all.

My next question is this. As I opened up the butterfly on the throttle body to spray some cleaner in there, I felt a sludge lining the intake manifold. How the heck does one get that cleaned out? Some sort of foaming cleaner? Or is it even needed?

BTW, those back plugs are gonna be a b@#*%

[LittleHoov]

im not sure what to tell you on the intake manifold, they do get sludged up over time, but i dont know what to tell you to do, short of taking it off, which could turn out to be a bigger project than what its worth.

As for those back plugs theyre much easier to get too if you rotate the engine forward slightly, the procedure is outlined in the Chiltons, but basically all you have to do is take loose the front engine mount(the one up by the radiator) and then using whatever method you see fit, pull the engine forward slightly, it wont go very far, maybe a couple inches at most, but that makes a difference.

[eric_55435]

I think I will skip the manifold cleaning then. Unless one of the auto parts stores has an easier solution.

Thank you for the advice on the back plugs. Sounds easy enough and it should be sufficient to make that an easier job. It would have been nice for the engineers who designed that coil cover/assembly to have made those 7 bolts that hold it on in a way that they would not come out of the cover, in other words, staying part of the cover so I won't drop them down into nowhere land trying to re-affix the cover.

Wish me luck!