Has anybody had the intake valves cleaned on an XFR and did you notice any improvement in performance? My car has just over 113,000 miles on it and it runs and sound well but I doubt its ever had a cleaning and wondering if its worth doing, Also are there any product that can be added to the intake that would be effective in cleaning the valves that wouldn't damage the engine, CRC makes a product called Intake Valve and Turbo Cleaner . I appreciate any input.

Michael

 

i did a long while back when i removed S/C to have it serviced / did the plastic change for crossover tube and such
there was quite a bit of buildup on my intake valves. rotated crank until intake valves both closed on a particular cylinder and used combination of various solvents such as you mention and cotton swabs and brass brushes from gun barrel cleaning kits.. soak the intake valves and rub / scrub as best you can and repeat. i must have used 10 cans by the time i felt good about all 16 valves being degunked..
sounds like you are trying to inject a product with hopes it removes the buildup. i can't speak to that, but i also cannot see how it could work since it takes so many miles to build up - it's hard and stuck.. the various solvents slowly soften / melt it.
i sprayed a large quantity such as to completely immerse the deposits and then used cotton ***** to absorb the majority of sludge after if melted it..

i know this is a weird response, but it's what i did.

quite hard to get proper access to do all of this too - really have to lean out and over the engine to properly see in once s/c is removed

 

That makes perfect sense, obviously running something through the intake would not be nearly enough to clean those valves since it took so much product and soaking and scrubbing to get them clean. After you did the job, did you notice an improvement in power and gas mileage and just the way the engine runs?

Mike

 

additionally for those with superchargers, it has to go up through the rotor packs and then down through the charge cooler radiator fins - i was thinking probably not the best idea to put a solvent through those areas as the rotors have a special coating

 

I've used CRC valve cleaner both with the intake off and through the SC every 6km since my XFR had about 60km, it's now at 100kmi with no issues. It say right on the can "safe for sc and turbo engines. It really works well.

 

Just to make sure I understood you correctly. You removed the intake tube from the throttle body and sprayed it into the supercharger through the throttle body? Using CRC valve cleaner? And do you agree to those who say spraying such chemicals into your intake system will end up hurting your catalytic converters in the long run especially using it every 6000 km?
Because I have been wanting to do this for a long time on my XFR but I was affraid doing this and spraying stuff into the supercharger may hurt something. When I asked about this on few pages no one was able to give me a definitive answer. I used to do this in my 5.0 XF but it was naturally aspirated model with no issues, in fact I have gotten good results and I had no cats (removed).

Thanks in advance

 

Just to make sure I understood you correctly. You removed the intake tube from the throttle body and sprayed it into the supercharger through the throttle body? Using CRC valve cleaner? And do you agree to those who say spraying such chemicals into your intake system will end up hurting your catalytic converters in the long run especially using it every 6000 km?
Because I have been wanting to do this for a long time on my XFR but I was affraid doing this and spraying stuff into the supercharger may hurt something. When I asked about this on few pages no one was able to give me a definitive answer. I used to do this in my 5.0 XF but it was naturally aspirated model with no issues, in fact I have gotten good results and I had no cats (removed).

Thanks in advance

 

What I need to know is what improvement of any was realized after having the valves cleaned.

I don’t believe that just running a chemical through the intake would really clean the baked on oil, I agree that they need to be manually soaked and cleaned or blasted with media to get them clean however that is expensive and labor intensive and I’m trying to find out if it’s worth the effort and expense.

 

I cleaned up all my intake valves (exhaust valves were too pitted to recover so I had to replace all 16) when rebuilding my heads during my engine rebuild.

Can't say if it improved anything or not as there was a sizeable gap between drives while rebuilding the engine, but what I will say is that the work it took to clean the valves was significant and I don't think there's a chemical in the land that could effectively clean off valves with heavy deposits like mine had while still not causing damage to e.g. s/c rotor coating or cylinder walls, because I needed a bench drill and wire brushes to get mine clean.

There may well be a chemical that you can use preventatively as @Bigg Will has suggested that could prevent or at least reduce carbon build-up over time, but if your valves have never been cleaned I'd honestly skip straight to having them walnut blasted or similar.

As for whether you'll see an improvement: maybe, maybe not? It should improve airflow into the cylinder but whether that actually translates into something you'd notice I'm not sure. I don't think you're going to find anyone who can give you a solid answer either way. Consider it a maintenance item and find out how much a shop will charge you to clean them.

 

Ok, I was thinking about doing it myself but not sure if I want to commit that kind of time to the job. Maybe someone has had it done and can attest to the affect it had.
a Jag dealership will charge a fortune, for plugs alone they want $1100!

 

It's quite a job to do DIY.

Even just removing the supercharger can be quite some work, but honestly my biggest concern about walnut shell blasting with the heads in place - even done by a shop - is debris/walnut not being sucked back out and making its way into the oil system where it blocks channels to the VVT phasers or worse the piston cooling jets.

I know some manufacturers like BMW that require walnut shell blasting as a maintenance item have created special vacuum/blaster attachments that match the inlet ports and it's possible Jaguar dealers have something similar, but really the best way to clean them is by stripping the heads, and really that's never worth doing unless you've blown a gasket (or in my case, spun two connecting rod bearings. Check your oil level!).

 

I would be more interested in how can we prevent it from happening in the first place, as the Audi RS engines are even more susceptible to carbon fouling and their fix was EGR block off plates, and a baffled oil catch can breather stopped/slowed it from happening. I would be willing to take off the heads ONCE if I could do a mild head port instead of WB and dual valve springs and then do the EGR and catch can mod to stop it from happening again. I have also heard polishing and or chroming/ceramic coating the head keeps the sludge from sticking. Also potentially E85 could not only prevent it but clean the engine totally if we had a flex system to run a flex fuel. I have done some research and it appears I read some doc from Jaguar that the 14' and up Jags are flex fuel compatible cars. Possibly they knew that would fix it and made that switch. I am in process of doing a major service on my XFR and contemplating installing new fuel injectors from a 15' XFR and pump and filter to run a factory flex sensor and tune the car on E85. That will help with heat soak issue as well as E85 runs much cooler especially with boosted cars. That is the best my research came up with to fix this problem permanently.

 

Adam,
Just curious, did you notice any "seat of the pants" improvement to justify the time and effort?

 

Caution with converting to E85. Someitmes non-E85 cars have other componets succeptible to E85 corroswive effects. Like Injecotors lines, o-rings. Little bits that can casue a problem.

If the car is sold elsewhere fitted for E85 that might work but I've seen Saabs converted and pump was good but fuel lines were not in cars that were E85 for different markets.

 

Boy, do I feel stupid for never bothering to find out what the heck E85 was. My XJ is a FlexFuel model and there's an E85 station nearby. But I wonder if having the VAP tune changes anything.

Edit: I shot an email over to Stuart and Chris at VAP and they say E85 is safe with their tunes. (super quick response from them) I'm off to the races!

 

I had a tuned E85 Saab 9-3, E*% was a HUGE difference..... Enjoy the drive

 

It was a little cold and wet this morning so I didn't have much opportunity to thrash about but it does indeed feel a little peppier, and smoother actually. E85 was over a dollar cheaper than my usual supreme 91. We'll see what the mpg ends up being. So far so good.

 

That's VERY interesting because my 2014 XJR does not have any recommendation that you can use E85??

Do you have the yellow gas cap stating E85 or did you find it in the owners manual somewhere?
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I've got the yellow cap and a sticker on the inside of the flap stating E85 or Premium only. And my Carfax states its a FFV (Flex Fuel Vehicle).

I'm liking E85 very much. The engine seems much smoother and happier, and there's a definite increase in power.

Its odd yours doesn't have the same cap. I wonder if there's a VIN cutoff somewhere. Perhaps my car was built some time after yours.

 

Yes that's what I was thinking. The last 6 digits of my VIN are 54XXX.
Very impressed with your 115K miles. Glad to see it! I am only at 42K on mine.
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