BKD engine - inlet manifold cleaning

[Muttley]

I have a somewhat elderly BKD-engined Altea (I know this is the Leon section, but the Altea is to the Leon as the Golf Plus is to the Golf) on 120K miles, and as far as I know the inlet manifold has never been cleaned out. Now, I know that on the 1.9 TDI engines the manifold is very vulnerable to sooting up from hot EGR gas + oil from PCV in the intake charge. The 2.0 TDI has an EGR cooler, which reduces the problem a bit, and a crossflow head, meaning the EGR valve and manifold are at the front and much easier to get at.

Has anyone here cleaned the inlet manifold of a 2.0 TDI engine, and if so, what did you find in terms of deposits on the EGR valve and narrowing of the manifold openings? I feel that with the high mileage that it is worth doing this job now, for the cost of a few hours and the necessary gaskets. Apart from anything else, I wonder if the EGR valve or the flap valve will eventually coke up and throw up a warning on the EML. The anti-shudder valve is electric on this engine, and may burn itself out if it jams, I guess.

While I'm on the subject, does anyone know if it is possible to turn the EGR right down using VCDS, like it is on the ARL engine that I used to have in my Mk.2 Toledo? You could turn it down to almost nothing, which was a quick way to reduce the associated problems. If it is still possible on the BKD then I will most likely stump up the £200 or so I need for full VCDS, as the Altea is a CANbus car and I can't use my VCDS-Lite

 

[MJ]

They get clogged but nothing like the earlier engines.

there's a few tricky bolts to get at including 1 inside the manifold port.

you can't adjust egr duty cycle as far as I'm aware.

 

[Muttley]

Thanks, MJ. I've looked at the removal procedure and realise there are some bolts inside the manifold, but there seems to be a good amount of space to get at all the fixings.

I expect that the EGR cooler is another place likely to clog up too, but that is a little more messy to get off, with the coolant attachments and being round the side and back of the engine.

It's a shame that the EGR cant be minimised using VCDS or the like. I guess that it would take a remap.

 

[MJ]

The egr/asv bolts can be a pain to remove too.

yep, remap is the only option but that said I removed the egr valve and cooler assembly on my golf completely and used it for a good few months before getting it removed from the ecu and in that time It never once logged a fault code.

 

[Fishy]

Had my EGR deleted yonks ago and not seen any issues so far, I've also been tempted to have the inlet cleaned but was looking at terraclean instead.

Fish