Matt 1, Ford 0...for now

I battled yesterday with having to remove the plastic upper intake to do the upper intake gaskets as well as the fuel rail gaskets and injector o-rings. I could NOT get the EGR tube out of the intake, so as I was cussing the truck and threatening to burn it to the ground and just buy something else, I liberally soaked the joint with PB Blaster several times. I left it to actually enjoy the rest of my off day.

Since my parent's house (where it's at as well as all my tools) is right in the area I work, I stopped by to give it a shot again since it had all night to soak. I gave the joint a few good shots with some break cleaner as well to help break up any carbon/gunk. After a few good wiggles, it broke free! I had to wrestle the pipe and intake a little to get it free from the 6 studs and the curve of the EGR pipe but it finally came off. The front gaskets (where the leak seemed to be coming from) did look a weeeeeeee bit flatter/worn out than the middle or rear ones, but no cracks or anything like that that I saw. But I guess it was enough to cause the lean codes. I looked down the inlets and didn't see any evidence of the fuel manifold gaskets having failed and being sucked inwards, so it appears that just the upper plenum gaskets gave way due to age. Since I have the fuel rail gasket and bought the E7 socket to get the studs out, I'm going to go ahead and remove it and replace those parts as well. Hell, I may even though a new EGR valve on it while I'm at it since it's probably original.

I used the rest of the can of brake cleaner spraying into the intake manifold; through the air outlets, the vacuum nipples, through the throttle body, everywhere and swished and swirled it around some a few times. That fluid came out black as sin every time. There was a sizable amount of oil/carbon/whatever coating the inside of that intake.

So far, with all these parts being removed, I've only broken 1 really brittle almost plastic like vacuum line, I think it was red and was on the intake side...part of a 2 vacuum line connector if I recall. Also, the one on the bottom of the throttle body crumbled and cracked a little while loosening it so I'm going to replace those 2 lines while I'm in there and after putting it all back together, HOPEFULLY P0171 and P0174 go away so this thing will idle right, won't die in reverse, and will pass emissions!

Penetrating oil is your friend! If you want to make a slightly better cheaper fluid just mix 50% automatic transmission fluid (doesn't matter what kind) with 50% acetone (although I find methanol and mineral spirits work equally as effective if you have that laying around). This mix works better than anything you can buy off the shelf.

And carbon/oil sludge in the intake is pretty much just part of life but if it's excessive it means you're not changing your pcv valve often enough. If it gets clogged the system can reverse and contaminated air/oil/water will get sucked into the air intake tube instead of sucked directly into the lower manifold via the pcv valve.

Two tricks that I have found that work well in this situation.

1) Just take the EGR valve off the intake and leave it with the tube.

2) Slop the tube nut up with silver anti-seize, then heat carefully with a propane or butane torch, as it melts it will run into the threads and help free them up.

I may have to try the anti seize trick. If im going to replace the egr cable it may be tricky...the body looks pretty rusty, I'm sure the bolts are worse. If only the stinking ac compressor and lines weren't in the way. Ill report back after im able to get back to it.

I did this job not long ago and I cursed it to and I work as a mechanic lol.

Any leads on getting an entirely new tube? I am in the rust belt in Canada. Think I’ve got a leak on mine. Haven’t looked much into it yet but from what I’ve seen I can’t find a replacement tube from manifold to egr


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