EGR and intake service

I got started on this today. Got the plugs changed first, here's a pic of the old ones. Any idea why the cylinder 4 electrode is a different colour than the others?


After that I took out and cleaned the throttle body, removed the intake manifold and EGR pipe, and started trying to get the cooler out. I tried removing nuts from the rear entry port, but the whole stud was coming out instead. then I dropped my 12mm wrench behind the engine and couldn't find it. I'll have to get another one tomorrow. I was also, predictably, struggling with reaching the nut for the lower mount. I think I'm going to remove the hose for the heater core that's in the way, it's just way too cramped with crap in that area to get any tools in there. I'm definitely going to cut off the lower mount before I reinstall the cooler.

I don't think the intake looks too gunked up, although there was a lot of oil sitting at the bottom. Got me thinking about my next round of maintenance after this getting a catch can for it and replacing the water pump at the same time.





More fun to come tomorrow.

 

All finished, 2 full days of work pretty much. Here's a couple of before and afters.






Thanks for the pointers and giving me the confidence to do this. The Lye worked better than I could imagine. And I still have a lot left to use for drain clog opener. Next time will be much easier, I chopped off the lower cooler bracket and used plenty of anti seize on all the nuts and bolts during reassembly.

 

I did that as well. I knew I'd never want to reinstall it so that bracket was only going to be a hindrance. I got the idea from Merv's service video on this. I noticed he shouted you and this forum out in it too.