X156 Intake manifold and valves carbon cleaning. What did you do and what does the dealer offer?

Vladds said:

This is the first direct injection car for me.
I know that the H247 guys have nothing to worry about, as Mercedes installed port injectors as well as direct injectors.
So what do we do?
What did guys with high mileage do?
I didn't see anything in the service table, but I think nobody, no manufacturer, makes any acknowledgement that there is a problem, for legal reasons, by inserting a valve cleaning requirement.
So with this, I know that BMW had something with wallnut blasting, etc.
Did anybody check with the dealer?

Click to expand...

Hey


So again, my prior life in the mazdaspeed world serves well.

Seafoam ingestion was all the rage after the issue was discovered. various techniques with "popping the blue clip vaccum line" and using an intermittent aspiration technique while idling to create clouds of white smoke, followed by some crappy response for a mile or so.
after a couple gurus dis seafoam, then a teardown, with pics, in a writeup, did it become apparent that any liquid cleaning was an absolute snake oil gig. the carbon is formed at such temp that it will barely soften with overnite soaks.
but soften it did, and the intake is on the front, and while the PS pump does needs to be swung over a bit, getting the intake mani off, and having direct visiulization of the stems got to be an hour or so, depending on prior mods.
for a short time, spraying, and scrubbing with various shapes of .22 cal bore brushes was in style.


ugh is right


then some brave soul collected wifes beach towels and blue painters tape, figured out the 2 spots of crank rotation that were right, and got hot with a harbor freight sandblaster, and harbor freight walnut shells. clean 4 valves, vacuum the surgical area clear, Retape, and rotate, Blast away at the other 4 valves, vaccum, wipe, De tape, and undrape the OR (it gets everywhere).
reassemble, and all set
the pristine, bare metal from head to guide, whole pocket, its just an awsome before and after pic on one that has alot of highway cruising miles.

So, to sum up

ONLY direct mechanical action will remove the deposits
many of the nasty solvents will soften the bonds in the gunk.
they accumulate over time in proportion to the running you do fully warmed up, ant part throttle

the source is the oil vapor recovery system, which commonly is routed back to the intake manifold for emmision reasons. How this is piped, routed, etc would have a great impact on formation the routing changes from boost to off boost, for ex. , but as long as oily vapor hits that hot metal, with nothing rinsing as it forms, you gonna get crudded up.


I did 4 MZR's its kinda an every 6th oil change thing.
the Audi guys have been down the same path,
Its gonna suc, real bad, at a AMG dealer for this, as a service

This is a CLA45 but same M133… can anyone make out the number? 130k or 170k is what I think… either way, wonder what he’s done, if anything

sam45AMG said:

This is the first DI engine for me as well but is this a problem for the M133 engine? I can't find anything much on issues for this engine. Any tuners/builders ever mention problems with this specific engine? I see IVD issues with other brands' engines but haven't found anything specific to the M133. Who that has the most miles on their engine, please let us know (I have <45K miles on mine).
Is it possible that the M133/M139 are designed in a manner which prevents rapid accumulation of deposits on the intake valves?

Anyone have a catch-can installed? I don't. Is it possible to install one? (I haven't looked at the PCV system yet to see if one could be installed). In my EVO 9 days, I had a Saikou Michi dual catch-can setup that seemed to work well. Unfortunately, he doesn't make one specifically for Mercedes vehicles.

Click to expand...

Great question! I've wondered this myself. It should be fairly simple to plumb a generic catch can (Burger Motorsports makes a pretty nice one) into the vent hose between the stock air/oil separator and the airbox. The only challenge is finding adapters that fit the OEM vent tubing. Here's an illustration of the venting system for reference.

sam45AMG said:

Is it possible that the M133/M139 are designed in a manner which prevents rapid accumulation of deposits on the intake valves?

Anyone have a catch-can installed? I don't. Is it possible to install one? (I haven't looked at the PCV system yet to see if one could be installed). In my EVO 9 days, I had a Saikou Michi dual catch-can setup that seemed to work well. Unfortunately, he doesn't make one specifically for Mercedes vehicles.

Click to expand...

So, guinea pigs needed

Diagrams help, for sure, but until we get a few guys with no warranty, and alternate daily drivers, and non standard home lives.

we are not going to Know, with pics, how the PCV is handled, and Where it can be intercepted.


But Yeah,

Catch Can

bottom line, the way to avoid walnut shell sweeping.

I sourced a different vaccum source on the last iteration of my MS3.

a 45degree bologna cut fitting welded into the downpipe. aspirates the vapor from both the valve cover, and crankcase. very effective........

So, in the diagram, 1 is the factory catch can. AKA air-oil separator.
6 is the factory catch can oil drain line.

As far as not oil draining from the Catch can, in the Subaru community, they found that if you want oil to drain out of a catch can, it has to be a heated catch can, meaning there has to be a coolant serpentine around it. SO the really expensive ones for subaru had a coolant intercept line, to heat them up.
Looks like the factory catch can here is either heated by being mounted to the engine block, or there could be a coolant line running through it.

Maybe this is the factory gunk prevention measure, that allowed these engines to suffer less from intake valve gunk.

I am a bit confused in the diagram by the tank purging line and tank vent connection. I guess that these have to refer to fuel vapor, can't be oil tank and oil vapor purging.
So then why show fuel vapor lines in an oil vapor diagram?

unless... the fuel vapor washes the oil residue? but then where would the resulting soup go? can't go back into the oil pan...cant shoot it through the high pressure injectors..maybe they're venting the oil-fuel soup back into the intake and cleaning everything with it?
let me take a closer look..