Intake manifold off: does this look like busted EGR cooler?

not a busted egr

 

Yes that EGR cooler the silver piece is very clogged You need to have that professionally cleaned That's what I do is cheaper to me to drop it off at the machine shop and let them tank it or the radiator shop whatever or you can do what other people do and clean it in various and sundry solutions I'm usually pretty busy I know the guys at the shop I just drop them off and pick them up couple of days later all nice and clean and ready to go The inside will be a parkerized gray looking finish when it's cleaned properly It is a horrid design part really bad It can do nothing but clog giving the connections made to it. You need long bristle brushes to clean the connections from the EGR into the intake ports those little small holes. And then the long hole that runs from the metal tube all the way down the plastic manifold You want to make sure that is clear Free flowing etc.

 

Better deal with the head gasket first.

 

They must be using something pretty nasty to take off the stainless steel sheen. I’ve cleaned ours a couple of times using Oxi-clean soaks, just looks like new.

 

I’d just use brake cleaner (or “parts cleaner”?), some sorta petroleum solvent, with rags and brushes. The housing is aluminum so avoid corrosive/alkaline cleaners (oxi-clean, oven cleaner, purple power); while “maybe” not detrimental they will react with aluminum, turn it dull grey. Be careful not to get sprays in the electronic housing, just in case.

 

A well exposed pic of the cooler interior would be interesting. Shining some sort of pen light on helps.

Actually that one you posted is not bad; near-totally occluded...

How did the EGR passages on the intake manifold look? The red arrows:



^ Kinda telling, this is just a stock picture when I googled (prius intake manifold egr), popular topic.

 

That's what I was looking at and one of his first pictures was a picture of what that port mates up to on the head and looked pretty nasty. So I was wondering about the ports in the intake

 

A lot of that port crud comes from the PCV I think. But yeah the EGR contributes as well.

 

Those narrow EGR passages in the intake manifold tend to clog sequentially, commencing with cylinder one passage being the first to totally plug. That's the cylinder where head gasket failure begins, specifically at the wall between cylinders one and two.

 

Did not know I had a level of cooler finish named after me. The first one I did was totally clogged with hard gunk from front to back. While I replaced that one for expediency, it took several on off days with a cost hanger wire chucked up to a drill to see light through it. I like Tom’s strategy much better.

 

Somebody changed the oil religiously but the rings are causing a lot of carbon.

 

Is that intake manifold EGR passage at cylinder one? It looks not bad at all, for those miles. Maybe the intake’s been cleaned before.