Originally Posted by Vlad_Type_S

...I'm just going to show some photos of the parts. I am particularly concerned about two things.
1) The rear head is not nearly as yellow as the front one. Could this be a sign of a problem? At first I thought that it may have been replaced before I got the car, but that can't be because the cams and rockers are just as worn as on the front head.
2) The intake manifold is dirty. Very dirty. There's crap all over the EGR passages and I'm quite concerned about this. Is this normal? If not, what do you guys think could be the issue?

All the pictures can be found here: http://s1307.beta.photobucket.com/us...t%202008%20TLS

Here is the intake manifold after the cover was removed.



Here is the cover:


Here is the inlet to the intake manifold:


Here is the IM side of the throttle body:


Here's the front head. Note the intake runners blackness:


The front cover:



The rear head:


Here is the rear cover:



Here are the rocker arms. Clearly worn: I'm probably not going to use Honda fluid anymore.




Is all of this normal? Looking for some advice from the AZine pros. I'm sort of car savvy but I've never tore a V6 apart to this point so I'm not sure if this is all normal. Any comments are greatly appreciated!

Thanks all,
Vlad

Originally Posted by 04WDPSeDaN

Welcome to honda/acura's piss poor intake manifold system. they always collect oil and get gummy. Using a few cans of intake cleaner you can clean out that entire manifold. I wouldn't spray it directly into the throttle body since it may likely cause the drive by wire unit to fail. I would spray it on a durable cloth and wipe it clean while holding the butterfly plate on the TB open.

Another thing, that is a NORMAL look for the heads if your using conventional oil, and possibly exceeding the life of the oil. Switching to synthetic oil, (Castrol edge or MB1 or redline) and using it for approx 5-6K would clean up that engine very well. Another thing about CARBON build up, mostly happens with using anything lower than 93 or top tier gasoline and extended periods of idle (traffic, letting the car warm up ect ect).

Another maintenance item skipped, happens to be the PCV valve. Look at your intake manifold, it's pretty terrible. The PCV valve is located on the lower left corner of the front valve cover, held in by 1x 10mm bolt. I would suggest replacing it and cleaning out that entire manifold w/TB.

You will notice after you do all this the vehicle runs better, smooth and responds-accelerates better. I usually do my intake manifold cleaning once every 15K. It doesn't get terrible, however it still collects oil. In most cases it's the rear head that gets darker than the front but let me assure you, I've been running synthetic for 75K now , just recently removed my covers to paint then and noticed the heads were pretty much like new condition.