Hello again guys,

My car hasn't really had a valve cleaning and I want to do it. It this a hard task to accomplish? Is the cover on the engine hard to take off? What screws/bolts must come un-done in order to do this? I am also going to do a throttle-body cleaning while I am at it but I think I pretty much know how to do that after looking at L-Extreme's page on that.

Any help on getting to the valves (and/or) cleaning them would be so greatly appreciated and I REALLY need this information! Thanks so much for your time guys!

 

You are kidding right? Take the valve cover off on a Lexus engine to clean the valve involve taking the top half of the engine to get to the valve... If you can chnage the timing belt yourself, then you can do this cleaning

 

I think it's a lot more than a timing belt change. Basically you have to remove the head (upper part of the engine), but if you do that you might as well replace the valve, spring, seals, etc.
tvd51

 

You can clean the valves, assuming you are talking about the intake and exhaust ones, by simply using a can of Techron fuel additive every now and then. As far as cleaning them "hands on" is concerned, forget it. You can't get to them from here, short of removing the cylinder heads.
Who told you the "valves need cleaning"? And what symptom did they hope to correct by doing this?

 

Honestly, I just wanted to clean them because I do not think this car has been taken car of very well. I have gotten more info on this and think I am able to do it, just 2 things......
1. I am, in fact, a little apprehensive about messing around with the internals of my engine because, well, I'm not a mechanic, no matter how much I try to be one
2. It would take a good 3-4 days AT LEAST i think and I do not have that kind of time to be without my primary car.

Oh well, maybe some day! Thanks for all of your help!

-Jason

 

You don't even want to get into this if you haven't ever done it before. I've worked on cars for years but Lexus really crams the stuff in there and bolts stuff on top of more stuff. It's the first car I've ever seen where it's a job just to change a rotor cap and button.

If you do decide to do it let me get your address so I can buy the car real cheap after it's half apart and no hope of reassembly.

I like to help people work on cars but I assure you, this is one piece that humbles me. Plus, if you screw something up you don't just run down to Autozone and pick up a cheap part. Buy a repair manual and see what all is involved.

If you want to try a cleaning it on the cheap ($75 or so) go to a Firestone and have them run Wynn's V.I.C. FI and CC cleaner through it. Supposedly pretty good, not just a pour it in you gas cleaner.

Audi decided they would try it. http://www.mitgroup.com.cn/wynns/main/renzheng/audi.htm

John

 

Yep,

Professional and concentrated valves/injectors cleaning is the way to go and not the $5 pour in the gas tank thingy. Definitely not removing the valves just to clean them.

 

Jason,

If you use two bottles of Techron in your gas you'll save yourself a ton of headache....

This isn't like taking the head off a lawn mower engine.....