2014 Sierra 5.3L Intake Valve Deposits (100,000 miles)

[jandrewf]

Saw gone_fishing post pictures of his intake valves at 30,000 miles. Thought I would show some photos of my valve deposits at 100,000 miles without a catch can as I was curious myself. I was experiencing a pretty rough and intermittent idle a few months ago (shaking the truck kind of rough) and put a can of sea-foam through the intake. This worked for approximately 5000 miles but eventually returned. I took the intake manifold off to give things a look and as expected, intake valves (photos of only ports 1 and 2) aren't looking so hot. Planning on walnut blasting or manually cleaning when things warm up, still -25C (-13F) here in Alberta. 

 

 

[UnlimitedMatt]

Thanks for posting these pics! Now we need someone with 100,000 miles with a catch can to post some pics.

[CamGTP]

That's not too bad to be honest, looks fairly good.

 

It hasn't been warm enough for me to take my intake off yet but I will be here in a few weeks when it warms up. I'll have over 104k miles on mine by then with no catch can. I run E85 on and off now so I wonder what mine will be like.

[Doublebase]

Definitely worth a walnut blast on this valves. 
 

Good thing about our intakes...only takes 20 minutes to remove...another hour or so blasting the valves and another 20 minutes on the install. Not bad considering it’s probably only necessary to do, every 100,000 miles or so.

[Slvijoe]

Imagine how it might look with a Catch Can after 100 K miles. 

[Grumpy Bear]

Not seeing anything in those photo's that gives me pause. Sorry. I've seen worse in the 60's with carburetors. 

[Mike GMC]

I wonder what it would have looked like without the Seafoam treatment.  Was the recent treatment the only time any chemical cleaning was done?

[Inacanyon]

23 hours ago, Slvijoe said:

Imagine how it might look with a Catch Can after 100 K miles. 

Yeah it would look the same

[KARNUT]

Not seeing anything in those photo's that gives me pause. Sorry. I've seen worse in the 60's with carburetors. 

I remember a low mileage 68 Impala my brother got for a first car in 1975. While I was changing the 2barrle intake to 4 we pulled the valve covers. Unbelievable gunk we cleaned as much as we could. Threw dual glass packs on it. Add teenage driver that engine cleaned up quick. That 307 power glide fast back became my car through horse trading my 74 barracuda and payments after I got married. That tank lasted passed 100K miles becoming the wife’s car after I started buying pickups for work. Ops I’m rambling again.


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[2018GMC]

Honestly doesn’t look too bad for that mileage. Thanks for sharing

[jandrewf]

Hoping that the walnut blast/manual clean will improve the idle once completed - been chasing it for a long time!

23 hours ago, Mike GMC said:

I wonder what it would have looked like without the Seafoam treatment.  Was the recent treatment the only time any chemical cleaning was done?

Yeah just once! I was expecting it to be worse in all honesty - maybe this had something to do with it.
 

[mookdoc6]

On 3/14/2020 at 12:43 PM, jandrewf said:

Saw gone_fishing post pictures of his intake valves at 30,000 miles. Thought I would show some photos of my valve deposits at 100,000 miles without a catch can as I was curious myself. I was experiencing a pretty rough and intermittent idle a few months ago (shaking the truck kind of rough) and put a can of sea-foam through the intake. This worked for approximately 5000 miles but eventually returned. I took the intake manifold off to give things a look and as expected, intake valves (photos of only ports 1 and 2) aren't looking so hot. Planning on walnut blasting or manually cleaning when things warm up, still -25C (-13F) here in Alberta. 

 

 

These should not cause truck shaking rough idle?  Put it into Park and see if it goes away?  You could have Crappy early model Hydraulic Engine mounts that can't mask the CRAPPY HOT IDLE MAPPING.....most likely your problem but not from these there valves.....Thanks for posting!

[Mozzer]

Are there any work around options for adjusting idle up a touch? I've got a an old Bully dog tuner which shut off the AFM but doesn't adjust idle as far as I can see.

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[mookdoc6]

3 hours ago, Mozzer said:

Are there any work around options for adjusting idle up a touch? I've got a an old Bully dog tuner which shut off the AFM but doesn't adjust idle as far as I can see.

Sent using Tapatalk - 2014 5.3 WT
 

Yes, you want to bump up the HOT IDLE MAPPING in DRIVE 100RPM'S  I did mine with HP tunner   I only went 50+ rpm's and it worked for mine but I should have just went 100 like the Tuning guy said too for best outcome.