Has anybody polished (and possible ported) their intake plenum. If so did they notice more power and did they do it themselves?
How hard would it be to do it yourself??

 

I haave done them myself, but never on a runner. And the only way I would port the manifold at all is if I had port matched the head and prolly throttle body (get a bigger one to match). Theres not much of a point in porting your manifold all up and spending hours to do it (cause it will take a LONG time if you do it yourself) only to get no increase because its just slamming into the intake ports on the head that are now much smaller.

My guess would be that even if it were a huge success and everythign was done right it wouldn't even be worth the time let alone however much it would cost to have the head matched.

 

I would avoid "polishing" the intake plenum. They are rough for a reason, and you are more likely to do damage than add performance. Even if you did add performance, it would be so minimal on a stock vehicle that it would not be worth it. You could bore your throttle body to the butterfly for a tad more performance - but we are talking about 2-3HP, which isn't noticeable anyway. I bored mine with a dremel tool. I didn't notice any difference.

 

So I am gathering that the best solution would be to remove it and give it a really good cleaning. I have 385,000 kms (231,000 miles) on it and I don't think the spray cleaners are doing a really good job. Any ideas on the quality of the spray cleaners or is it better to remove and clean?

 

I ported the intake manifold on my 84 4Runner (22R carbd). I port matched the manifold to the head by using the gasket as a template of where and how big to grind out the ports. I also milled out the carb hole from the 2 small holes to one big hole to use with my weber 38/38. You do not want to polish the runners or manifold very much. If it is too smooth, the gas and air will separate and the gas will collect on the outside wall of the manifold when the mixture goes around bends. It is good to leave the runners feeling slightly like a very fine sandpaper. Good luck with the porting.

 

Use oven cleaner to clean out the inside of the manifold...the guy that port and polished mine said to use that...you spray it on wait like 15 mins then scrape off the now soft carbon and keep repeating that until its clean. don't get it on you hands tho it burns

 

A lot of work for what might amount to 3whp and that's being generous.

 

A couple of people on this board have polished up their 3.slow intakes and the subject has been debated around. You might find these threads useful.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...hlight=extrude

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...hlight=extrude

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...hlight=extrude