Our cars are old. Yes that includes you '02 owners, it's been over a decade.
Just wondering how long it has taken any of you folks, outside of hunting/gathering tools, to clean the EGR ports. On a bit of a time crunch and will need to clean mine fairly soon. Thanks.

 

I've cleaned the '91 accord twice...the first time I did it with the IM still in the car and it took me about 2 hours to do it...trying to find the right drill bit without bulging out the side of the egr plugs. When you don't pull the IM you just need to hope the ports are so bad that when you drill out the hole the pieces fall onto the carbon buildup so you can just vacuum the pieces up before you clean out the ports down below fully. Also put grease on the drill bit so as much of the shavings as possible stick to the bit and they really do stick it's weird.

The second time I pulled the IM and did a complete cleaning so it took me just to pull the plugs about 30 minutes because I already knew how to do it but I completely cleaned out the IM using engine degreaser in my bath tub and it took me probably 30 minutes of cleaning to get it right. This was probably 4 hours total because I hadn't pulled the IM before.

The third time I did on my h22a and I did a complete IM pull again and this time it probably took me 2.5 to 3 hours to do everything...this includes pulling the IM and pulling the plugs and cleaning.

Also I got lucky and the IM gasket didn't tear on these two times so I just put the IM back on and didn't have to take out the old gasket which is what would take a bit of time if you do pull the IM. You'd have to double nut the studs and pull them to give you room to use a razor blade to scrape all the old gasket from the head.

 

Took me about 1.5 hours on a 96 with the manifold in the car. It is a bit easier when they have the removable EGR chamber and plate gasket. I took my time cleaning them as well. Let it soak for 15-20 minutes before scrubbing clean. The hardest part about it was moving the fuel rail and injectors out of the way.... and even that wasn't all that hard.

 

^ Same as Ghost on my 97 for me.

 

When I purchased my Accord (Exactly a year ago yesterday!!!) the EGR ports were clogged really bad and it sounded like it was farting at any constant speed above 2500. This was at around 200k. Took me about 45 minutes to do. 94 EX F22B1, stock manifold.

But I'm one of those cool kids now and I don't have an EGR. Be jelly.

 

eff you guys and your easy 5th gen egr plates

 

 

I think it would be fairly annoying having to clean the 6th gen EGR systems too. The F23A1 manifolds have two passages that are completely inaccessible. But, once again. Cool kids don't run EGR's for mad ponies at race warz.

 

Took about 60mins to do. '95 B1 with 270K miles. Pulled the EGR valve and cleaned it and the outlet port along with the EGR manifold. Didn't use any carb cleaner, all that would have done was make a mess. The local ORLY auto has TEKTON tools for cheap, they have a nice 4pack of mini bungee cords that are perfect for holding the fuel rail, injector harness, and cables out of the way. Engine is much quieter at part throttle. Didn't realize how loud it was. Let's see if I can improve on that 28MPG

EDIT: Been driving the coupe around and wow. Before when cruising if I rolled into the throttle to pickup speed the car would not accelerate like how it does now, usually leaning on the throttle rewarded me with a light knocking which was annoying. No more. Lean on it and the car just goes. YAAAAAAAAAAAY

 

I'm in the "forever" camp. I messed with that job well over 3 hours. I had feared doing it for almost a year before tackling it. I was able to get to the whole EGR rail by removing the IACV and FITV--leaving the hoses on them--and using some wire to hold them out of the way over towards the passenger side of the engine bay. I did also have to remove the other little fuel thing on the right side to get a clean shot and the plug that it obscures, but never had to touch the actual fuel rail. I had tools strewn all over the work area while doing that job. That included a huge 18v drill, but I ended up using a small household drill to drill through that soft metal.

The biggest waste of time was trying to pull the factory plugs without drilling all the way through them. I finally realized I was getting nowhere and drilled through the first one, put the screw in it and snatched the plug out with a few good thumps of the slide hammer. Then did all the rest the same way--making sure to use a die to tap a guide mark in the center of each plug to put the drill hole in the right spot. Contrary to what I had been told, drilling through does not get a lot of bad "stuff" in the intake. What gets in there is very minimal and can be cleaned right up once the plugs are out.

My passages were moderately to heavily clogged. I loosened all with picking tools, including a small screwdriver and some stiff wire. Vacuumed all of that up. Gave it a good soaking with fuel injection cleaner and used bailing wire to go up and down the whole rail and make sure everything was open. I didn't do any more vacuuming, but scraped some remaining carbon chunks out with a thing from the kitchen made for picking meat out of crabs. Seems like the kitchen always gets involved with my car maintenance.

After wiping everything down, I put some more FI cleaner into the rail to be sure. Finally, I tapped in the new cup type plugs from Honda using a brass drift. That drift was overkill (a socket would have worked fine) but I already had one and decided to put it to use. I took a good cruise while the fuel injection cleaner was still wet. When the EGR system recirculated some exhaust, I could feel the leftover carbon sludge burning off like I wanted.

 

Been getting 26mpg with a best of 28MPG while driving rather sedately.

With the newfound smoothness to the powerband I have been driving like a jackass. Went to fillup 29MPG.