3.3TT *IMPORTANT* WHO WANTS ORANGE RUBBER IN ENGINE MANIFOLD??

[General_Vodka]

After seeing those pics and the way the orange is like glitter, I don't think that's the coupler at all, just coincidental coloring. This person might have been spraying something, you just didn't know because the pipe was swapped out or removed. If the coupler lining could produce a perfectly glittery powder to spread around like that, it might be believable, but some part of you probably knows that the lining isn't capable of creating a powder. If the lining was breaking down, you would get scattered bits of varying sizes, shapes, and thus varying weights and not such a nice "even" look. Either something was sprayed that was taking the coloring with it, or that's just the lining at all.

Makes me wonder what you've got yourself into, here, lmfao

It for sure is the coupler. I can feel the power like bits on my finger. I don't know what caused it to become like dry powder but it did.

 

[ZyroXZ2]

It for sure is the coupler. I can feel the power like bits on my finger. I don't know what caused it to become like dry powder but it did.

I'm still leaning towards something dumb, like the previous owner was spraying octane booster or something lame. The pic you showed of the coupler doesn't match the end result of orange powder... The two don't look connected by anything other than color...

 

[General_Vodka]

I'm still leaning towards something dumb, like the previous owner was spraying octane booster or something lame. The pic you showed of the coupler doesn't match the end result of orange powder... The two don't look connected by anything other than color...

Well I sure know that the powder in the manifold and the powder from the coupler are the same. They feel and break apart the same. As for the octane booster, he did not use a booster. Or meth. The most logical reason I think is this: charge pipe boost sensor was busted in the crash. Car gets totaled, Copart takes it. They try to start it. It starts but runs bad due to smashed sensors. Bad stuff gets ejected from PCV entrance. Hits closed throttle and then stays there. For a month. I get the car some time later and start it up. Stuff gets blown in.

 

[jeffh]

Can you scratch the coupler apart with a screw driver?

 

[Toddasaurus]

I think the best thing is for others to check their I/M's as well and see if this issue is widespread or not.

Also, that's a fair amount of carbon buildup in the intake valves for just 18k miles! I'm at 8k miles. I'm tempted to pull off my intake manifold as well and take a peek, though I've had a catch can on since something like 4k miles I think.

 

[ZyroXZ2]

Well I sure know that the powder in the manifold and the powder from the coupler are the same. They feel and break apart the same. As for the octane booster, he did not use a booster. Or meth. The most logical reason I think is this: charge pipe boost sensor was busted in the crash. Car gets totaled, Copart takes it. They try to start it. It starts but runs bad due to smashed sensors. Bad stuff gets ejected from PCV entrance. Hits closed throttle and then stays there. For a month. I get the car some time later and start it up. Stuff gets blown in.

Let me back this up and pretend we have a perfectly, non-accident Stinger as a reference point:

- The orange lining does not simply break down from blow-by which is mostly oil and fuel: all soft rubber or silicone fittings in the entirety of automotive applications in the engine compartment are designed to withstand the very "bloods" with which the car runs which is oil and fuel (and coolant). They know that the driver's side intake (pre-turbo) will see small amounts of blow-by in extreme situations (such as track use), but most of that ends up coating the turbo blades or intercooler before it even hits the throttle body (otherwise, the throttle body would be very oily and blackened, but no one including myself have seen signs of that who have removed the coupler and looked into the TB). The majority actually blows directly into the intake manifold behind the throttle body, and under low pressure situations, can sometimes "puddle" just after the TB where it's getting blown in (which I HAVE seen evidence of, which is more a sign that a catch can is needed).
- Because that lining is rubberized (likely silicone), it does not simply break down into a nice, uniform powder like your pics show under any sort of normal circumstances whatsoever. Your pic of the coupler also shows what looks like significant fluid tracks under low pressure draw, an amount that could not possibly be operationally healthy. Your belief that a catch can would have prevented that is the belief that literal fluid was spraying out of the driver's side PCV into the pre-turbo and made it through the turbines, the merge pipe, and intercooler enough to create fluid tracks in the coupler AND sit long enough to break it down. Surely, you as a person who knows how to work on cars, can see there's something not lining up, here.
- In order to create a fine powder out of a lining like that requires a chemical reaction, one that cannot be duplicated with oil or fuel. I think you've got one of those cars where someone did something foolish. I already gave my thoughts that something was being sprayed and I'm sticking with that story until proven otherwise, lol... Oil/fuel mixture, even in large quantities, would not form a powder out of rubber or silicone. When you've seen enough old cars, you see how rubber and silicone break down, and it's not like that.

So what could it have been? Who the hell knows... I can only think of four distinct possibilities:

1) 100% methanol, though this is mostly corrosive to metals
2) E85, though most modern rubbers and silicone are completely resistant
3) Seafoam or equivalent engine cleaner, but I'm not so sure that would do that to the lining; except that where the charge pipe and coupler meet is an easy area to insert the straw to inject some sort of engine cleaner and would explain the low pressure fluid tracks
4) Brake cleaner, for the same objective as #3 in an attempt to "clean" the carbon deposits

All in all, I'm taking this time to type this up so that you don't run around telling people "catch cans or orange powder" because we don't need to add some sort of belief that there are issues where there may be none, or correlate products with functions or issues that are not related. The catch cans would not have prevented this, nor would blow-by from the driver's side pre-turbo intake do this.

 

[General_Vodka]

Let me back this up and pretend we have a perfectly, non-accident Stinger as a reference point:

- The orange lining does not simply break down from blow-by which is mostly oil and fuel: all soft rubber or silicone fittings in the entirety of automotive applications in the engine compartment are designed to withstand the very "bloods" with which the car runs which is oil and fuel (and coolant). They know that the driver's side intake (pre-turbo) will see small amounts of blow-by in extreme situations (such as track use), but most of that ends up coating the turbo blades or intercooler before it even hits the throttle body (otherwise, the throttle body would be very oily and blackened, but no one including myself have seen signs of that who have removed the coupler and looked into the TB). The majority actually blows directly into the intake manifold behind the throttle body, and under low pressure situations, can sometimes "puddle" just after the TB where it's getting blown in (which I HAVE seen evidence of, which is more a sign that a catch can is needed).
- Because that lining is rubberized (likely silicone), it does not simply break down into a nice, uniform powder like your pics show under any sort of normal circumstances whatsoever. Your pic of the coupler also shows what looks like significant fluid tracks under low pressure draw, an amount that could not possibly be operationally healthy. Your belief that a catch can would have prevented that is the belief that literal fluid was spraying out of the driver's side PCV into the pre-turbo and made it through the turbines, the merge pipe, and intercooler enough to create fluid tracks in the coupler AND sit long enough to break it down. Surely, you as a person who knows how to work on cars, can see there's something not lining up, here.
- In order to create a fine powder out of a lining like that requires a chemical reaction, one that cannot be duplicated with oil or fuel. I think you've got one of those cars where someone did something foolish. I already gave my thoughts that something was being sprayed and I'm sticking with that story until proven otherwise, lol... Oil/fuel mixture, even in large quantities, would not form a powder out of rubber or silicone. When you've seen enough old cars, you see how rubber and silicone break down, and it's not like that.

So what could it have been? Who the hell knows... I can only think of four distinct possibilities:

1) 100% methanol, though this is mostly corrosive to metals
2) E85, though most modern rubbers and silicone are completely resistant
3) Seafoam or equivalent engine cleaner, but I'm not so sure that would do that to the lining; except that where the charge pipe and coupler meet is an easy area to insert the straw to inject some sort of engine cleaner and would explain the low pressure fluid tracks
4) Brake cleaner, for the same objective as #3 in an attempt to "clean" the carbon deposits

All in all, I'm taking this time to type this up so that you don't run around telling people "catch cans or orange powder" because we don't need to add some sort of belief that there are issues where there may be none, or correlate products with functions or issues that are not related. The catch cans would not have prevented this, nor would blow-by from the driver's side pre-turbo intake do this.

There was blow by on the left intake. However not enough to form that puddle on the coupler. Also the little caps where still on the coupler and the charge pipe clamps, so I am most likely the only person that removed them. I do agree that something fluid like must have gotten in there. However it's not meth or octane booster. It did sit out in the heat for a long time, so whatever it was it had plenty of time to do damage.

 

[Toddasaurus]

Guys.... I think this problem isn't just limited to @General_Vodka 's car. I pulled off my TB and snuck my endoscope down into the manifold. It was very difficult to angle the scope to see inside the manifold/surge tank; however, I did get a fair/mediocre picture of one of the sets of intake runners. It's difficult to tell if there are orange bits in there primarily because of the focus distance of the endoscope, but I think you can see some within the intake manifold, just proximal to the throttle body.

Take a look.


First off, the charge pipe-to-throttle body coupling looks very similar to Vodka's, as in, I'm seeing those same white-ish splash-like stains that look eerily like material breakdown...



Next up, this is looking just behind the throttle body (after it was removed), the green arrows are pointing to what looks like orange bits from the coupling...



This is a picture from my endoscope. I'm sorry for the quality, but it's very difficult to get a decent picture with it as there are too many bends and it's hard to get a good, in focus, picture because of all the angles. Anyway, this is one of the intake runner sets. Green arrow is pointing to what may be bits of orange - OR it could be just reflections from the endoscope light...



Last but no least, I was hoping to get a decent picture of some of my intake valves, but again, this was VERY difficult. This was the best picture I could get. It's difficult to see, but I think there is a little bit of carbon buildup beginning to form.




I'm tentatively planning to take off my intake manifold and see exactly how those runners look. Not just to inspect my valves, but also to see if those orange flakes really are there.

FYI: My car has 8,000 miles on it. Catch can was installed around 4,000 miles. Never have sprayed anything in my intake manifold or charge piping. I have an intake, exhaust, and midpipes installed. I run JB4 on Map 2, using premium gas.

I have a suspicion that everyone's car is looking just like @General_Vodka 's, with varying degrees of intensity. If you don't believe me, then please, prove me wrong and show us your ports/runners.

 

[General_Vodka]

Guys.... I think this problem isn't just limited to @General_Vodka 's car. I pulled off my TB and snuck my endoscope down into the manifold. It was very difficult to angle the scope to see inside the manifold/surge tank; however, I did get a fair/mediocre picture of one of the sets of intake runners. It's difficult to tell if there are orange bits in there primarily because of the focus distance of the endoscope, but I think you can see some within the intake manifold, just proximal to the throttle body.

Take a look.


First off, the charge pipe-to-throttle body coupling looks very similar to Vodka's, as in, I'm seeing those same white-ish splash-like stains that look eerily like material breakdown...
View attachment 38940


Next up, this is looking just behind the throttle body (after it was removed), the green arrows are pointing to what looks like orange bits from the coupling...
View attachment 38941


This is a picture from my endoscope. I'm sorry for the quality, but it's very difficult to get a decent picture with it as there are too many bends and it's hard to get a good, in focus, picture because of all the angles. Anyway, this is one of the intake runner sets. Green arrow is pointing to what may be bits of orange - OR it could be just reflections from the endoscope light...
View attachment 38942


Last but no least, I was hoping to get a decent picture of some of my intake valves, but again, this was VERY difficult. This was the best picture I could get. It's difficult to see, but I think there is a little bit of carbon buildup beginning to form.
View attachment 38943



I'm tentatively planning to take off my intake manifold and see exactly how those runners look. Not just to inspect my valves, but also to see if those orange flakes really are there.

FYI: My car has 8,000 miles on it. Catch can was installed around 4,000 miles. Never have sprayed anything in my intake manifold or charge piping. I have an intake, exhaust, and midpipes installed. I run JB4 on Map 2, using premium gas.

I have a suspicion that everyone's car is looking just like @General_Vodka 's, with varying degrees of intensity. If you don't believe me, then please, prove me wrong and show us your ports/runners.

Thanks for proving that I'm not insane and that the previous owner was probably not spraying octane booster directly into the manifold lol. Someone on Facebook posted a photo of their intake valves and they had no orange bits. I think I am the winner of the orange glitter contest. Should I start a "post pics of your orange glitter" thread ? Lol

 

[ZyroXZ2]

Guys.... I think this problem isn't just limited to @General_Vodka 's car. I pulled off my TB and snuck my endoscope down into the manifold. It was very difficult to angle the scope to see inside the manifold/surge tank; however, I did get a fair/mediocre picture of one of the sets of intake runners. It's difficult to tell if there are orange bits in there primarily because of the focus distance of the endoscope, but I think you can see some within the intake manifold, just proximal to the throttle body.

Take a look.


First off, the charge pipe-to-throttle body coupling looks very similar to Vodka's, as in, I'm seeing those same white-ish splash-like stains that look eerily like material breakdown...
View attachment 38940


Next up, this is looking just behind the throttle body (after it was removed), the green arrows are pointing to what looks like orange bits from the coupling...
View attachment 38941


This is a picture from my endoscope. I'm sorry for the quality, but it's very difficult to get a decent picture with it as there are too many bends and it's hard to get a good, in focus, picture because of all the angles. Anyway, this is one of the intake runner sets. Green arrow is pointing to what may be bits of orange - OR it could be just reflections from the endoscope light...
View attachment 38942


Last but no least, I was hoping to get a decent picture of some of my intake valves, but again, this was VERY difficult. This was the best picture I could get. It's difficult to see, but I think there is a little bit of carbon buildup beginning to form.
View attachment 38943



I'm tentatively planning to take off my intake manifold and see exactly how those runners look. Not just to inspect my valves, but also to see if those orange flakes really are there.

FYI: My car has 8,000 miles on it. Catch can was installed around 4,000 miles. Never have sprayed anything in my intake manifold or charge piping. I have an intake, exhaust, and midpipes installed. I run JB4 on Map 2, using premium gas.

I have a suspicion that everyone's car is looking just like @General_Vodka 's, with varying degrees of intensity. If you don't believe me, then please, prove me wrong and show us your ports/runners.

Interesting... I would agree that those two orange bits look round just like Vodka's glitter pattern. The real question now is that, you too, have evidence of splash and liquid in the coupler. The highest priority question is... WTF IS THAT LIQUID AND WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?!?!

Since I'll be reinstalling WMI in the next few months, it'll be a good opportunity for me to remove the TB to look behind it as well. I can tell you with 100% certainty that my old GT did not have those splashes in the coupler nor any orange specs behind the TB because I had removed the TB on that one initially when I was doing spark plugs, and then again when I was replacing my turbos. At neither time did it look anything like that.

 

[General_Vodka]

Interesting... I would agree that those two orange bits look round just like Vodka's glitter pattern. The real question now is that, you too, have evidence of splash and liquid in the coupler. The highest priority question is... WTF IS THAT LIQUID AND WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?!?!

Since I'll be reinstalling WMI in the next few months, it'll be a good opportunity for me to remove the TB to look behind it as well. I can tell you with 100% certainty that my old GT did not have those splashes in the coupler nor any orange specs behind the TB because I had removed the TB on that one initially when I was doing spark plugs, and then again when I was replacing my turbos. At neither time did it look anything like that.

Ha you don't have any magic orange glitter, so your a normie. All the cool kids have magic orange glitter.

 

[TStaino]

I have a GTS, so as long as the “glitter” is federation orange.. I’m good with it.

 

[ZyroXZ2]

Ha you don't have any magic orange glitter, so your a normie. All the cool kids have magic orange glitter.

My car's too manly for glitter

Something is seriously up, though. WHAT it is remains where we're all at. I guess when I open mine up to check eventually, I'll find out if both of you are





COMPLETE AND UTTER LIARS WHO HAVE BEEN SPRAYING OCTANE BOOSTER STRAIGHT INTO THE COUPLER!

 

[jeffh]

Though I don't have glitter yet (checked the whole throttle body intake and all, same white stains. I assumed it was dried meth. The coupler is made of vmq (silicone) and fvmq. Fvmq is rubber. Poor abrasion resistance and not highly flex crack resistant. It is fine for oil and heat though.

 

[jeffh]

educated guess here. the rubber lining does not like flexing and prone to cracking from flex. the vibration looks like its in the same stress spot on all of ours with the OP being the worst (maybe the accident did a bunch on impact)

 

[ZyroXZ2]

View attachment 38945 Though I don't have glitter yet (checked the whole throttle body intake and all, same white stains. I assumed it was dried meth. The coupler is made of vmq (silicone) and fvmq. Fvmq is rubber. Poor abrasion resistance and not highly flex crack resistant. It is fine for oil and heat though.

Well, it's definitely a liquid.

I'm beginning to wonder if this is the leftover adhesive that gets heated up and melts and eventually gets puddled in the lowest pressure place of all: right before the TB where the diameter has expanded. Every dealership has said the initial chemical smell is just adhesive, and it's the only other possible liquid. Certain adhesives do have corrosive properties because that's how they bond: they microscopically melt the surface a bit. BUT, I don't think they'd use THAT kind of adhesive, lmfao

On my first Stinger, I had removed so much, and I DO recall seeing small bits of fluid at the very end of the inlet of BOTH turbos, and some small amount also at the base of the TB, AND behind the TB all when it was brand new and I was doing my intakes. I never really thought about what this could be until now. I had already assumed it was, indeed, just maybe some melted adhesive mixed with some oil or something. But my old GT had nothing like this inside the coupler, something I had taken off in particular easily a dozen times when I was testing different spark plugs and gaps.

 

[Toddasaurus]

I think I'll be able to pull my I/M off tomorrow. I'll post pics. I figure I should scrub off my intake valves too, and get a fresh clean start.

For the record, my throttle plate shows no sign of orange glitter - neither on the front nor the back.

 

[General_Vodka]

I think I'll be able to pull my I/M off tomorrow. I'll post pics. I figure I should scrub off my intake valves too, and get a fresh clean start.

For the record, my throttle plate shows no sign of orange glitter - neither on the front nor the back.

How will you clean the valves?

 

[jeffh]

imma try this solution. The stock coupler is odd ball sized. Boom. Get an edge of the red rubber and peel. Once you get an inch, grab it with needle nose pliers and spin/twist to roll it up. Peels right off. Also close ups of the rubber break down marks

 

[Toddasaurus]

How will you clean the valves?

The old fashioned way (ie the only way I know how). Haha.