I getting my plenum ready to reinstall onto car. I had to scrape the plenum gasket of to reinstall the new one., but some of the shaving fell into the plenum. Can i clean inside the plenum with water to washout any particles inside or do i use any specific solution?

If it looks like most plenums I have removed, it needs more than that to get all of the carbon and buildup out. Get yourself a case or two of brake parts cleaner, some fresh air, and various sized brushes and picks to get everything cleaned back to as-new condition. Pay particular attention to the port that bolts up to the EGR valve if yours is set up that way.

I think I went through 17 cans of brake parts cleaner on my Q45 during my plenum cleaning, but that involved cleaning the runners and various other parts under there. I actually drained all of the cleaner into an old 5 gallon bucket and let it evaporate away outside because I didn't know how else to dispose of it.

If everything is already clean, you should be fine flushing it out with water as long as you let it dry completely before putting everything back together.

Heath

So you are saying gasket leftovers fell into the lower plenum? I'd take a vacuum cleaner and remove that stuff. Also, on the upper one take it to an engine rebuild shop. They will be able to chemically clean your upper plenum with material that won't hurt aluminum and it won't cost much either.

Zwicked wrote:So you are saying gasket leftovers fell into the lower plenum? I'd take a vacuum cleaner and remove that stuff. Also, on the upper one take it to an engine rebuild shop. They will be able to chemically clean your upper plenum with material that won't hurt aluminum and it won't cost much either.

Agreed 100%

Shop vac the lower plenum if stuff fell in there.

For the upper, remove you IAV and IACV, throttle bodies, PCVs, everything till it's a naked plenum, and bring it to a shop. They can hot tank it, and it will look brand new.

Shop vac!, if you have trouble getting into any space, modify the hose!

and then use a good amount of de-greaser and WD-40..let it sit for a few minutes then meticulously clean it!

My mistake in my explanation. The gasket pieces fell into the upper plenum since i had it out and was getting it ready to put the new plenum gasket.