How To Clean The N54 Intake Valves

Interested to know what goes on during a special N54 intake valve cleaning? Here are photos and information on how to do it, courtesy of PSI.

BMW’s N54B30 powerplant was their first production turbocharged engine that used direct injection technology instead of traditional intake manifold fuel injection. It uses engine injectors placed inside the combustion chamber, next to the spark plug. Direct injection allows for better fuel economy, and has proven to be a revolutionary development for the internal combustion engine. The technology is now found in nearly every new production car!

Though BMW pioneered the use of N54B30, the intake port and valve carbon buildup were problems for the vehicle. The oil makes its way through the CCV and ends up in the intake port of the cylinder head – which wouldn’t be an issue if there was an injector in each port cleaning it with fuel. Since the N54 doesn’t have any fuel injectors in the manifold, the oil residue builds up on the intake port and intake valves over time.

1. Remove the intake manifold.

2. Inspect the intake port.

3. Rotate the engine so that the valves are closed in the port being worked on, and then fill the port with a carbon solvent.

4. Once the solvent has had time to penetrate the buildup, we use a variety of picks and brushes to loosen the carbon buildup, and then using the OEM BMW tool, we walnut blast the port until it is clean.

5. Inspect, and then clean all missed areas.

6. All clean!