Did my entire intake clean-out yesterday. Oh my aching back.
I had already done the EGR valve a few years ago, which was moderately choked up, but nowhere near as bad as some I've seen on this thread.
This time I removed the inlet manifold, fearing that after 270,000 Kms, it would be pretty bad.
I need not have worried, just a light coating of powdery carbon dust, cleaned it up, but it was a bit of a waste of time really. Only positive is knowing that everything is clean. There was a small amount of wet build-up in the EGR valve which was easily removed with a quick scrape with a narrow paint scraper.
I don't have a blanking plate or catch-can, so the only explanation I can think of for having a relatively clean intake after 270,000 Kms is that the car has been driven on the open road most of it's life so maybe the EGR valve was closed for a lot of the time.
Also did the timing belt and tensioner, and the main drive belt and tensioner and all the idler pulleys too.
Basically everything on the front of the engine except the water pump. Expensive job in terms of parts, that took me all day. The cam belt wasn't due for another 30K or so, but there's been a slight knocking noise from the front lately which I thought might be a tensioner so I just bit the bullet and gave the old girl a birthday.
I bought a single 3/8 drive 17mm crows foot spanner from a shop in Adelaide, just a cheap KC Tools one for $12 as my good set is in storage with all my other tools. It got me out of trouble OK but bloody annoying as there is no detent groove inside the square drive to stop it falling off the socket extension all the time. Get what you pay for I guess.