Do FA20s normally get this dirty after ~80k miles?
 

I removed the manifold on my engine and found quite a bit of gunk in the intake manifold and ports. Is this normal for an FA20 with about 80,000 miles on it? It’s all oily, gunk that wipes off relatively easily, but I don't have experience with how dirty these motors can get and this seems excessive. Also, this is a replacement motor and I know nothing of its history beyond that it was compression and run tested by the seller, so I'm wondering if this maybe indicates how this FA20 was run before me.

Sorry if there are already plenty of posts about this, but I always get an error now when I try to use the forum search function.

I think a catch can would help with this. Even NA I got a decent amount of blow-by and I suspect what you are seeing is a result of blow-by.

That’s a bit heavier than I expect to see at that millage. A leak down is a better test than just compression. You could also try a WRX pvc. Bit stouter for the boost.

I should add that, from the salvage pictures of the donor vehicle, the previous user at least wasn't running any FI and everything appeared to be stock from what I saw in the engine bay. Of course, that says nothing about how it was driven or was running an other-than-factory tune on the ECU.

Looks normal to me. Many intakes on modern engines get soot like this due to the EGR systems. I'd recommend replacing the PCV when installing it and using some intake and carb cleaner to clean it up.

@vfrqqq Are you running or planning to run forced induction?

I'm not running or planning to run forced induction. All the same, I installed a PCV/CCV dual catch can system to help mitigate the problem. I'm also planning to run a flexfuel tune on this NA setup and am curious if using flexfuel every now and then will sort of "clean" this up over time.

I thought port injection was supposed to help with exactly this issue?

It did help with the issue. The port injectors won't keep it spotless.

Recently removed my manifold for injector replacement and my valve were pretty spotless at approx ~70k miles. I have often run ethanol though.

I will likely be pulling manifold again soon and will check how they look post boost.