Is there a problem with carbon buildup on intake valves with 2010 3.5 V6? If so is there a recommended solution - without taking engine apart?

 

Short answer, no.

 

I do appreciate the response. However: Is it NO, there is no carbon buildup? Or is it NO, there is no (simple) fix? Being a direct injection fuel system it would seem that the valves would be susceptible to carbon buildup?

 

Who told you the J35Z3 in your car was Direct Injection? Whoever it was doesn't know what they're talking about.

 

Are you having some kind of issue with your vehicle that you are trying to fix?

Direct injected engines tend to get carbon buildup on the intake valves. Your car is not direct injected and has the injectors into the intake manifold. With your engine/injection setup, gasoline cleans the intake valves. All gasoline is required to have an additive to clean the intake valves. With direct injected engines, the gasoline doesn't pass through the intake valves, so fouling is an issue.

 

Took some hunting but did find that J35Z3 is the engine in my 010 coupe 6MT. (Thanx for that) The literature says it has multi-port injection - which to me means a combo of port injection AND direct injection. (Does this mean 2 fuel injectors per cylinder?) You ask if I have a particular problem. And, yes, I'm using a quart to 2 quarts of oil between changes. This seems a bit excessive. I was thinking it could be connected to the PVC system and maybe carbon buildup on the intake valves. Do these engines gobble oil like that?

 

Multi-port injection is a fancy name for having a fuel injector for each cylinder (6 total for the V6) and they inject into the intake runner for each cylinder.

I'd probably start looking for external leaks by cleaning grease/crud off the valve cover and engine block. Look around for signs of oil building up on the bottom of the engine. Once clean, you can spray some athlete's foot powder around the engine block and look for signs of staining after a few drives.

Replacing the PVC valve is pretty simple and could cause oil blow-by and burn some oil. At a minimum, check that the pcv valve isn't stuck.

You can pull a spark plug and run a usb camera into the cylinder to take a look at the valves, but that would be further down the line for testing.

 

Thanx for your time and suggestions. I already did replace the PVC. Will see on next oil change. Engine looks clean - no apparent leaks and no visible tailpipe smoke. I don't mind it using a quart but more than that is troublesome. Got 13000 miles on it. Still runs really good.