Coolant will wash them down. They've been steam cleaned. You're looking at your intake valves, they will stay cleaner than the exhaust.

 

the coolant only washed out the number one. and yes ill agree with you. they just looked so clean. I think ill continue to run premium gas in it.

 

ok now to all of you that gave me advice on how and what to do, she is up and running. new intake manifold gaskets, did a thorough flush of all intake ports and all vacuum ports on the throttle body, running smooth again. zero steam coming from the exhaust. and no code. thank you all for everything. oh and by the way, I now have the firing order memorized lol even though I didn't need it. haha. in closing, ran rough, didn't know why, let it set for a few weeks then tried to start it, she hydrolocked on me, I pulled off the intake manifold and found a blown intake manifold gasket. replaced and put back together. and runs great again.

 

Hey glad to hear about your acheivement. I too have just replaced my img and I have been following this thread all along (great stuff). I only had two issues. I had to replace the imrc bushings with cheap ones from oreillys, 2of them broke right out of the bag, I now know why ford wanted to charge 8.00$ a piece. I also snapped one of the fuel rail bolts in the plenum, quick fix. My truck runs alot tighter too. I also want to thank everyone that posted their insight.

 

you are so very welcome. that's why I posted here, perhaps someone can learn how its done. I guess I just got really lucky that nothing else happened and nothing else had to be fixed or replaced. I do still have some other issues that need to be fixed but not on the urgent list as of yet. like the lash adjusters. I have one or two that are ticking, but not serious.