I was expecting intake ports blocked about 80 % by dark black crud from you
description,
but ........sure there's a coating of junk, but that's not that bad at all
for a high miles, blown, or overheated,  waterboxer engine.

it gets that way from things like - worn engine, and lots of blow by,
running not warm enough, like bad thermostat, short trips, tired injectors,
never adding a cleaner additive to the fuel , etc.

if this engine or van has any of that, I'd say this amount of crud build up
is entirely normal.
Clean it out of there real good of course.
Scott

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Fisher" <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 6:09 PM
Subject: Nasty intake pics

>I bought an '86 GL auto with an 'overheated', disassembled motor a couple
>of
> weeks ago for $300.  That's the same amount I paid for my '87 GL with the
> same problem- maybe I should take that as an omen. I swapped the tranny
> into
> the '87 and I plan to have that back on the road and legal early next
> week.
>
> I was thinking about servicing the injectors from the 'new' van or sending
> them out for service so I found the intakes to take a look at them.
>
>
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/garciasghostvw/Intake#
> <http://picasaweb.google.com/garciasghostvw/Intake>
>
>
>
> I've heard of coked up intakes, but I've never personally seen anything
> like
> that. Is this a result of the overheating or something else? I plan on
> rebuilding the drivetrain for this van after I get the other one squared
> away and of course I was planning on re-using whatever seemed reasonable
> to
> use. This sort of thing makes me wonder what other surprises I have in
> store
> aside from the more obvious overheating damage.
>
>
>
> What say you?
>
>
>
> Cya,
>
> Robert