Intake manifold removal:
Hi Tom - do you still have the pictures????
This is what it looks like before starting.
1. Start by removing the air cover lid, followed by the large air hose running from the air box to the throttle body intake. There is an air-temp sensor in the air hose that needs to be disconnected from the engine electrical harness near the throttle body, two slotted screwdriver band clamps at each end of the air hose, and a breather hose at the air box that all need to be disconnected.
2. Next, start on the throttle body (TB). The throttle WOT switch has an electrical connector on the passenger side, and there are 3 throttle cables that need to be disconnected on the driver's side. Once you get these three disconnected, you might as well pull off the throttle bracket. 2ea 11mm bolts out and off she comes. There's also a vacuum hose connected under the TB. Once it's all disconnected, remove the four mounting bolts. You can use a socket, but it's best to use a torq bit (T-30). Once all four bolts are out, the TB should come right off. Just for grins, look inside the manifold. If you see some oil pooled in there, it's normal and is coming from the passenger valve cover breather hose. You can stop this oil collection if you use a JMB catch can.
http://jmbperformance.com/store/prod...roducts_id=106
3. Now it's time to start disconnecting more stuff off the manifold. There is a sensor mounted at the front left and the front right of the manifold. Both sensors are held on with two small black screws that also use a torq bit (T-25).
4. Now we'll focus on the fuel injectors. You do NOT need to bleed the pressure out of the fuel system unless you plan to completely remove the rails from the engine bay (which you don't need to do). To bleed, disconnect the battery, then use a small screwdriver and depress the pin under the cap on the passenger side rail. It is recommended to pull the electrical harness plugs from the injectors BEFORE you unbolt the injector rails from the manifold. These need to be disconnected because each injector harness plug wire runs down between the manifold runners. They have to come off. There are two small tabs on the side of each injector that hold on the connector. I tried using small screwdrivers to pry the sides away from the injector's tabs while pushing up from below. I ended up cracking a total of four of the side plates on the connectors. This won't affect anything, can't be seen, and won't hinder holding down the connectors. If you can just pull them off, all the better.
-Once you get the harness disconnected from all 10 injectors, pull off 3ea 11mm bolts from both injector rails and just gently pull upwards on the rail. It WILL pop off, injectors and all. Note, there is a small grey fuel line that runs from the driver's rail to the passenger rail at the front of the rails, this does NOT need to be disconected. Leave it connected, and take the rails off as a single unit. If you want to remove them completely from the engine bay, simply disconnect the fuel hose from the rear of the driver's rail. You need a special tool to do this without risk of messing anything up.
If you don't have one, buy one.
5. Next, there is a vacuum line at the driver's front of the manifold that has to be disconnected, and a smaller line near the rear of the driver's side of the manifold. Once these are disconnected, you should have everything disconnected to start pulling off manifold bolts. Then, lastly, there are some yellow tabs that are pressed into the manifold underneath into threaded holes that hold the injector harness underneath the manifold. There are 3 on the passenger side, and two on the driver's side. The best way to get them out is to use two screwdrivers, one on each side and pry upwards. You can see them in the last photo below.
6. Now is time to start on those bolts. You can get almost half of them out easily with a 10mm box-end wrench. These are the outer bolts. Next comes the inner bolts. These are the tough ones. I recommend starting with the rearmost bolts and work your way forward. I tried several tools to no avail. A socket will not fit, it hits the manifold. A Box-end wrench will not fit, it hits the manifold. I then proceeded to a T30 torq bit held by a long 1/4" box-end wrench. The photo below is with a small 1/4" wrench before I upgraded to a long brake-bleeder 1/4" wrench. I did use this wrench set-up on a few bolts.
This succeeded in loosening two of the inward bolts, but started stripping the third. Next I hit on the best solution. I took a 10mm box-end wrench, and took it to my bench grinder and ground it down. This was successful to loosen the remaining bolts. Not only is it difficult to loosen the bolts, once loose, it is difficult to get your fingers to them to spin them out. Good luck!
7. This is what the manifold looks like all disconnected and ready to come off...
8. This is after it is pulled off. Be sure to plug up the intake holes AS SOON AS THE MANIFOLD IS OFF. Don't take the risk of making a $5K mistake! Most say you can reuse the intake manifold gaskets at least once. You should look them over closely to make sure they look OK before reuse. Mine look fine and will be reused for the installation.
