99-01 PI to PI Intake Manifold Swap Writeup

99-01 PI to PI Intake Manifold Swap Writeup
By: RedDaemon

As promised, I bring you a detailed writeup of my latest project including pictures and videos. I intend this write up to be for those who own a 99-01 GT with the plastic coolant crossover, and want to replace it without going to the dealership/nearest mechanic.

Everything is straight forward in this project. There are no 'special tools' required for what is laid out in this write-up. Everything can be accomplished with simple tools.

Parts Needed
-Intake Manifold with Aluminum Crossover (Ford Racing: M-9424-P46)
-Intake Manifold Gaskets (NAPA: FPG MS92121)
-Thermostat Seal (NAPA: THM 1107)
-Thermostat (NAPA: THM 544095)
-Fuel Injector Seal Kit (NAPA: CRB 212085)
-Heater Core Hose #1 (NAPA: NGB 11728)
-Heater Core Hose #2 (NAPA: NBH 11056)

Note: If you notice, I do NOT have included in the parts list a new alternator bracket. I can confirm that tne Aluminum/Updated manifold DOES require a new bracket. However, you can drill a NEW hole in your existing manifold bracket. This is what I did and you can see the result in the pictures below.

Equipment Needed:
-7, 8, 9, 10mm sockets, including a deep 8mm socket
-Torque wrench
-Crescent Wrench
-Pliers
-Never-Seize
-PB Blaster
-Dielectric Jelly
-Good supply of rags
-Carb Cleaner
-Razor Blade
-Anti-freeze

There are several parts that need to be removed to uncover the manifold for removal. These parts are:

-Air Intake
-Throttle Body/Plenum/EGR
-Fuel Rails
-COPs
-Alternator
-Upper Radiator Hose

These parts also include the removal of any and all vacuum hoses and electrical wires, etc.

First off, disconnect the positive end of the battery with an 8mm socket. Use electrical tape over the terminal if you are concerned about accidental contact.

Now, spray the threads of the EGR pipe with PB Blaster and let it sit. You will come back to it later.:



Air Intake Removal:



The Air intake is held on by one 10mm bolt located here:



Losen the band clamp fastening the intake tube to the throttle body to detach the hose. Before lifting the air intake out of the car, make sure to unhook both connectors from the intake near the air filter, as well as the various vacuum lines in the elbow of the intake:



Once you have removed the wires, the intake is ready to come out by holding it with both hands, twisting the throttle body end towards the sky (clockwise) and pulling out the end in the fenderwell


Alternator Removal:



To remove the alternator, connect a 3/8" drive breaker bar and to the belt tensioner, turning/pushing it in a clockwise motion to remove the tension from the serpentine belt on the alternator to remove it from the pulley. There may or may not be a metal bracket in the way preventing the breaker bar to fit in place. If you have the bracket, you will need to remove it. Once this is done, loosen the two bottom 10mm bolts on the alternator. We don't want to remove these all they way as they will hold the alternator up when removing the top bolts. Now, remove the top 8mm bolts from the alternator bracket, also removing the wires from the top of the alternator. Once you have done this, pull the alternator out. You may at this time remove the two bottom bolts.



Throttle Body, Plenum, IAC and EGR:



We want to remove these parts as a unit. This spares us the trouble of unmounting all of these parts from one another and having to replace all of the gaskets. If you would like to replace all of these gaskets you are more than welcome to.

Remove the cruise control, throttle cable, and spring from the back of the throttle body. The spring is straight foward, slip the ends through the holes. I uploaded a video to show how to take the throttle cable and cruise control off. Make sure to disconnect all vacuum lines and electrical plugs from the relevant parts:


Manifold Project :: ManifoldInstallation016.flv video by Night-Hawk - Photobucket

Then, remove the bracket holding the throttle cable, and cruise control at the back of the plenum:



After you have performed these steps, remove the 5 10mm bolts holding down the throttle body. The majority of these bolts are hidden behind stuff:



Now, losen the fastner holding the EGR pipe into the EGR sensor with a crescent wrench:



Lift the throttle body,plenum,IAC and EGR off the top of the manifold.

Fuel Rails:



Before working with the fuel rails, you must depressurize the system. The easiest way is to remove the cap off the schrader valve located on the passenger's side fuel rail, place a rag over the valve, and depress the valve with a screwdriver. This will relieve the pressure in the system. This however does not drain the fuel rails of fuel. Keep this in mind if you pull off an injector from the fuel rail later on.

Using a deep 8mm socket, remove the two bolts holding each fuel rail down. With both hands placed at either side of a fuel rail, firmly pull up to dislodge the injectors. In order to be able to move the injectors/fuel rails aside, you will need to unbolt a bracket located near the firewall since there is a fuel line running towards the back of the block to the driver's side fuel rail. This fuel line is caught in between this bracket and needs to be removed. I simply removed one of the bolts and pivoted the bracket out of the way. The bracket is located here:



As you can see, I have removed the bolt and pivoted it to take out the fuel rails, which have also been removed in this picture.

Now, is a good time to clean up your injectors and put new seal kits on them with new pintle caps like I did. This is what my injectors looked like when I first pulled them:



As a note, if you are going to replace the seals and pintle caps on the injectors, be aware that the pintle caps are a PAIN to get off. I had to man-handle the injectors with a set of pliers and wire cutters in order to get them off. I had the best luck with a set of wire cutters. Putting new caps on is simple. Here are a few videos of me showing you guys how hard they are to get off. The first video shows how I removed the gaskets and then attempted to get the pintle cap off:

View attachment 257446
Manifold Project :: ManifoldInstallation036.flv video by Night-Hawk - Photobucket

Video of putting a new pintle cap on:

View attachment 257447
Manifold Project :: ManifoldInstallation037.flv video by Night-Hawk - Photobucket


COP Removal:



Taking out the COPs involves removing a 7mm bolt fastened to the intake manifold. Once this bolt is removed, hold the top of the COP in your palm, and with your fingers, try to grab the rubber boot as tight as possible and pull up, twisting/wiggling it slightly. There might be some resistance due to suction. Because of this suction, the rubber boots might separate from the upper piece of the COP which is why its good to hold onto the rubber boot while pulling up.

Now would be a good time to install some new spark plugs if you haven't done so in a while.

Draining the coolant:

In order to remove the manifold with little mess, you must drain enough coolant from the reservoir and block so that when you remove the upper radiator hose, you don't spill coolant everywhere. To do this you need to loosen the plug on the radiator located at the bottom on the passengers side. Its a white plastic plug. It was easiest for me to take a 20mm wrench to it. Make sure to have a catch pan there to hold at least 8 quarts. This is how much came out of my car. Once the coolant has been drained, we can move on to taking out the manifold.

Now would be a good time to install a new thermostat and gasket if it hasn't been done for some time.

Removing the manifold:

There is a specific process in removing the manifold. You must loosen the 10mm bolts from the outside in, loosening the bolts symmetrically on either side of the block. Start out by removing the upper radiator hose first, then remove the mirroring bolt on the opposite side, then going to the back of the manifold to remove that bolt, mirroring, until you remove the middle-most bolts. There are two heater hoses on the back of the manifold that need to be removed. Once this is done, the manifold can be lifted off of the block:



Now is an excellent time to replace those heater hoses.

Once the manifold has been lifted, place paper towels in the intake runners so that nothing falls down them. Remove the old manifold gaskets and clean the surrounding area. I used carb cleaner and a rag with the help of a razor blade. Here are pictures of what a clean surface looks like, and what a dirty surface looks like:

Clean:



Dirty:



Once the surfaces are clean, pull out the paper towels using a vacuum at the same time to suck up anything loose. Lay the gaskets down, making sure the alignment tabs are pushed into place. Once the gaskets are down you can now reverse this whole process. Make sure to tighten the manifold down to 18-22 ft/lbs. I chose 23ft/lbs myself. Make sure to tighten down the bolts working your way from the inside out this time. Also, make sure to swap over the temperature sensor from the old manifold to the new manifold. This is located on the mirrored side of where the thermostat is. Just transfer it over onto the new manifold in the same location. Be sure the two bolts holding down the upper radiator hose are the last ones you tighten. This is important because you need to replenish the coolant in the block that you drained just prior. Since we drained 8 quarts, we can safely pour in a gallon(1 US gal. = 4 quarts) of antifreeze. At this time, make sure to check you haven't forgotten to tighten up the drain plug on the radiator. Once this gallon is poured in, fill up the gallon container with water to use as the other 4 quarts. This makes for a 50%-50% anti-freeze/water ratio. Pour in as much water as you can into the block. Once its full you can put the thermostat and gasket in and tighten it up. Once this is done, you can continue filling the reservoir with water.

You can now just reverse the whole process from here on out. Make sure to use dielectric jelly on all electrical connections, including inside the COP boots for the spark plug. Don't forget to clear out any debris/liquid that might have fallen down by the spark plugs! I had a bunch of carb cleaner in mine.

Modification to Alternator Bracket:
As I stated earlier, the old alternator bracket can be modified to accommodate the new manifold. Here is a picture of the modified bracket:



You can cut off the unused part of the bracket if desired. I personally just left it.

I will be updating the thread over the next few days with part numbers and corrections to errors that I may find.

Cheers, RedDaemon