I am putting in my trick flow upper and lower intake on my 1987 ford mustang tomorrow. does anyone have a thread on how to install the intake or can someone send me some instructions? I know how to put in the upper intake but I need help with the lower intake. thanks
you need to take out your distrubitor drain the coolant and remove all the hoses, fuel rails, injectors, and the bolts and then just swap over everything, make sure you get a new breather for the back of the intake and make sure it slides in snug or it will suck oil through it and it will smoke really bad and soak your plugs. belive me I did it. and also the back nuts for the upper intake are a pain to get to. get a 3/8 closed end wrench and grind it down to get them. thats all there is to it.
I built my motor (h/c/i) about a year ago and i dont really remember the rear bolts being a pain. I only have basic tools which worked fine for the whole project. The only thing i didnt have is the TQ wrench which i rented from Autozone. Also, there is no need to drain the coolant. I didnt even drain it when i put h/c/i on. I didnt hit a problem w/ that until i took the stock heads off and coolant poured out from the block passages.
But anyways, mark your dist position and take it out. Unbolt the upper. After that off come the fuel rails and injectors. Unbolt the lower. Clean the old gasket off the heads. I dont remember if i did or not, but i may have used some RTV on the intake to head gaskets. Bolt the lower back on, rails, injectors (make sure they have the o ring on them.), upper, dist. You should be good to go.
Tools: a good torque wrench is a must have item. A razor blade scraper that holds a single edge razor blade from Home Depot or Ace hardware is another handy thing. Get a Chilton or Haynes shop manual - you'll need it for the bolt torques and patterns. The intake manifold has an especially odd pattern. You'll need access to a timing light to set the timing after you re-stab the distributor. Look in the A/C repair section for the fuel line tools. They look like little plastic top hats. You will need the 1/2" & 5/8" ones. The hat shaped section goes on facing the large part of the coupling. Then you press hard on the brim until it forces the sleeve into the coupling and releases the spring. You may need someone to pull on the line while you press on the coupling. Put some motor oil on them when you put the line back together.
The A/C Compressor comes off with lines still connected. Mark all the electrical, smog and vacuum lines with tags to help you remember where to re-connect them. If you have a digital camera, take several pictures.
Whatever you do, don't skimp on cleaning the gasket surfaces. New gaskets need to seat against bare metal and not the residue left from the old gaskets in order to seal leak free. This is the most time consuming and tiresome part of the job. Look for little things that need to be replaced like the short hose from the thermostat hosing to the water pump, damaged vacuum lines and hose clamps that are rusted or broken.
Plan on cutting the thermostat to water pump hose, or removing the thermostat housing. Also plan on removing the distributor to get clearance to remove the intake manifold. Remove #1 spark plug, stick your finger in the spark plug hole and crank. When your finger gets air moving past it, stop cranking. Turn the engine until the timing marks line up with the pointer. Now you can pull the distributor out.
My favorite trick that saves time and effort is the stay in place gasket. Be sure that you scrape (don't use a wire brush) all the old gasket material off, then clean all the surfaces with acetone or MEK.
When the surfaces are clean, use weather strip adhesive on the head to manifold surface, and on the side of the gasket that mates to the head. Follow the instructions on the tube or can and when it gets tacky, press the gasket down on the head.
Clean the area where the rubber rails mount to the block in front and in the rear with more acetone or MEK and do the same trick with the weather strip adhesive that you did to the heads.
Coat the rubber seals and the gasket area around the water passages with lots of Blue Silicone gasket sealer and put it together. Wala! no leaks, and no gaskets that shifted out of place.
Fuel injector seal kits with 2 O rings and a pintle cap (Borg-Warner P/N 274081) are available at Pep Boys auto parts. Cost is about $2.74 per kit. The pintle caps fit either injectors with a pin sticking out the injector end or 4 with more tiny holes in the injector end. The following are listed at the Borg-Warner site ( http://www.borg-warner.com ) as being resellers of Borg-Warner parts:
Most of the links above have store locators for find a store in your area.
Use motor oil on the O rings when you re-assemble them & everything will slide into place. The gasoline will wash away any excess oil that gets in the wrong places and it will burn up in the combustion chamber.
Consumable items:
Upper manifold gasket
Fel Pro 1250 or equal lower manifold gasket set.
Short formed hose between thermostat hosing and intake manifold
6 ft 7/64" or 1/8" vacuum hose
2 ft 1/2" heater hose
1 1/2 ft 5/8" heater hose
Blue Silicone sealer
ARP antiseize or equal for the bolts
4 each 3/4" hose clamps (spare item in case the old ones are bad)
4 each 1/2" hose clamps (spare item)
jus out of curiosity did your intake not come with directions or did you buy this part used. from what i remember mine came with pretty decent directions.