If yet to install Intake Plenum/TB combo please read long post to save time!

downsouthman1

Member
Dec 16, 2003
643
0
16
Texas
1990 here goes the story I promised. And to anybody who has yet to do the install please save yourself the time (instructions say can be done in 30 minutes) & read this post, as cuz of my mistakes it took almost 6 hours. 1st I was so excited I forgot to take before pictures. I got off work Monday @ 10PM, the same day UPS dropped the Plenum/TB combo. I got home, ate dinner, & started down the steps about 10:30 w/ as many toolboxes & things I could bring. I came back for the goodies & brought them down too. I busted out the instructions & don't have them on me now so the story will go by memory. I attempted to take out the 1st 2 bolts (EGR if I remember) according to step# 1 on the instructions. 1 was a deep-well bolt & the other was torqued way down. Since my car is a 2000 they probably had more time to settle. I didn't have any deep-well sockets so I was kind of screwed but attempted to use open-end wrenches. 10mm if I remember. I tried for a good hr, to no avail. I used WD40 before I started the process, by the way. I finally gave up & took my wife's (who was crashed out on the couch & couldn't believe I was out there in the dark w/ the temp about 29 degrees & a cold North wind @ about 8 mph) car to Wal-Mart to get a deep-well socket kit. The kit I bought had a 1/4 inch drive & a short-handled wratchet so I bought a long-handled one separately. I think I came back about 1PM. With the new tools it took no more than 2 minutes to unscrew those bolts. Then I undid the Throttle Cable assembly. That was a breeze. Then I had to disconnect vacuum hoses that were REALLY VACUUMED. I had to stick a narrow-tipped flat-head screwdriver, designed to use to tighten glasses screws. It took me about 30 minutes just to get the 3 vacuum hoses off. Then I undid the Main intake hose. After that I undid the 5 bolts holding the upper to the lower intake manifold. Then I undid some sensor connecting to the front of the upper intake. I can't remember in which order I did the last 2 steps. At last the stock Plenum/TB combo was off. I took off everything except the TPS sensor (cuz I forgot about it). ***Note for anybody reading this whose never installed this before...CHECK ALL YOUR GASKETS on your old combo to make sure you put them on the new Plenum/TB combo as it doesn't come w/ gaskets.*** I forgot a gasket; that's why I put that note in there. I connected the new combo together & added parts off the old to the new as it all fits in the same places. I did most of this inside; in the heat. I put the new combo really close by so I could compare the arrangements. Then I started plugging stuff to the new assembly. I started screwing it back in place, reconnecting everything in the order I disassembled it. I had a hard time getting the blue pipe connector piece that came from my Mac CAI to connect to the 75mm TB as it was designed to fit the stock TB. But w/ the small-head Flat-head screwdriver once again, I finally got it to fit. I finally got to a good stopping point. I was exhausted, cold, tired, & my nose was constantly dripping. So I went to sleep. I got up @ 7:45 & went outside to finish. At about 9AM I tested the Throttle Cable & realized that I had a clearance issue, came on here & you (1990) probably remember me ?ng that. Well, problem solved by taking my wife's car to O'Reilly's & buying a pouch of zip-ties (not needed) & 8 8M washers. I put 3 washers under the Throttle bracket for each of the 2 bolts. Then I had enought clearance. At about 11AM I thought I was done w/ everything & inspected & realized I never unscrewed my TPS sensor from my old combo & I left a gasket on the old combo. So I transferred the gasket to my new combo & worked on getting the TPS screws out. I soaked it w/ WD40 as I heard it was hard to remove those screws. I turned & turned but no movement. I did that for a while, trying both a Phillips screwdriver & wratchet w/ Phillips bit. I tried standing on it & putting my knee on it. No luck & all the while the screws are slowly stripping. Then I realized something so stupid. I was turning the wrong way. I was only making my job super-harder. So I doused it in WD40 & beat the screws really hard w/ a hammer on the edges & soaked again. Then I put my knee on it & used the wratchet. I turned as hard as I could & though I felt like dying both screws budged. So I breethed a sigh of relief & finished unscrewing. Put the sensor on the new TB using the new Hex screws. Highly recommended. All in order I was ready to go for a spin. I crank her up. The RPMs hit about 2000 & came down all the was to 0 & stalled. I looked dumb-founded & cranked her up again. This time she cranked up to about 2000 & dropped to 300-400. That had me worried as I thought I was gonna have to get a $75 Superchip retune. I ?d myself & wondered if so much air was coming in now that the system was overcompensating my making me run really lean. I mean, lean's good but not that lean. So I took her for a spin. Everytime I came to a stoplight & had to sit @ idle the car dropped to 200-300 RPMS & the Check Engine light came on early & stayed on. I posted a thread about that. Well I went to work that way. When I got home @ lunch yesterday I disconnected the battery cables for about 20 seconds after realizing that I left a sensor (not TPS, a plenum sensor) disconnected. I connected it & restarted. That didn't fix my problem & I had to go back to work. When I got home last night @ 10 again I disconnected only the negative terminal as instructed in a post I read here & checked all my bolts. Some were loose so I tightened. After 15 minutes I restarted the car. Check Engine light gone. Much happiness & relief. Highly recommended mod.
 
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downsouthman1 said:
1990 here goes the story I promised. And to anybody who has yet to do the install please save yourself the time (instructions say can be done in 30 minutes) & read this post, as cuz of my mistakes it took almost 6 hours. 1st I was so excited I forgot to take before pictures. I got off work Monday @ 10PM, the same day UPS dropped the Plenum/TB combo. I got home, ate dinner, & started down the steps about 10:30 w/ as many toolboxes & things I could bring. I came back for the goodies & brought them down too. I busted out the instructions & don't have them on me now so the story will go by memory. I attempted to take out the 1st 2 bolts (EGR if I remember) according to step# 1 on the instructions. 1 was a deep-well bolt & the other was torqued way down. Since my car is a 2000 they probably had more time to settle. I didn't have any deep-well sockets so I was kind of screwed but attempted to use open-end wrenches. 10mm if I remember. I tried for a good hr, to no avail. I used WD40 before I started the process, by the way. I finally gave up & took my wife's (who was crashed out on the couch & couldn't believe I was out there in the dark w/ the temp about 29 degrees & a cold North wind @ about 8 mph) car to Wal-Mart to get a deep-well socket kit. The kit I bought had a 1/4 inch drive & a short-handled wratchet so I bought a long-handled one separately. I think I came back about 1PM. With the new tools it took no more than 2 minutes to unscrew those bolts. Then I undid the Throttle Cable assembly. That was a breeze. Then I had to disconnect vacuum hoses that were REALLY VACUUMED. I had to stick a narrow-tipped flat-head screwdriver, designed to use to tighten glasses screws. It took me about 30 minutes just to get the 3 vacuum hoses off. Then I undid the Main intake hose. After that I undid the 5 bolts holding the upper to the lower intake manifold. Then I undid some sensor connecting to the front of the upper intake. I can't remember in which order I did the last 2 steps. At last the stock Plenum/TB combo was off. I took off everything except the TPS sensor (cuz I forgot about it). ***Note for anybody reading this whose never installed this before...CHECK ALL YOUR GASKETS on your old combo to make sure you put them on the new Plenum/TB combo as it doesn't come w/ gaskets.*** I forgot a gasket; that's why I put that note in there. I connected the new combo together & added parts off the old to the new as it all fits in the same places. I did most of this inside; in the heat. I put the new combo really close by so I could compare the arrangements. Then I started plugging stuff to the new assembly. I started screwing it back in place, reconnecting everything in the order I disassembled it. I had a hard time getting the blue pipe connector piece that came from my Mac CAI to connect to the 75mm TB as it was designed to fit the stock TB. But w/ the small-head Flat-head screwdriver once again, I finally got it to fit. I finally got to a good stopping point. I was exhausted, cold, tired, & my nose was constantly dripping. So I went to sleep. I got up @ 7:45 & went outside to finish. At about 9AM I tested the Throttle Cable & realized that I had a clearance issue, came on here & you (1990) probably remember me ?ng that. Well, problem solved by taking my wife's car to O'Reilly's & buying a pouch of zip-ties (not needed) & 8 8M washers. I put 3 washers under the Throttle bracket for each of the 2 bolts. Then I had enought clearance. At about 11AM I thought I was done w/ everything & inspected & realized I never unscrewed my TPS sensor from my old combo & I left a gasket on the old combo. So I transferred the gasket to my new combo & worked on getting the TPS screws out. I soaked it w/ WD40 as I heard it was hard to remove those screws. I turned & turned but no movement. I did that for a while, trying both a Phillips screwdriver & wratchet w/ Phillips bit. I tried standing on it & putting my knee on it. No luck & all the while the screws are slowly stripping. Then I realized something so stupid. I was turning the wrong way. I was only making my job super-harder. So I doused it in WD40 & beat the screws really hard w/ a hammer on the edges. Then I put my knee on it & used the wratchet. I turned as hard as I could & though I felt like dying both screws budged. So I breethed a sigh of relief & finished unscrewing. Put the sensor on the new TB using the new Hex screws. Highly recommended. All in order I was ready to go for a spin. I crank her up. The RPMs hit about 2000 & came down all the was to 0 & stalled. I looked dumb-founded & cranked her up again. This time she cranked up to about 2000 & dropped to 300-400. That had me worried as I thought I was gonna have to get a $75 Superchip retune. I ?d myself & wondered if so much air was coming in now that the system was overcompensating my making me run really lean. I mean, lean's good but not that lean. So I took her for a spin. Everytime I came to a stoplight & had to sit @ idle the car dropped to 200-300 RPMS & the Check Engine light came on early & stayed on. I posted a thread about that. Well I went to work that way. When I got home @ lunch yesterday I disconnected the battery cables for about 20 seconds after realizing that I left a sensor (not TPS, a plenum sensor) disconnected. I connected it & restarted. That didn't fix my problem & I had to go back to work. When I got home last night @ 10 again I disconnected only the negative terminal as instructed in a post I read here & checked all my bolts. Some were loose so I tightened. After 15 minutes I restarted the car. Check Engine light gone. Much happiness & relief. Highly recommended mod.

My install took 30 minutes, but I had a 10mm deep well socket. I love my Dragon--dropped .231 seconds and gained 2 mph trap speed :banana:
 
DownSouth................Great story. I can picture some of your descriptions vividly in my mind...and know that I too have beat on things with a hammer and was sweating bullets while walking on the edge of success or destruction..............LOL
 
IronHippie said:
DownSouth................Great story. I can picture some of your descriptions vividly in my mind...and know that I too have beat on things with a hammer and was sweating bullets while walking on the edge of success or destruction..............LOL

I tapped my TPS with a hammer and broke it in half

new TPS sensor from autozone $25 bucks!!

thank god for autozone!!
 
Highroller said:
I tapped my TPS with a hammer and broke it in half

new TPS sensor from autozone $25 bucks!!

thank god for autozone!!
Man that's crazy. You broke your TPS. I beat the crap out of those 2 screws w/ a hammer but my TPS stayed intact. Perhaps you missed once. That was my last resort effort. The screw was stripping bad & I put my all into it after that, knowing that if I failed I was gonna have to buy a TPS w/out a way to get to the store & have to miss work that day or drill through the screws w/out a drill & no way to get to the store to buy a drill & have to miss work. So I was down to 1 option & it worked. Thank goodness.
 
Hahahaha. I was in such a rush to get my plenum off to start porting and polishing it that I forgot I was tightening instead of loosening on the brass bolts with the socket wrench that I broke not one, but three (count 'em THREE) brass bolts before I figured out that I was indeed turning the wrong way. Now THAT is pretty f***ing stupid:D
 
license2ill said:
Hahahaha. I was in such a rush to get my plenum off to start porting and polishing it that I forgot I was tightening instead of loosening on the brass bolts with the socket wrench that I broke not one, but three (count 'em THREE) brass bolts before I figured out that I was indeed turning the wrong way. Now THAT is pretty f***ing stupid:D
Sometimes you just can't help it. It was the excitement of removing the TPS screws that caused me to turn the wrong way. & I swore up & down I was turning the right way. I was stripping them cuz I was turning the wrong way. What a waste of time & exerted energy.
 
I was hammering on a impact screwdriver.. so for every tap, the screw was supposed to move 20 degrees.. I kept tapping it, and it wouldn't budge.. tapped alittle harder and SNAP!

It's all good, It was alot easier and it worked out o.k Thank God Autozone is open 24 hrs!!
 
TacBear said:
BEFORE:
Stock Plenum w/ 70mm TB
Magnaflow CatBack and catted "X"
14.081@98 (average of 4 runs)

AFTER:
P & P Dragon Plenum w/70mm TB
Aluminum D.S.
Steeda LCA's (didn't lower my 60 ft. times, just made them consistant)
Tokico 5-ways
[email protected] (average of 3 runs)
That's tight. Tacbear, you see my sig & my ET @ mph before all those mods. If I can get my rear to stay straight on the pavement I should be @ 13s easy now huh?
 
Glad to see you got through the install with success! It's really pretty easy if you take your time. I was through in about 45 minutes (plenum & T/B), BUT I wussed out and just bought a new TPS instead of having to dick around with the stock TPS screws. I got mine for $28, so I thought it was worth it. Good job on the write up :nice: