Intake install

It's mostly just a process of removing bolts, wires and clamps. Not too hard to do, just mark what lines goto what. It can get confusing trying to remember where a hose went. I used blue masking tape and put a number on the hose, and put a piece of tape on whereever I got it from. The blue tape was easy to spot when putting it back together. A black hose can become MIA when the engine bay is also black lol.

I had to take off and on my upper intake about 20 times when I was trying to stop my fuel injectors from leaking. Just when I thought I had the leak fixed, I would put the intake back on and hook everything up, they would start leaking agian. I finially just invested in new injectors after I figured out they were cracked. So if you have OEM injectors, now maybe the time to check them out since you have to take the fuel rail off anyways.

Here's some tips...

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:

http://www.partsplus.com/ or http://www.autovalue.com/ or http://www.pepboys.com/ or http://www.federatedautoparts.com/

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)

holy crap i didnt realize it was that complicated

DCjuggalo said:

holy crap i didnt realize it was that complicated

Click to expand...

Neither did I. I have just removed the upper intake and only saw like four or six bolts holding the lower intake down.

DCjuggalo said:

holy crap i didnt realize it was that complicated

Click to expand...

Yea this kid Jrichker knows his stuff, and he's so helpful too...it's like everytime i post a question/issue/concern he's on it giving me a step by step procedure on how to do's or helpful suggestions....he's the man paws down and i'm very thankful to have people like him on this board/forum. Don't get me wrong...this board has a lot of Jrichkers and i think we all should be thankful.....If this guys isn't a mechanic for Ford or any other car company then i'd be very surprised.....thanks man!

jrichker is probably the most helpful guy on Stangnet. Hats off to him - hope he never gets tired of helping. I use Permatex gasket tac on the gaskets cause it's easier to clean off later. Also, be sure to re-torque the lower intake bolts at least twice, and I recommend three times, as the gaskets will compress with heat cycling after intitial startup and the bolts get loose. It's a small PITA removing the upper, but it will ensure you don't get vacuum or water leaks down the road. put caps over the EGR metal coolant connection points so that coolant doesn't spill out while removing the upper intake. Also plug the EGR coolant rubber lines for the same reason.