Intake swap - time and difficulty?

Not very difficult, a little messy and a couple of hours

First time....4-5 hours start to finish. Allow a day for the sealant to set up and your good to go.

DMAN302 said:

First time....4-5 hours start to finish. Allow a day for the sealant to set up and your good to go.

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it really took you that long do complete one?

ryan218 said:

it really took you that long do complete one?

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DMAN302 said:

First time...

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I was wondering the same thing....I want to learn and do as much work as possible on my car. There are a lot of parts out there i can purchase but when you factor in the labor cost vs performance gain, its better to have more work done to recieve more gain.....

Its not too bad at all...i think about 4 hours for your first time. Obviously the upper intake is really easy....just unplug all the connectors and label them if you arent familiar with them. Disconnect and label all vacuum lines and remove the TB cable with a flat head. Remove the upper intake plate with those tiny torx bits and then unbolt and remove the upper from the lower.

The following part can be difficult/frustrating. You need to remove the 2 (or 4??) bolts that secure the fuel rails to the lower. Then you are going to need to pop the injectors out of the lower. This can be easier said than done...so be patient and dont be too rough with those rails. I dont like to disconnect the fuel rails from the incoming/return lines so i just move the whole rail assembly off to the side.

Then just unbolt the lower. Use a small flat head to break the gasket seal at the front lifter valley area...and take it off. clean the mating surfaces extremely well!!!!! Take your time here and pay careful attention not to get any gasket material into the lifter valley that might fall into the crank case. I use a shop vac to catch the gasket crap as it comes off. Make sure to clean everything as well as you can.

Now for the install. Go to the hardware store and get two bolts identical to the long upper intake bolts. Cut the heads off of them to make 4 or 5" studs. Screw the studs into opposite outside corners of the block. This will hold the lower gaskets in place and assist you in dropping the lower intake down perfectly the first time. I use RTV for the lifter valley ends and a big drop in each corner. Drop the lower intake down over the studs and torque to spec following the proper sequence. Then clean and reinstall the injectors and fuel rails..use new O-rings..they're cheap. Then just install the upper and torque to spec...reinstall all the connectors, vac lines, and TB cable. Check everything over before you turn the key. Cycle to fuel pump a couple times to purge any air. Start it up...check for vac leaks. Bring it up to temp take it for a ride...then retorque.

Pretty straight forward...hope this helps.

Took me like 5 hours with a buddies help (included swapping throttle body, plate, upper and lower intakes, Kirban FPR and gauge). Most of that was swapping the vacuum hookups from the old to new intake, I had to tap and die some connections. Then realizing that I forgot to hookup my MAP sensor was fun too.
Make sure you have time to dedicate to it. And make sure you mark your distributer, i didn't and had nothing but troubles getting my timing right, some people say you can swap it without taking out the dizzy, but i couldn't.
Good luck

Its pretty easy, afew hours like everyone says is all it should take but allow for most of the day just so you dont rush anything. Yes it can be done in a parking lot, with a basic tool set.

First time took me a couple days mostly due to having to wait to get fittings or crap like that b/c I bought a used intake to get my vaccuum fittings. I could do the swap in 2-3 hours easy now if everything was laid out waiting.

ninety15.0 said:

Go to the hardware store and get two bolts identical to the long upper intake bolts. Cut the heads off of them to make 4 or 5" studs. Screw the studs into opposite outside corners of the block. This will hold the lower gaskets in place and assist you in dropping the lower intake down perfectly the first time.

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that is a smart idea...I will have to remember that