You have got to be kidding!

Flatline74 · Nov 26, 2010

My thermostat housing has a crack in it and I just now realize its formed in with the intake! I knew the intake was plastic but damn I have to replace the whole intake to fix this. Just venting I guess. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Flatline74 · Nov 26, 2010

What about this as a replacement? I figure for the price it can't be too bad..... http://www.americanmuscle.com/intake-manifold.html#customer-reviews

KBExperience · Nov 26, 2010

Yeah, it's a very common issue with these intakes.. The replacement has an aluminum crossover to prevent this.

rjennings · Nov 26, 2010

What year is your car? I just had this same issue with my moms 96 T-Bird 4.6L with only 50 thousand miles, cracked the intake, I done some research on it and turns out those plastic intakes cost ford about 3 million dollars that year.

Flatline74 · Nov 26, 2010

Its a 2000, so no hope for Ford covering it. Did not see the crack at first, I first thought it was the O ring for the thermostat but I was not that lucky.

rjennings · Nov 27, 2010

It was around 400-450 to fix the T-Bird (aka Thunder-Chicken). I think Ford had a lawsuit against them back in 2000? over all the plastic cracked intakes and ended up repaying alot of people that had paid out of thier own pockets, what would really suck is to buy a NEW 96 GT and have it happen with less than 20 thousand miles on it, thats what happened to one of my co-workers that year, thats the reason i knew there was a problem with the intakes. Everybody says stay away from a first year model..ie the 4.6 had just came out in T birds, mustangs, crown vics etc..i believe them!, so lets hope the new 5.0 has no bug like a plastic intake or something..lol

BurningRubber · Nov 28, 2010

I highly suggest only replacing it with a Ford replacement intake.

If you have a basic understanding of working on a car, it's completely do-able. Just label EVERYTHING and tape openings off, you'll be good. I did mine a few weeks ago. My intake split behind the alternator and proceeded to empty a constant flow of coolant right into the alternator... yay for me!

I never had a straight shot at working on it, but had I done it all at once it's easily doable in a day, half a day depending on how fast you work.

Flatline74 · Dec 6, 2010

Ok I am confused, I emailed American Muscle about the above intake, I have a stock 2000', I asked them what I may need other than the alternator bracket and their response was this: Billy,

Thanks for emailing in. This will only work is you have the PI heads. If your car doesn’t have the PI heads then this intake will not fit. Also, 1999 and 2000 GT Mustangs will require the use of an alternator bracket from a 2001-2004 GT. I hope this helps. Thanks, and have a nice day!

Umm, which set of heads do I have??

patman0911 · Dec 6, 2010

Flatline74 said:
Ok I am confused, I emailed American Muscle about the above intake, I have a stock 2000', I asked them what I may need other than the alternator bracket and their response was this: Billy,

Thanks for emailing in. This will only work is you have the PI heads. If your car doesn’t have the PI heads then this intake will not fit. Also, 1999 and 2000 GT Mustangs will require the use of an alternator bracket from a 2001-2004 GT. I hope this helps. Thanks, and have a nice day!

Umm, which set of heads do I have??

You have PI heads unless something is very wrong. That is the intake you want.

You will either need the newer alternator bracket (go to your Ford dealer and ask for a 2004 Mustang GT alternator bracket) or you will need to modify your old one to fit the new intake (requires drilling a new hole or two).

That should be all you need - all the gaskets should be reusable. There's a fantastic thread here somewhere with step-by-step photos of how to swap the intake, or you can probably get by just fine with a Haynes or Chiltons manual. Just remember to make note of where all the electrical harness connections go and how the harness is routed around the top of the motor.

nancygrl · Dec 7, 2010

RedDaemon has the whole write up on this proceedure. I used it back in October to replace mine.

Write up: http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/785868-99-01-pi-pi-intake-manifold-swap-writeup.html

My alternator bracket needed 2 holes drilled. One hole would've been ok, but drilling 2 holes in precise placement (nope, not without a drill press). I didn't want to take any chances that my alternator would be skewed when mounted, so I just bought a bracket from latemodel resotoration. At 14.99 it was easier to just buy the proper bracket and know it would line up correctly.

Bracket 1999-04 Mustang 4.6 2V Alternator Bracket For Upgrade Intake With Aluminum Crossover by Ford at LRS - Same Day Shipping!

Flatline74 · Dec 30, 2010

Thanks Nancy for the link. I realize I need the manifold intake gaskets. But what else really needs to be replaced? I see several more items listed than what I had anticipated...

soupnutz · Dec 30, 2010

Only thing else you really need is a fuel fitting tool which is about $5. It's pretty easy. Hardest part is manuevering it around the EGR tube, (if you dont remove the whole thing first). The manifold gaskets are reuseable, I would have new ones though just in case.

nancygrl · Jan 3, 2011

Flatline74 said:
Thanks Nancy for the link. I realize I need the manifold intake gaskets. But what else really needs to be replaced? I see several more items listed than what I had anticipated...

Some of the extra parts listed in that procedure are a good (preventive mainenance) idea since you're going to be in there and if your car has some age and mileage on it. Especially the heater core hose #1 & #2. But getting at the factory hose clamps is a royal pain! Last thing I wanted to do is take everything all apart and mess with the heater core hoses at a later time.

Some of my fuel injector pintle caps got booger'd up so I got fuel injector kits from Napa and replaced all the o-rings and pintle caps, and that was pretty much it for me. I started after lunch on a Saturday, and finished up then next morning. If I didn't have to change the pintle caps on all the injectors I could've been finished sooner. However; while you've got everything apart I would also take note of the condition of your other hoses (fuel/vacuum etc) and replace any if needed.

With that write-up/procedure, it has got to be one of the easiest, straight forward and least painfull fixes that I've done on any car.

RedDaemon · Jan 4, 2011

nancygrl said:
With that write-up/procedure, it has got to be one of the easiest, straight forward and least painfull fixes that I've done on any car.

thank you! that means a lot

I still have your PM with your improvements to the write up btw. i have not had the chance to edit it but i havent forgotten

RedDaemon · Jan 4, 2011

nancygrl said:
If I didn't have to change the pintle caps on all the injectors I could've been finished sooner.

what was your method of getting the old pintle caps off? i had such a b**** of a time!

patman0911 · Jan 4, 2011

I used pliers and some popped right off but the tougher ones would finally crack and then fall right off - it went a lot faster when I stopped worrying about being gentle.

nancygrl · Jan 4, 2011

RedDaemon said:
what was your method of getting the old pintle caps off? i had such a b**** of a time!

I wrestled with them at first being real carefull and all. And yes they were a b**ch to try to get off and then one broke and the remaining piece came off easy, so I resorted to breaking them; was fairly easy after that as they were brittle as heck. Just had to make sure I didn't scratch the the flat part where the fuel comes out.

MyStangGT · Jan 6, 2011

Make sure none of the anti crush washers fall out of the old or new gasket. These are metal washers in the gasket that the bolts pass through. I heard of one guy dropping one in an intake port and bending a valve.

Did my 99 years back and got lucky enough to get reimbursed on that class action settlement. That thing is long gone though.

You have got to be kidding!

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