Intake manifold gasket replacement...special tool?

[Raze]

To anyone who has done this job or knows much about it I need a little advice. I read up in my service manual on how to do this job, it didn't list any special tools, and does not seem very complicated, however one of the guys working for my local mechanic told me I needed a 'special tool' to get the injector assembly out. This makes no sense to me as the intake manifold gasket says it's clipped onto the intake manifold, which I thought sat on top of the injector assembly. Did I miss/misread something?

[BeelzeBob]

I don't know of any special tool required to remove the fuel rail/injectors. The rail retention feature is simply a plastic clip on the rail that locks into the detail on the intake manifold itself. Just squeeze the locking tab and remove. No tool required.

[cadi197]

Only special tool I can think of for the injector assembly would be the fuel line disconnect tool to disconnect the fuel rail from the fuel lines from the fuel rail.

[davesdeville]

You need I believe a 10mm socket to remove the hold down bolts, then you can just pop the injectors out. I never had to disconnect my fuel rail from the fuel line though, so I'm not sure if you need a special tool there. You can probably just depressurize the fuel line with the schrader valve up there next to the fuel rail and then disconnect it to get it out of the way.

[Raze]

Ok, that's what I thought. Now the gasket itself, is it located on top of the fuelrail/injector assembly or beneath it? The schematic I have in the manual is pretty small and doesn't show the gasket location. Thanks guys.

[powerglide]

Raze....how did you know the intake gasket needs replacing?

(I've still got this high pitched whistling noise and I think its a bad intake gasket but don't know for sure)

[Raze]

I had the whistle and rough idle, and then i sprayed water from a spary bottle on cold startup around the manifold/valve covers and the skip turned into a full fledged miss. I took it to my mechanic and he played around with some kind of propane torch around the area (drivers side on the back bank) and said when he heated the area up with ambient heat the skip disappeared cause the seal sealed right up. I'll take some pics and post them once I pull it all apart.


Oh and never mind about my earlier question about the injection assembly, the picture on a later page that has the injector assembly removal shows how it's attached to the manifold.

[powerglide]

I see.....I am considering doing the job too, if you can report on the procedure/cost/time/tips when you are done, I would greatly appreciate it.

Good luck,

[Raze]

I'll post the procedure/tips after I do the job this coming weekend. Until then here's some info on prices and what you might run into buying the parts from a dealer:

I called the dealer and asked for spark plug gaskets, intake manifold gaskets, and valve cover gaskets. The price quoted me was about $25 for each manifold and valve cover, so about $100, and then $3 for each park plug gasket so $25, all told the guy over the phone quoted me at $125. They also had all the parts in stock.

Now here's the funny part, I knew these parts didn't cost that much because they're really freakin little and made of plastic/silicone so I went on www.gmpartsdirect.com (BEST FREAKIN SITE EVER FOR US DIYS!) and proceeded to locate the parts and prices, granted this is ordering straight from GM so it's below wholesale which rocks but for the gaskets including S&H each intake gasket was $15, valve covers $10, and spark plugs $1, all told about $60 & change. I wrote down the part numbers and took them with me and stopped in at the dealership. I asked him if he could check the part numbers and he goes "I'm sorry we're not allowed to give out part numbers" to which I said, "well I have them right here because I already found them all on gmpartsdirect." It was funny cause at first this guy who was a hardcore gearhead was chiding me because I was all dressed up nice for work but when I gave him parts numbers and said I was looking forward to fixing the damn vaccum leak and oil leak he smiled and goes "yeah those things are alot easier to do yourself than most people think." When he priced it out, the total came to $68 after taxes, I left happy.

[Nickcruffin]

I have to ask why do you want to do this???



If you do it you will need to purchase the gasket looks like you have that handled.

You will need the #10 socket, and a torque wrench, that will measure down to the high inch pounds. It requires 89” pounds or about 7.5 foot pounds. Before you remove the intake manifold check the torque.



Ok now you have checked the torque and it is ok. Go ahead and remove the intake --- note you do not have to remove it from the car just take out the 10 bolts and the ground strap at the left side of the intake the one attached to the fuel rail – remove the nut that holds the fuel rail at the right side --- lift the intake up from the passengers side prop it up with a long screw driver or a wood rod – anything. OH!! Don’t forget to disconnect the battery you don’t want to accidentally touch the positive pole on the starter.



Now you should be able to remove the gaskets. Now before you do anything that will damage the old gasket, compare it to the new gasket. – if the old gasket looks ok you may want to reuse it. --- You must clean the head and the manifold surface very good with carb cleaner. DO NOT use Scotch pads or anything that will scratch either surface. Carb Cleaner works very well.



Put the new or old gasket back on and lower the manifold back on slowly and bolt it on to a torque of 7.5 foot pounds.



I don’t think you will need to replace the valve covers --- I don’t think a vacuum leak will happen there.



I did this earlier this year and did it wrong first – so I think I know what I am talking about. I did not clean first and I over torqued by a factor of 10. I had to replace the manifold and the gasket. I hope this helps.

[Raze]

Thanks for the heads up Nick! I know the vaccum leak isn't coming from the valve covers, I'm just leaking oil like a SOB from around the bolts on there so I figured I'd replace the seals while I was doing the intake. The same goes for the spark plug gaskets, The front bank is good but the back bank has oil leaking into the wells so it's time to replace those guys.

[Nickcruffin]

Take lots of Digital Photos --- for us and so that you wont have trouble putting it back together.

Here is a tip: While the manifold is still bolted down, remove the throttle body from the intake manifold. You will have to remove it is steps – First remove the mass air flow body, then un bolt the throttle body from the intake manifold. NOTE: you do not need to remove the fuel rail from the Manifold.

This will allow you to remove the intake manifold from the head without having to remove the throttle cable. The throttle cable is a bitch. If you break it you will have to replace the whole thing. Just avoid it and you are golden.

It will save you a lot of aggravation and time.

[Raze]

Yeah I saw that when I was looking at it last night Nick, my Mech even said to be really careful if I took it off. The project begins tomorrow morning.

[powerglide]

Good luck Raze!

[Raze]

Hey all,

I promised I would detail my procedure with lots of pictures so here it is. First though, let me star by saying this is a really freakin easy fix, total time excluding cleaning time 30 min to disconnect the necessary hardware and get the manifold up and out of the way, cleaning time 1.5 hours and 10 min to put it back together. Now you may ask why so long to clean everything but we'll get to that later.


Looks like my method of putting all of the pictures in on this forum at large resolution fails (I put them on the following site then linked to them) too often so you'll have to go to this site I created for this: www.caddypics.741.com (I apologize for any popups, its free hosting). If anyone knows a better way of putting this up I'm all ears...