Replacing upper intake plenum gasket?

[imported_admin]

How difficult of a job is it to replace the upper intake plenum gasket? Mine sprang a leak/disintegrated in the past few days and now my idle is extremely rough and I'm only reading about 12 mm Hg of vacuum at idle where I should be running about 20. Is this a common problem? 98 bird just pushing 82,000 miles...

[RoyalBlaze]

Erm.. is upper intake plenum the same as the upper intake manifold?
If so I could tell you tons about what it takes to take care of the 3.4 upper intake manifold, but I don't know how much that would relate to a 3.8 [img]smile.gif[/img]

[pgriffith]

Yes, Upper intake manifold is also called the plenum. I am installing some heads on sat. I can tell you how hard it was after that.

[Magnus]

Not common..

Not THAT difficult.

Cool off engine.
Un cap gas tank.
Unplug fuel pump in rear of car (just unplug both connectors)
Start car till it dies.
wait 1 sec
start car again
wait 1 sec
crank car..

Now fuel pressure is gone.

Remove belt.
Remove alternator.
Remove MAP sensor (rear of upper intake).
Remove all wiring from TB and cables and such.
Remove intake tube from TB.

Use fuel line disconnect tool to remove lines from fuel rail.
remove 4x10mm bolts that hold the rail on.
On the pass side of the rail, unclip the tubing clips (PITA)..
Gently (riiiiight) pull the fuel rail up and move it out.

Now everything should be disconnected from the upper intake/TB... you can leave them attached though...

Remove the big vacuum hose that goes to the brake booster.. its connected to the rear of the upper intake, you'll remove it with the intake.

Remove the 2 angle bolts in the driver side of the upper intake.

Remove the lower Thermostat housing bolt (its very long and goes into lower intake)..

Then start removing the intake bolts.. 8mm I believe.

Then lift up... and out. [img]smile.gif[/img]

There are 2 pins, one in pass side rear and one in driver side front.

Remove gasket, reinstall.

Might want to change PCV while the intake is out too.

Thats a quick run through off the top of my head.

I've done it so many fricken times... I recomend wearing weight lifting gloves to protect your knuckles from the cowl or they WILL get scratched up..

Its probably a 3 hour job your first try.

if you need further assistance e-mail me and I can give you my home #..

I also have many MANY pics on my web page that may help you locate all the bolts and such.

Oh yea, VERY important.. there is a yellow and orange ring around the coolant passageways between the intakes.. YOU MUST REPLACE THESE or it will leak. VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DON'T FORGET THEM.

Also, USE A TORQUE WRENCH!!!!! The bolts are VERY soft.. I've broken like 5 of them already before I got my torque wrench.. I always overtigthen crap.. blah.

Good luck!

[ June 07, 2002: Message edited by: Magnus ]</p>