Intake Manifold Replacement

[Afboy143]

Hey guys,
A buddy of mine is asking that I help him replace an intake manifold on his 97 V8 explorer. My question is, how hard is this job to do and how much time should I plan on this taking? Any pointers?

 

[samickguy15]

It's pretty simple. Label your wires, hoses, etc. What are you changing it out to? I assume an aftermarket like Edelbrock, Holley, Trick Flow, etc...

I'd plan on about 4-6 hours if you take things nice and slow. You will need to at least drain down your coolant, but you may as well drain and replace it all while you're at it. Other than that, there's not much to it.

 

[Afboy143]

It's pretty simple. Label your wires, hoses, etc. What are you changing it out to? I assume an aftermarket like Edelbrock, Holley, Trick Flow, etc...

I'd plan on about 4-6 hours if you take things nice and slow. You will need to at least drain down your coolant, but you may as well drain and replace it all while you're at it. Other than that, there's not much to it.

We are actually just replacing it with another stock unit because there is a crack in it. Someone mentioned I might have to get behind the engine for some reason. Am I able to reach everything from just the top looking down?

 

[samickguy15]

I don't recall needing to get anything from under/behind. Once you get all the lower intake bolts loose, that's it. You'll have to pull the upper intake first of course, but there's nothing from the rear on those either. There is a variety of vacuum lines and the such...

Oh wait...Fuel lines...Hmmm....Is it the upper or lower that's cracked?

 

[techieman33]

If your replacing the upper the back bolt is a pain the butt, and it will have to be in place when you put the intake back on. Since you going to be in there anyway I would suggest putting in a 1" spacer. Mountaineergreen did an excellent write up you can find it here.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172258