New Intake Manifold

[stkelly]

I finally got around replacing the intake manifold on my Mountaineer with the vacuum leak. Post with original issue:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=437676

Ford changed the design of the intake manifold. They probably did it due to the issues with those arms leaking and getting stuck. Once I got the old intake manifold off I verified with water that the adjustment arms were leaking. The water went right down the shaft and onto the floor of my garage.

FYI, if you decide to take on this swap the existing intake manifold bolts are too long. I ended up having to hack saw all 10 bolts from 3" to 2.25".

My LT fuel trims seem to be hovering around 3 now. They used to be higher than 10.

Here's some pictures of the old and new intake manifold.
New:

Old:

 

[MotorCityFats13]

what is that some kind of a restriction plate

 

[stkelly]

what is that some kind of a restriction plate

They are the intake manifold control runners. They limit the fuel intake at low RPMs. The performance Mustang guys buy runner delete plates that remove the butterflies for more performance. They're not going to like the new design of the intake manifold. Makes it a little harder to remove the butterflies.

 

[MotorCityFats13]

They are the intake manifold control runners. They limit the fuel intake at low RPMs. The performance Mustang guys buy runner delete plates that remove the butterflies for more performance. They're not going to like the new design of the intake manifold. Makes it a little harder to remove the butterflies.

damn engineers and their ways to hurt the performance crowd.... just gotta make everything harder once people find a performance work around

 

[SoCal2V]

They are the intake manifold control runners. They limit the fuel intake at low RPMs. The performance Mustang guys buy runner delete plates that remove the butterflies for more performance. They're not going to like the new design of the intake manifold. Makes it a little harder to remove the butterflies.

Yeah the IMRC delete is a really popular mod on the early 4V 4.6 engines. Some people just use zip ties to holt them open.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Did you get the new manifold from Ford ? How much do they charge for it ?

 

[stkelly]

Did you get the new manifold from Ford ? How much do they charge for it ?

I bought it from an online Ford parts dealer. tascaparts.com. I found an online coupon bringing the cost with shipping to $513.00. Not too bad considering my local dealer wanted almost $2K for the job! $900 was their cost for the intake alone!

I originally purchased some used runners on Ebay. I figured I could just replace the runners and reuse the plastic part of the intake. However, the runners I received had damage in the gasket area. I didn't want to trade one leak for another.

While I had the intake off I replaced the cooling thermostat. It was a super easy job with the intake out of the way.