Even though I was very careful when unplugging the fuel injector connectors by gently pushing the plastic tabs I noted that three of my fuel injector connector tabs where broken. It's possible the plastic gets very brittle over time with heat so be very careful or else you'll need to come up with a way to hold the connectors on your fuel injectors. I decided to replace all of the connectors at a total cost of about $15. I used heat shrink butt connectors that keep out moisture.
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I used the
Dorman instructions to torque all the bolt and in sequence.
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While I was in the area I replaced the timing chains and the valve cover gaskets. The vehicle started right up, without hesitation and idled smoothly. The next day I drove the vehicle 500 miles without incident. My gas mileage went way up from where it was prior to the intake manifold replacement. At 75 - 80 mph I got around 19.5 mpg which isn't bad for a 4x4. At 55 mph I was getting 21.5 to 22 mpg.
I was previously having intermittent fast idling problems that would pop up every 4 to 6 months despite all my efforts cleaning the IAC, MAF and throttle body every time the idle would slowly creep up to 2,000+ RPM. I'm hoping the new intake manifold resolves that issue. The reason why the manifold was replaced was due to leaking coolant discovered on top of the engine and in the #8 spark plug well but I have a theory that the manifold was also leaking around the cylinder intake ports thus causing weird vacuum issues that the computer may have been working to resolve thus causing the idle to increase over time.
The other positive I noted was the "clean" smell of the exhaust while idling. Prior to the manifold repair I was getting horrible fuel mileage and the exhaust fumes were noxious due to either unburned fuel or the inability of the cat converter to deal with the situation. No lie...you and literally take a big gulp of exhaust and there is no smell whatsoever.
