katnyp
11-05-2001, 04:02 PM
My new motto, "Duct tape may not be a cure, but it sure is great medicine". More about that later.
In all, it wasn't too eventful. I don't have a huge supply of tools, but it didn't take many to reach all the bolts required. A shop manual is helpful, as it will tell you the order in which to remove and reinstall the bolts to the intake manifold, and how to torque most of the other bolts as well. WD-40 was great help on some of the bolts that were really difficult (I'm not He-Man either).
The back side of the throttle body was quite dirty, as was everything else from that point to the lower end of the lower intake, where the fuel injectors spray. From that point, it was quite clean. There was a big difference between the primary and secondary intake ports. The primaries just had a light glazing of buildup, whereas the secondaries were covered with crap. Unfortunately, the lower intake didn't get cleaned, because there was no way to get them clean (while on the engine) without leaving a half cup of cleaner in each cylinder. That wouldn't be good.
I worked on it off and on for 5 or 6 hours, gotta take football breaks. A good chunk of that was waiting for the upper to dry, though I got impatient with that, and stuck it in the oven. Forgot to get a pic of that one. :)
Back to the duct tape, there were a couple of incidents; one of ignorace, the other of stupidity. Since a bunch of you will be doing swaps soon, maybe I can help you avoid a problem. I broke the base of a vacuum line connection (there are 2 of them at the top of the manifold right after the throttle body. There is a retaining ring at the base that you have to hold down while pulling up on the line. I failed to figure that out on the first one, I just tried to pull it out, and 'SNAP'. It broke quite easily.
The other thing (I simply could have handled it better) was that I lost the retaining clip for the throttle cable, where it attaches to the throttle body. I tried to push it off with a screwdriver, having no way to catch it, 'cause I didn't want to stab the hand that should have caught it. So it flew off, and like any small part, Murphy's law states (or should state) that when you drop something in the engine bay, it will never reach the ground. It's stuck in the sub-frame somewhere. I am sure pulling it off with pliers or vice grips would work a lot better.
The attached pics show the various parts disassembled, while they were still dirty, plus a pic afterwards, showing how I managed to make the car driveable, until the replacement parts come in. :) BTW, I couldn't get very clear shots of the close-ups, cameras have their limits.
In all, it wasn't too eventful. I don't have a huge supply of tools, but it didn't take many to reach all the bolts required. A shop manual is helpful, as it will tell you the order in which to remove and reinstall the bolts to the intake manifold, and how to torque most of the other bolts as well. WD-40 was great help on some of the bolts that were really difficult (I'm not He-Man either).
The back side of the throttle body was quite dirty, as was everything else from that point to the lower end of the lower intake, where the fuel injectors spray. From that point, it was quite clean. There was a big difference between the primary and secondary intake ports. The primaries just had a light glazing of buildup, whereas the secondaries were covered with crap. Unfortunately, the lower intake didn't get cleaned, because there was no way to get them clean (while on the engine) without leaving a half cup of cleaner in each cylinder. That wouldn't be good.
I worked on it off and on for 5 or 6 hours, gotta take football breaks. A good chunk of that was waiting for the upper to dry, though I got impatient with that, and stuck it in the oven. Forgot to get a pic of that one. :)
Back to the duct tape, there were a couple of incidents; one of ignorace, the other of stupidity. Since a bunch of you will be doing swaps soon, maybe I can help you avoid a problem. I broke the base of a vacuum line connection (there are 2 of them at the top of the manifold right after the throttle body. There is a retaining ring at the base that you have to hold down while pulling up on the line. I failed to figure that out on the first one, I just tried to pull it out, and 'SNAP'. It broke quite easily.
The other thing (I simply could have handled it better) was that I lost the retaining clip for the throttle cable, where it attaches to the throttle body. I tried to push it off with a screwdriver, having no way to catch it, 'cause I didn't want to stab the hand that should have caught it. So it flew off, and like any small part, Murphy's law states (or should state) that when you drop something in the engine bay, it will never reach the ground. It's stuck in the sub-frame somewhere. I am sure pulling it off with pliers or vice grips would work a lot better.
The attached pics show the various parts disassembled, while they were still dirty, plus a pic afterwards, showing how I managed to make the car driveable, until the replacement parts come in. :) BTW, I couldn't get very clear shots of the close-ups, cameras have their limits.