yea it runs soooo much smoother. especially considering i had one broken intake bolt to began with, and a blown plenum and blown rear cork gasket. I also put a 180 tstat in. I didnt use a stepladder, i just knelt on the bumper, it was very nice, and then when i got tired of that i just hopped up and sat inside the engine bay....god how i love trucks. I didnt mark anything, bolt or wire wise, i took plenty of pictures to doccument it, but i didnt need to refer to them when i bolted it back together. It just sorta came natural. But for now im just idling arround town for a day or so just so that theres no stress on the new sealant, but after that im going to open it up and recheck to see if the gaskets leaked after that. If theres no problems ill continue with the headers when they arrive next week (finally) and then go to the track to see what we got. My pie in the sky time for that is 15.4s with the headers the intake fix and dropping the tonneau and tailgate.

 

Hey, I have another question. My upper radiator hose is in contact with the bracket from the alternator to the top of the intake. That isn't right, is it? I don't remember it being that way before I did this last repair job.

 

no, rad hose should not be touching that black brace (its sort of sharp). i have about 1/4-3/8" gap.

 

+1 not touching, but close.

 

If you had rubber gaskets they are part of hte rubber gasket. For the cork gasket I made mine from some small diameter plastic I had laying around. You can use almost anything plastic or hard rubber to hold them in place. Mine were actually part of the plastic tree that holds model parts together from a car model I had.

 

Can you post a pic under your hood. I would like to get that corrected ASAP! Just a note - I had ground off the tab from the t-stat housing when I rebuilt my engine. IIRC, the housing is symmetric. I'm wondering if the fact that the machinist had to go the next size up when he tapped new threads for the t-stat shifted the housing over enough that it makes contact with the bracket.

 

ok. got some pics.
there are actually 2 black brackets. one is straight, going from alternator to intake. its close to the rad hose on pass side. down lower on the drivers side, there is a triangular shaped bracket going to the ps pump area. its also sharp.
i also ground off the tab on the front of my thermostat housing, so i don't think that would make any difference. as far as retapping intake bolt holes up one size... they would still be centered, so i don't think it would create any shift or alignment problems.

feel the front edge of your therm housing for the grind marks from where the tab was removed, make sure its not on backwards. not sure that would matter, but its all i can think of.

if nothing is working to get it off contact with the brace, just wrap a rag or towel around it to keep it from chafing. or, if you can get a zip tie around it and pull it off the brace.

pics...


[IMG]local://upfiles/38819/537587E3B6B547078BC47167C5AA481A.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/38819/AAC0CA2CD74D43ED8E4DAC378EA8AB45.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/38819/3E36349918874F61BF98F10331337949.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/38819/6AAC217E1905403C8923AB34BAFE1856.jpg[/IMG]

 

Something shifted. It's butted right up to the brace. Wish I could post a picture, but my digital camera is on the blink. This picture here is where I can tell mine is touching.

 

It's possible that you have that brace on backwards.I think the brace is formed in a way that misses the hose if put on correctly, but rub it if put on backwards. Check yours against his photo. I kind of remember running into this when I did my intake manifold work now that I see the photo.

 

I thought of that as well, but the contour is such that it tries to arc around the hose. Plus, if the brace were on backwards, I wouldn't be able to lock the airbox in place.