im thinking on the lines of a new tb prolly fastmans 50mm i have a 5.2 magnum when i do this i was told to do my plenum also where is my plenum and what brand should i use? is it under my tb or under my intake? what will i be getting myself into? i know i could do someresearch on this but it better off i f iget the input from all u guys for u have done this b4... i do have a short ram intake i bought for it and my exhaust is done also id like to get somemore horses out of my truck am i going the wrong way or what any ideas will help thanx guys....j

 

Is there any way you could use words and sentence structure? I can't make heads or tails out of the above posted drivel.

 

sorry man i was just thinking really fast and my fingers couldnt keep up[....

 

The phrase "do your plenum" refers to repairing the gasket that is between the belly pan and the intake. When your doing your TB, it is a good time to check if you need to do this, not necessarily a good time to just do it. If you don't need it, don't do it.

On the bottom of your intake is a steel belly pan. Between it and the aluminum intake is a gasket. As the belly pan and intake get hot/cold, they expand at different rates because one is aluminum, and one is steel. The gasket in between will eventually fail, and you will end up with oil coming into the intake. This is what you look for when you have your TB off. If you look inside the intake, escpecially in the corners (might need a little mirror), and you see oil pooled up, you need to replace the plenum gasket. I bought my plenum gasket kit from APS Precision, but Hughes also sells a kit. It is basically a 1/4" thick aluminum plate that replaces the steel belly pan, plus all new gaskets and new intake bolts.

FYI, the Fastman TB is an excellent mod.

 

i was planning on buying the fast man 50mm cause i have the 5.2 and so i have read that the 50 is for the 5.2 and the 53 is for the 5.9...? im not what a 53 would do to my 5.2 but im getting off subject but i was told i should change my plenum out when i do the tb so i wouldnt have to take it all apart again at a laterdate ....should i just waut on the plenum and just do my tb and see what happens....

 

you should read silvers intake mod thread... give that some serious consideration when you do the plenum fix.

 

The TB sits on top of your Intake just below the air box. It'll take you 30-45 minutes to upgrade the stock to the Fastman.

Taking the Intake off is a much bigger job.At least 4hoursif you're reasonably mechanically inclined, not screwing around,but haven't ever done it.That's proabably whySilver's telling you not to bother if you don'tneed to. You won't get any performance gain from just replacing a perfectly good gasket. Ireplaced my plenum in about 6 hours this summer.I was a little nervous as this was the first big job I had attempted. Very satisfying after I was done though.

A couple of pointers:

1. This is a weekend job. Don't do it if you need your truck the next day, you might get it done in a night, but you also might have a meltdown.

2. Print out Steve'splenum fix guide from the DIY section andread it well before. Make sure you have every tool and partyou need, and ask somebody here if you're not sure about something before you start.Don't forget about things like coolant, zip ties, etc. that might just be mentioned in passing,Steve's probably got a small parts wearhouse at home, and doesn't think much of reaching in the garage and pulling out a random extra do-dad, but you'll need to.

3. Follow the guide, don't deviate.if it says scrape all the gasket off, scrapeall the gasket off. You don't want a leak in there after you put it all back together again.

4. Get some masking tape and a sharpie and label parts and steps you don't want to forget, like bolt sizes for different bolts.Or "throttle cables go over radiator hose", or "Alternator wires go under bracket,"and tape it to the parts.This helps immensely in re-installation later, especially if you need to take a break or let it sit over night.

5. Use the torque wrench! You don't want to nerf that rubber gasket after you just did all that work. And don't try to reuse the bolts, buy the new ones.

6. When you reseat the intake watch those little rubber gaskets at the front and rear of the manifold. I had a devil of a time getting them to stay put.

7. Think about putting a 180* t stat in if you don't have one. Read the differing opinions here and make up your own mind.

Have fun and make sure you've got some extra beverages on hand!

 

TB takes 30 minutes TOPS to R&R.
Don't let that be the deciding factor.
WC

 

Yeah please take your time. I worked on mine for four days and i had it all back together finally and what do you know? The intake manifold and head gasket blows! So i loaded it up and took it to a shop... Its not really hard at all. Once you tear it down puttn it back together is a snap. I had to refer to pictures maybe once or twice but everything else was "Hey i know where this goes" type of things. Also make sureu put locktite on ur plenum bolts and torque it down in the sequence!!! I think for the plenum its in a specific pattern of 24 inch pounds to 48 inch pounds to 72 inch pounds!

 

well ima take silvers advise and just do the fastman first and check to see if it even needs the plenum gasket replaced and then well go from there im pretty mechanically inclined i usually fix my own vehicles and all my atv's i just hate working newer compact cars for there is no room to work...now as far as the intake mod thread whats the real advantage to that steve? keeping in mind itis a 99 5.2 ive been watchin the kegger thread cause im interested in the learning aspect of it just waiting on reponses of advantage or not .....