hmm. Wonder how good I'll do on this fix!!!

 

Keep your patience, it's a PITA!!

 

It's not bad at all. I did mine along with timing chain and tune up in a little over 4 hours.

 

as long as you have the right tools and stuff. its not that bad, just lots of bolts. so label them or something.

 

you'll do fine. use painters tape and label all bolts, plug wires, etc. both ends of all hoses. everything...
see if you can get some penetrating oil onto the intake bolts and t-stat housing bolts. the biggest headache you likely run into is one or more of those breaking and they're a pita to drill out.
while the intake if off, its a real good time to replace dist cap, rotor, and wires.

 

Reason I say pita is because I'm 17 and that's the farthest I've torn into a motor by myself.. And I had 2 bolts break off in my intake.

 

im 17 to lol i ruined the top end of my motor. you think the plenums bad. put new heads timing chain pushrods and all that crap back on. now thats a PITA lol and the sad part is. i had it apart 7 damn times to finally figure out my heads were bad

 

Should've pulled them and had them magnifluxed.

I plan on taking my truck to a shop and having it done.
A local engine shop quoted me something like $326 for replacing the manifold, which is what I will do once i find a manifold.
Gonna do the kegger mod and maybe the poorman 50mm tb mod too.
Sorry for threadjack.....

 

WHen i did the plenum and 1.7RRs, it was the biggest job I had ever done.

It is not hard at all, just put all the accessory bracket bolts BACK IN the bracket holes when they are on the ground. Because some are different lengths.

It is an easy job, but you need the correct tools:
1. Something to ratchet the tensioner
2. in/lbs torque wrench
3. BP blaster mixed with a little synthetic motor oil to get nuts free.
4. Zip Ties (for moving/holding the AC compressor and fuel ral out of the way).

TIP, don't take the fuel line off the fuel rail. Just pull it out, injectors and all, then hold it out of the way with zip ties.

YOu will need some penetrating oil to get the HOSES off. They are a PITA as well. I changed my upper rad hose. Got lazy and didn't change the bottom. Still have the bottom hose.

This is NOT hard. Just don't undo the distributor clamp like I did. i had a scare there!!

This job is ust a test at disassembly and re-assembly. No timing required.

IMPORTANT: When putting on the gaskets for the intake (lshort rubber/metal ones) you need to make sure that the surface is CLEAN. THey use RTV to seal them and there are little holes that the tabs on those gaskets must go back into. Make sure to CLEAN THE RTV out of there before you put fresh RTV on there. I had to dig them out with a 1/16 drill bit.

 

Oh, about doing things you never done:

I had a fire in my engine compartment. Had to change a multitude of sensors, injectors, TB, and the whole wiring harness. This was on my 1996. I had her running in 2 weeks, and when I looked at the truck, I said, "How the heck am I going to do this." Getting the wiring harness was tough. Had to be ordered from a junkyard in Kansas.