I had a 01grand larado with a v8 and the manifold wasn't that hard to change. What am I in for on this one. Doesn't seem to be as much room as inthe 01. Has any one replaced this with out a shop? How hard is it

 

just did it last week. whatdya need?

 

How much of a pain is it? I'm a helicopter mechanic with above average tool skills. How hard is it?

 

the hardest manifold i've ever had to take off. you'll love it. it's miserable.

 

skale of 1-10 about a 8... 9 @ some points. its about a 4-5 hour job

 

take off intake tube and air filter box
take off two (i think) 10mm bolts on top of (when facing the engine from front)right side fan, disconnect electric harness to the fan, take fan out
loosen center bolt on pulley under power steering pump, back off the tension bolt that runs diagonal to the bolt in the center of the pulley, belt will loosen up.
remove belt.
power steering pump has two bolts to the front of the block, THREE behind the power steering pulley and one more to the side of the block.
once you take them all off set the power steering pump where the airbox used to sit.
at this point i went under the truck and took off the downpipe flange bolts, but i guess you can do that any other time.
take off the accelerator cables. the main cable get popped off the ball and the return cable gets pulled sideways if i can remember it right.
push the tabs on the throttle bracket together and take the cables off the bracket.
disconnect the vaccum lines from the side of the intake manifold and brake booster vaccum hose.
pop off the top of the long fixture that holds the injector wires. slide the bottoms off the threader studs that come off the head.(mine broke right down the middle)
take off FOUR 10mm nuts that hold the fuel rail on the manifold. THE ONE CLOSEST TO THE FIREWALL MIGHT HAVE ANOTHER FIFTH NUT. and i think the front nut comes off with a threaded stud.
pull off the injectors while attached to the fuel rail.
disconnect the 3 sensor harnesses off the throttle body and the harness that was connected to the firewall side bolt of the fuel rail.
i took the top manifold bolts with a 9/16 box wrench.
you will need a u-joint on your socket wrench extension to take off the bottom ones.
IT'S NOT IMPORTANT TO TAKE THEM COMPLETELY OFF. I THINK JUST LOOSENING THEM WOULD HAVE WORKED.
the last bolt is the one that has a threaded stud with a star end.
now the one before that needs to be taken off from under the truck. a buddy could help you bigtime here. you get under the truck, get the socket on the bolt, and your buddy turns the wrench from the top.
remember, once the manifold bolts are loose, they come off pretty easy by hand.

 

It's pretty much the way that Tural posted...


Except that i didn't take off my fan, if i did, i suppose the P/S bolts would of been easier to get to.

Also, i would like to add;
PP Blaster is your friend,
Ratcheting Wrenches are COOL! i used a 14mm for the intake/exhaust bolts, and...
(11) New 3/8"-16 X 1 1/4" Header Bolts are recommended, as i snapped one off in the head on the torque sequence.

The job isn't that bad, it's just time consuming!

 

Yeah. I'll be alone on this one. My wife has ***** and doesn't speak car

 

be sure to use anti seize on the mani bolts that go back in. some people make the mistake of using the loc tite and wonder why they break them. if you work on things that people fly in, im sure youll be ok working on a pos heep.

 

Lol. Believe it or not. A monkey could work on an apache but I understand what you are saying. I wasn't trying to sound like a total idiot about this. I just like to know what I'm up against

 

my advise to you is, don't rush. as the army says, slow is smooth, smooth is fast. hah... that's a bunch of bs.... just take your time and inspect to see what else needs to be changed while you're down there. definitely, the injector o-rings...

 

Well. Would have only take. Me about 5 hours to do ifni had not ran into a couple of things along the way. Really wasn't that bad minus the bolt I had to cut off. Thank y'all

 

I got a 97, and i had my mani out and a new one in the 3 hours... just pulled everything back and out she came... lol... the i started having troubles with o2 sensors and the rest of the exhaust... lol... but I found it easy...

 

The job is Simple once you get the Intake off there is a TON of room...