Another Intake Story

[driftin luke]

Over the last few years I've been reading intake manifod horror stories posted by fellow stangers,well 4 weeks ago it was my turn.I was coming home from work and about a mile from home I started smelling antifreeze, at the same time I noticed the guy behind me was swearing,then I realized I was leaking lots of coolant and it was blowing out the back and on to his windsheild.I made it home O.K. but there was steam pouring out of the engine bay.I let the motor cool for about 20 mins. and then I saw it, a crack under the t-stat housing that went down the front and under the intake manifold. I should have known this would happen I had been losing coolant and getting a very faint smell of it for several months but I just could not see where it was coming from.The next morning I did 2 things,I rented a car(160 bucks) and called my local ford dealer.The dealer said they would sell me a new and improved intake for,are you ready?$596.00! and for only $700.00 more they would install it! I've been wrenchin on things since I was a kid so I decided to do the job myself. I got on the internet and located an improved manifold kit for $200.00 shipping incuded it took a week to get here so during that time I took the old manifold off.The teardown went smooth except for 1 thing, the bracket on the passengers side that protects the coupling where the fuel lines plug into the fuel rail.That bracket has 3 legs,1 bolts to the valve cover,1 bolts to the intake and the other bolts to the back of the head.It's that 3rd leg that gave me fits there was no way to get at that bolt so I took a hack saw blade and cut it off. After I got the intake off there was plenty of room to unbolt the leg and toss it.When the kit arrived it had everything needed for the install,the manifold didn't come with gaskets as this one has rubber o-rings imbedded in it, also I found that on my 98 I didn't need to remove the alternator, just the wires and bracket.While the intake was off I replaced the spark plugs (a snap) with NGK tr-55's, I've used them before and like them,I also took the fuel injectors out of the fuel rail and cleaned them by hand,boy were they nasty,also cleaned and re-lubed the o-rings-that is a must.The new manifold went on pretty easy the only problem was the new alt. bracket, it is made to fit many cars and it really didn't fit mine very well, that is until Mr. Dremel went to work. I don't know why but that alt. bracket has a huge metal thing on it thats shaped like a wave and on my car it was laying on the front fuel rail and pushing it down, so Mr. Dremel removed it. also there are 2 bars that stick out for the spark plug brackets to clip on to, they are about an inch too long,again Dremel to the rescue.Now the new alt. bracket looks almost like the old one and remember that fuel rail protector bracket I had to cut off?Well I ground off the edges on it and I painted it and the alt. bracket a semi-gloss black and put them on and the whole thing looks stock.So there you have it my intake story.My biggest piece of advice is take your time and don't get in a hurry Take the time to do all the little things that will make your install look like a clean neat professional job,YOU CAN DO EEET! P.S. I thought this car ran pretty good before,it runs even better now.

 

[flstang65]

sounds good man, its amazing what you can do if you take your time. lol, something i have trouble with sometimes.

 

[ACSPONY]

Certainly beats paying someone else to do it

 

[BurningRubber]

LOL @ $596 for a stock 4.6 intake manifold...


Glad it worked out for you. Wrenching can be fun.