I replaced the upper intake manifold gasket yesterday. See this thread. It went pretty smoothly for the most part. The toughest part was removing the old gasket, it would only come off in pieces and some areas around the bolt-holes had to be "chisled" off. I followed the Sam Jelinek Procedure. I'd like to clarify some aspects of that procedure, if I may:
1. The EGR tube bolt (~22mm) does not need to be disconnected, however we did remove the EGR valve to allow less obstruction. This is a good time to check the pintle travel and spray some carb cleaner in the orifices.
2. The fuel injector wire-clips were tricky. The blue retaining clips get "popped" half way out, then you can depress the tab and pull the wires straight off the injectors. Have fun taking off the rear DS one. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" />
3. After disconnecting the fuel injector wires the fuel rail needs to be lifted so you can get to the front IM bolts and move the port cover out of the way. The injectors lift straight out of the ports together with the rail.
4. The fuel regulator and lines will prevent the driver's side rear from moving too much. Just be careful that you don't spring a leak. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />
5. And finally, while the IM bolts get torqued to 17 ft/lbs, this is way too much torque for the throttle body bolts. This is the "only" <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> place where I had trouble. One of my upper bolts sheared. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />

Perhaps this could have been avoided if I torqed 'em rather than my 6'5 220+ lb Semper Fi buddy <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/mrt.gif" alt="" />, but never-the-less I have half of a bolt threaded into the damn thing. I think everything will be OK, but knowing this imperfection is going to kill me. Does anybody know the (proper) way to get a sheared bolt out of a threaded hole? Am I best off just leaving it alone or do I need to find a used/junker part($$$)?

And after all this, I now have confirmed that my lower IMG is leaking. I continued to hear the sucking sound after replacing the upper IMG, so a little more carb cleaner and now I have next weeks project identified. So it appears that the lower IMG is doable. I think I will have to remove the EGR tube and fuel pres. regulator this time, and possibly some other doodads, but all together it appears a lot like the upper IMG job. Has anyone who replaced the lower IMG run into any snafus? As an amateur mechanic am I asking for trouble??? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />
TIA,
Eric

Quick response, with a link to a thread on getting sheared-off fasteners out...
http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showf...&Number=247695&Forum=c15

HTH,

Randii

I just did this a few weeks back on my 98 Passport.

There are 8 bolts to remove. 4 on the outer corners of the manifold and four on top of the manifold (toward the center of the engine). The two at the rear of the engine are a little bit tough to get to, but they are reachable. All either 12 or 14 mm I don't remember which right off.

You'll need a 22mm or 7/8" open end wrench to get the EGR tube loose from the bottom of the manifold. I didn't take anything else loose.

Once all of this is loose I just pryed my manifold up with a pry bar and used my free hand to get the gasket out. Did the same to re-install. It's really not bad at all. It would really help if you did have a helper to hold the manifold up and you can have both hands free to work the gasket into place.

Some have used bunjee cords to hold the manifold up out of the way, but I didn't need to.

Good luck,

Joe

The upper IMG takes more to get to than the lower does. Don't mess with the injectors on this one.
EGR definitely needs to come loose from the flow pipe.
I used bunjee cords galore to keep the intake manifold up but since you leave the injectors/rails/fuel line connected you'll only have a few inches of space between the manifold and cylinder head.

you may want to power wash around the lower IMG to get all of the dirt and mud that collects there out. You don't want that stuff falling in your engine.
Your engine may be cleaner than mine was/is. I wouldn't be surprised.

Joe is right about some of the bolts being hard to get to. I had a variety of extensions on hand and a flex socket that really helped.

--jeremy

So what you guys are saying is that for this repair I won't have to remove the upper manifold cover nor any of its 8 respective bolts??? And don't touch any of the fuel delivery componentry??? It alsmost sounds too good to be true. I'm a little confused about the bolt pattern that Joe described, are all of the bolts on the outside, around the perimeter of the housing? And does this gasket usually come out as one (broken) piece, 'cause the upper gasket was a PITA with all the little scraps that needed to be scraped from the housing; visual inspection was crucial there.
Thanks,
Eric

You have two bolts in the front, two bolts in the back, and there are four really long bolts that are in the middle of the intake on both sides, two on drivers side and two on the passenger side. (you had to take these four long bolts out to take the upper manifold off)

Fuel delievery don't need to touch.

No scraping involved, on the gaskets. Mine came out as one broken piece, but be carefull they might have pieces that could fall into the engine.

Joe

OK, now I follow you, thanks for clarifying that. My understanding is that the 4 long side bolts hold the upper and lower together down to the heads, but I can leave the front 2 and rear 2 of the upper cover secured so that I don't need to separate the upper IMG again. Right? Then I have 4 more bolts front and rear which are holding only the lower housing to the heads? This is making sense now.

I can't remember the bolt count. But yes, the upper and lower sections of the intake manifold stay together and lift up as one piece.

my gasket also came out in one broken piece, no problem.

Need a quick answer!!!!
Everything is going fine, but I can't for the life of me get the EGR bolt loosened. I'm using a stubby 22mm wrench and removed the coil from the nearest cylinder to get some room to work with. I WD-40'd and tried turning both ways, it won't budge. If I am looking straight down on the EGR, which clockwise direction do I want to turn the bolt? This is soooo frustrating. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />

I did it!!! The EGR bolt finally gave in. I whacked the wrench with a hammer, fortunately in the correct direction.... towards the firewall. So the answer to my question is the bolt turns clockwise.

It's hard to believe that maybe a little more than a year ago I was afraid to remove the engine cover off the motor. Thanks to this site, and the confidence that it's given me, I have now completed some fairly complex tasks and probably saved myself a bundle. Some day I too will be a 'Zu master. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />

My CEL is still lit. I checked the codes and they are the same that I was getting before this whole ordeal. P0171, 172, 174, and 175. The engine no longer has such a pronounced vacuum leak sucking sound, but I thought I still heard something on the passenger's side. I couldn't get the motor to flinch, however, by spraying carb cleaner around the gaskets. It must just be me being critical of the usual engine sounds. I was thinking that the OBDII codes would be erased once I reconnected the battery. I only disconnected the ground wire though as per my instructions, maybe the red needed to be disconnected???

Well, it's off to inspections and emissions <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> testing tomorrow. We'll see if they can find any problems. Thanks again for the assistance fellas! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />