Intake Manifold Stay

[laser92awd]

I am in the process of removing my intake manifold so I can bolt on an extrude honed one. Everything was going fine until I got to the intake manifold stay. (See attached picture). It is a Y shaped bracket with two bolts going into the back of the intake manifold at the top of the Y. The third bolt goes in at the bottom of the Y and I can only imagine that it must go into a threaded boss on the block.

Problem is, I cannot get any of these bolts to budge! There is hardly any room to work with in there. I think one of the upper ones is already starting to round off. So I started thinking maybe if I only take out the lower bolt I can remove the stay with the manifold out of the car? Do I have to take out that lower bolt? How? From above? Below jacked up? Do I have to move anything else out of the way to get to it?

Tremendous thanks to anybody who knows the answer!!!

92 AWD Laser with manifold 75% removed.

 

[swordfish]

I've done it from above. Its a PITA and your hands will bleed. Leave the bolts in the bottom of the manifold and just remove the one in the block.

jeff

 

[NDgsx]

Yup I just take out the bottom bolt, I come from bellow. They get a lot of heat cycles so they're a bear sometimes.

 

[NosLaser]

Whenever I have removed the intake manifold, I took those two bolts out from on my back underneathe the car with a REALLY long extension and a swivel socket. When I say long I mean a little over 2 feet. They can get pretty tight, but you can also do it the way that Sword and ND said.

Regards,

 

[DSMu4ia]

I've done this a ton.

24" extension, coming up from underneath.

Problem I had, is I couldn't get my car HIGH enough to get good leverage on the ratchet, so I used a little piece of pipe for some extra leverage.

I've never seen them on tight. As in so tight you have trouble busting them loose. When I have space to get a good grasp on the ratchet, they usually one good pull and they come right off. FWIW.

 

[HITNRUN]

Remember that there is a knock sensor wire cliped to the middle of that stay. If you have to remove the bottom bolt and not the top two. You have to unclip the knock sensor plug or you will pull out the wire to the sensor when removing the intake manifold. Its cliped right between the two bolts on the stay.

 

[laser92awd]

OK, thanks everybody - I was able to to find a telescoping breaker bar with about a 60 degree angle at the head - I bolted on a small extension and 14mm socket and the bolt came right out.

Now I am left with 3 more problems:

1) I got the knock sensor unclipped, but I cannot figure out how to unattach the side that is attached to the stay.

2) It feels like there are a bunch of small pipes that run in between the stay and the manifold. Does this mean I need to go ahead and remove those upper 2 bolts and get the stay out of there?

3) HOW IN THE HECK am I going to take out the lower manifold bolts? I have no idea how I am going to get to them! I've got this far in the project and don't want to give up now. But if I have to drop the tranny or something just to get 4 or 5 bolts out I am going to freak out. I've been using the factory shop manual and it hasn't said anything about it. The pictures made it look easy. Is there a way?

ALL SUGGESTIONS APPRECIATED!

 

[DSMu4ia]

Not hard, just get some good mechanix gloves, a towel, and the right size open end wrench. Be ready to pull like all hell


Remove the starter (two bolts) for EL MUCHO easier range of motion.

 

[BatmanGSX]

Mechanix gloves are the best ever when breaking bolts in tight places. Once you get used to them and can manipulate tools well with them nothing will stop you.

Maybe I am just strong but I got my stay bolts off with a small ratchet wrench. I would suggest pulling the battery and tray out for access to the lower bolts.

 

[IPT]

Get a 12mm GEARWRENCH!! They are the best tools for working on our cars. They are a wrench that has a racketing closed end. Very flat so they fit almost every were. Alos if you still have the batery and battery box in.. Take them out it gives you sooo much more room to work.

 

[NDgsx]

I've never taken the mani off with the head on the car, only off. I still had to use an open end wrench to get in there. I'd do what IPT said and get a gear wrench, that would make it mucho easier.

 

[laser92awd]

Just wanted to post an update:

I finally got the manifold off with the help of a friend who worked a number of years as a mechanic and learned some "tricks". Basically how to use gorilla strength in small areas while twisting your hands and arms into strange and sickening shapes. We broke 2 sockets, and part of an extention ricocheted off and pinged him in the head. Plus mosquitos were biting us so we both probably have west nile virus now. In-other-words getting the thing off of there was NOT fun. I'd easily put a manifold removal in the same category as a clutch swap or timing belt change, maybe worse. (IMO)

It turned out that even after I spent the extra time getting the upper manifold stay bolts out I still managed to break the knock sensor wire. It looks like it has a small oil leak around it anyway so while it's all apart I am going to go ahead and replace it.

2 QUESTIONS:

Do I need to put anything on the new knock sensor threads and does it use any kind of gasket?

The back corner of my valve cover is leaking oil. It is apparently a very small leak but over time has really made a mess. I just replaced my valve cover gasket a short time ago and really don't want to have to replace it again right now. Is there any kind of gasket sealant I could apply on the outside that would stop the leak without removing the valve cover again?

 

[jmc94gsx]

If it is a crack in your valve cover, clean the aluminum well and try some JB Weld. RTV and other gasket sealants work very poorly when applied superficially to fix an oil leak.
No gasket is needed for the knock sensor. If you are worried about a small leak a dab of RTV on the upper threads would do the trick well.

In regards to Extrude Honing, I got this done this spring. The two holes that the PITA bracket you were refering to need to be checked upon delivery and before reassembly. It seems that the process wore the casting on my manifold too thin resulting in a very small hole therefore a huge vac /boost leak. Check them, or be proactive and plug them with a bolt. (I didn't put the bracket back on)

Good god, my head and manifold came off with ease, sorry to hear your troubles.

 

[NDgsx]

Originally posted by laser92awd
Do I need to put anything on the new knock sensor threads and does it use any kind of gasket?

Put a little bit of teflon tape on the BACK of the threads. Leave the first half exposed, the sensor needs to ground to the block. The teflon tape will keep it from backing off.