Intake Removal

[Justin101]

hey there guys im just wondering how hard is it to remove the whole intake, plenums, runners, valve covers and throttle body? i want to remove them so i can get it powder coated . if it is rather easy do i need any special tools or anything special to remove it? just let me know the whole jist, thx all in advance talk to ya'll soon!

 

[OSU 4 SHO]

If you have never done it before, it will take you about an hour or two. The entire intake manifold will come with the throttle body. You just take off all of the connectors, vacume hoses, radiator fluid hoses, and the bolts holding it to the block. After that it should pull off. Then the valve covers will require you to take off the brackets that hold on the manifold. Then the bolts. It is pretty straight forward, just take your time and use some common sense. You might want to get new VC gaskets and oil well seals while you are in there.

 

[Sho-Driver]

The process of removing the intake should take 20-30 minutes tops, even for your first time.

Removing the intake manifold.

Taking the intake apart is self explanitory and should not take more than 10 minutes.

 

[OSU 4 SHO]

One thing that I have found is that some of the time estimates on the forum are less than actual. ? maybe I am slow, but alot of the projects that should take x hours, I always take longer. I just said an hour or two to take off, new gaskets and put on should take about at most 1-2 hours. Since he will be powder-coating, it will be about 30-45 minutes to take off, then same or more to put on. Either way it is nothing to get scared about. I have done it about 3 or 4 times, and it is cake. The first time you do anything, you always want to take your time. Have fun and post some pics when you are done.

 

[40BelowSummer]

The first time I did it, it took me a few hours (damn coolant lines).

Now that I bypassed the coolant lines on the throttle body and since my MTX has no EGR valve to worry about, I can have the intake off within 5 minutes.

I have some diagrams that would help to put it back together if you take it off and cant remember where something goes. So if this happens, just post and Ill get those uploaded for you.

 

[Huntervf]

The first time I did it I went slow, took my time and I still missed some coolant hoses and the occasional bolt. The area around the throttle body can be tricky with all the coolant hoses there, but otherwise no special tools are needed. I do recommend a 5mm allen head socket for the valve covers though; gives you much more leverage and control as opposed to a little allen wrench. And be CAREFUL when bolting it all back together; most of those bolts are going into alumimun heads and that's VERY easy to strip out.

Incidently, my first intake removal took about 1.5 hours. A few years later (after working on a dozen or so SHO's) I decided to see how quickly I could do the job, and I had the intake and front valve cover off in 17 minutes, and that's working about as quickly as one can on these cars.

 

[F-22 Raptor SHO]

The first time I did it I went slow, took my time and I still missed some coolant hoses and the occasional bolt. The area around the throttle body can be tricky with all the coolant hoses there, but otherwise no special tools are needed. I do recommend a 5mm allen head socket for the valve covers though; gives you much more leverage and control as opposed to a little allen wrench. And be CAREFUL when bolting it all back together; most of those bolts are going into alumimun heads and that's VERY easy to strip out.

Incidently, my first intake removal took about 1.5 hours. A few years later (after working on a dozen or so SHO's) I decided to see how quickly I could do the job, and I had the intake and front valve cover off in 17 minutes, and that's working about as quickly as one can on these cars.

same here: 20 minutes to get it off. 25 to get it back on. that other 5 minutes counts me double and triple checking stuff.

Cleaning will take you awhile. Cleaning for powder coating will take even longer.

 

[Cobraii976]

14 Minutes here but I leave the Throttle body in the car which cuts some time off the total. The other night when we towed my new 92 in I had the intake off before Bill could put the dolly away. Add a few minutes for the ATX due to the egr stuff. but it really should not take longer then half an hour. Hour if your moving really slow or don't have an AIR ratchet on hand.

 

[Eliw]

Since i will be taking off the intake soon as well, I will ask.....
No harm done in bypassing the coolant lines that run through the TB right?

 

[40BelowSummer]

Nope, I have done it on both of my SHOs ATX and MTX, and usually live in Idaho with some recent sub-zero temperatures, without problems.