Alright guys its time, as i have said in my other thread that i will be making a guide for doing things in the engine, here it is.
Following this guide will help/assist/give tips to do the following things,
-Gasket Replacement
-PCV Valve
-Any Sensors located down further in the engine
-Fuel Injectors
-Vaccum line for swirl valve sensor
-Powervalve screws
-Will get you close enough to do valve cover gaskets, although some further disassembly would be required, it is very minimal if you get to the lower manifold removal part in this guide
-And some other handy things down here im probably forgetting.
Also, as im writing this up and since it is a big project, im going to be editing things along the way, and reviewing it for steps i may have missed to explain and such, or explanations on photos etc. It will also not be done right away, im going to keep updating it with more and more each time i write up more info and edit the pictures. Feel free to tell me about missing steps and such but im sure i will include it all once im fully done. I will also update at the top of the guide the last date updated so you will know if things have been updated since the last time you looked or not.
Another thing i recommend is having a piece of cardboard or big piece of foam from some packaging or such, and putting all the screws/bolts on it in the orientation and locations the go to on the upper, lower, and lowest manifolds, as when your putting it back together, there's no guess work, you just look at the part your putting on, look at your cardboard/foam and the correct bolts/nuts will be right there labeled for you.
Ok onto the guide...
First and foremost i dont have detailed pictures of ALL of this, so if you arent comfortable/capable figuring certain little parts out, i recommend you dont try to attempt any of this or have a friend with some mechanical knowledge help, anyways,
Remove the intake pipe going from past the MAF sensor to the throttle body,
Here in this picture, red is referring to bolts/nuts you have to remove to take the upper intake manifold off, there is four allen type bolts for the throttle body, the rest are hex, orange are the vacuum lines and any hoses you have to remove, and pink are sensors that you need to disconnect.
Following this image, after you take off the throttle body move it to the right side, after also taking off the 2 bolts for the linkage, ( This will differ for 2003+ pathfinders as they had electronic throttle control, i am not familiar with how that engine bay looks, but im sure if you posted up pics, i could direct you ), move the throttle body a little out of the way to the right, along with the hoses and stuff on-top of the intake manifold that you unbolted, move the throttle wire running in the front of the engine bay a little towards you as this will help when taking off the upper manifold so things don't get caught on it.
In this next picture below, this is on the left side of the manifold, colors follow the key i explained in the first step, also you will need to unbolt all the bolts/nuts you find around the manifold, they are easy to spot, and i don't have any pictures with all of them in it, so you will just have to look around the whole manifold and then the big ones in the middle and on top stand out. Once again disconnect the 2 sensors, bolts from the mount, and the other smaller mount on the right.
After all of that, you should be able to remove the upper manifold no problem.
This is where you will now be after removing the upper manifold, the red are for bolts/nuts to remove if your going to be taking off this lower intake manifold also, if you wanted to do the powervalve screws only, STOP HERE, they are the ones pictured with the yellow arrow, you need a phillips screwdriver to remove these, and red threadlocker, you place a small bead of it on the screws, put them back in, and your set, just need to reassemble all that you took apart till this step, if you need to do other things, keep on reading.
This manifold is held on by 2 bolts in the middle, and a nut in the back and front of it. Also to the upper left is 2 bolts, one is fairly easy, the bottom one is the biggest PAIN IN THE a** EVER, my first time it probably took a good 30-35min to get that one dumb bolt off, so yes you may need some different tools, u joints, wrenchs and all that, to get it off, that is basically the hardest part of this lower manifold. Also directly in the back is a hose from the pcv valve that connects to this manifold, you need to remove that hose in order to take it off, after that your basically looking at removing the 4 nuts/bolts in the middle, and maneuvering it around anything that it might get caught on. Also make sure in the back left, its shown in the above steps, that the bracket where the 2 sensors attach, the bolts are off because they are connected to this lower manifold.
Ok now if you are still disassembling this far you'll be looking like this, marked with the yellow arrow is where the pcv valve hose i was talking about connects to in the back, green arrow is where those 2 bolts connect to, and red is where the nuts/bolts are for the manifold. (NOTE, upon assembly last year after doing the powervalves, i put that lower bolt for the bracket where the green arrow is pointing to only finger tight, it is so hard to get to and it really has nothing to do with how the manifold is held on and such, plus theres another bolt right above it that is in. Upon the second time around, i never put it back in altogether as even finger tight, it still took me like 5 minutes to remove it).
In this picture, this is how it looks with that manifold removed, here we have access to injectors, fuel rail, pcv valve, and all that good stuff. In the upper left in red is the 2 bolt spots i was previously talking about, yellow circle is one of the 6 injectors, yellow arrow is the fuel rail, upper left purple circle is the pcv valve ( no hose on it cause i had it off for replacement of the pcv valve ), and here with removal of some other minor things on the side you have access to your valve cover gaskets, also if you havent yet, good time to change spark plugs as you have more then enough room for 10 minute replacement of all 6 on both sides.
Alright this is where im stopping for the night,
Guide last updated - 4AM December 23 2012
Questions/Comments welcome as usual
