lower intake manifold removal

[Zdriver]

hey guys does anyone know how to get the lower intake manifold off its really a pain is there an easier way without pulling the engine?

[A Paratroopers 300zx]

If I remember correctly, you shouldn't need to pull the engine to do that. Just the upper intake Plenum and timing components... good time to do a bunch of maintenance while you are riping everything apart. If you need a bunch of photos to help shed some light... look in my build thread that is in the build compilation sticky.

[ThisIsSparTTa]

Nah, you definitely don't need to pull the engine. Pull the plenum, pull the fuel rail, pull off radiator, pull off timing belt and it should be ready to go IIRC.

I'm curious why you think you would need to pull the lower plenum though. Bad idler pulley stud? Think your gaskets are bad? I can't think of a lot of reasons why you would unless you were completely disassembling the engine.

[300ZXttZMAN]

+1^ Why are you removing it?

[RubyRed300ZX]

You mean like this:

[Zdriver]

I'm pulling the cylinder heads I'm positive I bent a few valves. I figured you didn't have to pull the engine just thought it might be easier and I'm replacing the headgaskets once the heads come back from the machine shop I had really low compression and I knew I bent valves cause I put a new timing and pulleys on and the cams on the ps sprung back and hit the pistons. And It was maintanced this past week

[Zdriver]

How did you get the egr pump off I couldn't get the manifold off because of the pump

[RubyRed300ZX]

There are two bolts on the back side of the EGR (between the firewall and the EGR). They're inserted from the firewall side, through the EGR body, and threaded into the intake manifold. You can un-thread them; but, you cannot remove them from the EGR. The length of the bolt is too long to completely remove them. They butt up against the firewall. But once you have them pulled back that far, they're clear of the manifold.

[NolimitZ32]

Its pretty damn hard to bend the valves by just having the cam gear spring back (not under load) hell, you'd have a hard time bending valves if you were to mistime the engine and crank it by hand, you'd really have to put some muscle into it when turning by hand to bend valves. If you want to be sure, before you pull everything apart run a leakdown, it will conclusively tell you where the compression is leaking. Here's a pretty good article: http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/11 ... ewall.html

[Zdriver]

okay that help me out alot more i was gonna pull the egr pump with the manifold. its really a pain in the a** to do it that way. thanks guys its appreciated ill ask more questions if i have any!

[Zdriver]

are there any timing marks on the cam shafts under the cam gears i have to pull the gears off and i want to make sure the gears go back on the right way

[NolimitZ32]

The gears only go on 1 way, read through the FSM "Timing Belt" section.

[Ace2cool]

I just did my timing belt, and had the cam springs snap past a snag, and my valves didn't bend. That one made a full rotation. And it was on the left bank exhaust with cyl 1 set to TDC. I'd almost guarantee you didn't bend it unless you were prying HARD.

[Zdriver]

that's good to here I took my heads to the machine shop for my friend to shave the heads and everything so ill see what he says. thanks guys!

[z32loverboy]

Yeah,I also had the timing sprocket snap around a few times when i did the 120k a few months ago when i swapped engines between my Z's. No bent valves and CYL #1 was at TDC as well. If you bent valves I'm impressed and I wanna know how you did it haha