Anyone ever put intake gaskets on a 86-88 5.0 with it in the car? Looking at it, it looks like its going to be a real PITA. Any advice, suggestions, etc? It seems my leak may in fact be caused by the intake gasket leaking.
It's really easy to do. Just follow the directions in a auto repair book and you'll be fine. I think it took me about 3.5 hours to swap intakes on my 88.
The lower kind of sucks, but at the same time, you don't really have to pull any accessories unless you want to. You will have to pull the dist if your doing the lower intake. Just keep it clean and stuff rags in the heads and try not to get anything in the oil.
Alright, obviously I'm going to have to remove the plenum. Anything that you guys might recommend to change while this is apart? I'm not really excited about doing his, but I figure I should replace anything that might be disturbed in the process.
Replace the heater hoses and any vacuum line that is soft/cracked... Be very careful removing the heater hoses or you'll be replacing the core as well. I split them from the tubes and just peel them off...
A trick that will make install easier is get two 5/16 bolts that are approx 1" longer than the std intake bolts and use them as guides when setting it back in place... Once all the std bolts are started remove the guides and install the reg bolts... A small block Ford is one of the few engines you can use this trick on, as most have bolts that go in at a angle...
A 5.0 aluminum lower is a piece of cake, try installing a iron FE intake without help, they weigh around 85lbs...
EDIT I forgot to mention you must cut the heads off of the longer bolts to use them as guides...
Also,you don't have to remove the distributor.You can work around it.
if you buy a complet gasket kit it come with the distributor o-ring and pcv filter
This. Ive been there done that. Ford can BS people all they want, but deep down anyone who's done this job on a FE knows that FE is the internal designation for shaging Enormous.
1) Disconnect the negative battery cable
I should do that (very smart idea as a "just in case"),but never do.I like to have the stereo playing while I work.I used to disconnect the battery cable,but I've removed the intake so many times,it doesn't take long at all now,and I've got it down to a fine science now.
As previously stated, the distributor does NOT have to be pulled, but it's much more of a hassle trying to weasel the intake back into place. Tom had a great suggestion about the guide pins...it makes life so much easier...I've done it a few times myself, with great results.
Good luck,
Don
Alright. Well tomorrow is the day this is happening. Time to take the engine apart, we'll see. Anyone have a procedure? I'm sure this is a little more complicated than it'd like. :/
Thats what a little cheapo stereo from walmart is for, but as for the battery, depending on the job, i might take the battery out, just to completely eliminate any possible chance of something happnin, but for the intake gasket swap, its pretty much an easy task, but time consuming, but removing the dist. makes it easier to do.
My $.02
I leave the distributor in,and,even with the strut tower brace on,it's still not a big deal swapping or removing and installing the intake.Now,if it were a cast iron intake....maybe I'd have a different opinion.
to each his own, its not like its a PITA to remove and put back in, just put a new distributor in my car to day, including the time it took to swap the oil pump shafts over, 5 min start to finish. its not rocket science to put 1 in and take 1 out.
I agree with you.To each there own. Meaning,if you ask 5 people how they do it,you can get 5 different answers.We all have our own quirks and ways.I respect that.
yeah, you also will learn little tricks and whatnot from other people on lots of things. thats whats great about places like this