First of all let me tell you guys, am new to this! the whole take the car apart stuff, but I have the will to learn! I love this car and I will get it back on the road. 91 z28 305 TPI this is the first time I take the intake system off. Although it feels great that i have taken my first motor peices off now I have a major problem! I can't figure out the bolt pattern and by that I mean where the longer and shorter ones go! Ahhh I had a major hard time trying to figure it out and still no luck! I looked almost everywhe in the book(I have the 91 camaro specific shop manual) and I found the part on the runner and plenium assembly to TB and all it says is the specs to tighten em to! And in the diagram all it says is plenium and runners attaching bolts I can't find no sizes...ahhhhh!!!(theirs about 8-10 of the smallest bolts,4 really long bolts and 2 and 2 of medium size bolts. total of 4 diffrent sizes) Am such a rookie! I should have paid more attention! I can't believe I didn't notice the size change when removing!! I need help ASAP. I took the intake apart for cleaning of the carbon build up in plenium TB and runners and it all looks great but now am stuck trying to put it together. I thought I could have atleast the runners put in yesterday (ive had the intake off for about a week now) but I didn't! Well atleast I cleaned everything up and put the TB together and put new iac on the TB....must...have....bolt....pattern... Uhh...lol let me know guys! please all help/advice would be greatly appreciated.. ahead of time Regards, ~Johny

When the proper length bolt is inserted into the correct hole, through all parts being fastened, with the bolt threaded end touching the threads on the receiving part but not screwed in, all bolts should have about the same gap under the bolt head. The bolts should all stick up about the same distance before catching a thread.

Bill

Please have a lil patience with me,

So basically what I do is insert the screws in the runners with out attaching anything, and they all should stick out the end(thread end-the part that attaches to the plenium and intake manifold) the same lenght correct..so just insert and play?

Yup, take a long bolt a stick it in each hole, turn it so it threads in. When it threads in, look at the gap between your intake and the end of the bolt. Put the long bolts wherever there is the LEAST gap. If you want, do the same thing with the short bolts, put them wherever there is the MOST gap.

If all else fails, ask for more help

The longest ones go in the bottom holes of the runners.
You should have 2 that have a different pitch. Those are the ones that go from the inside out.
The bolt the lower runners in place.
The upper runner bolts are all the same length and pitch.

Just wanted to update and close the thread.. The Intake system is completly assembled and car is running!!!!!! aaaahhhhh!!!!! thanks so much guys....! my baby is back on the road!

So everything got put togerther and even replaced some hoses,IAC, Gaskets and car starts up like a new car, right at the first crank, vvrrrooomm...!! it starts right up. the problem am having is that once I park it for a minute and turn the engine off when i go back to start it, it struggles.. like it its having a hard time cranking the engine over, like when you run out of battery juice and it hits the last crak before dying exept my battery is fine! it wont start up until I step on the accelerator.. thats too bad it was running nice besides this problem and an exaust leak somewhere... i know theres an exhaust leak somewhere because I get a puffing/backfireing at the exhaust... please help... what do you think.

I was in the same position and I put looked at the thickness of the runner metal and then put the bolts into different holes until I found the point when they are all now the same length sticking out of the runners. But...there is always a but.....there is one hole that is threaded on the lower right section of each runner (top left hole). All the others do not have any threads. What is this hole for? Did I miss a bolt somewhere or is this hole for something else? Thanks for the great replies.

There should be 1 threaded hole per runner. That bolt goes from the manifold to the runner as opposed to the runner to the manifold.
These 2 bolts have a different thread pitch.

How is your ignition timing? If it is too far advanced, and/or the engine is too hot, your starter will struggle when the engine is restarted after a brief shutdown.

It's also possible that your starter is a little iffy, or getting too hot because of proximity to exhaust. If this problem didn't exist before you did the work, chances are it's your distributor timing.