I just bought a 1989 GTA with the 5.7 TPI. Now, there were two glaring things wrong with the car. One, it had a blown head gasket. And it also has a electrical short that drains the battery if you leave it connected overnight.

My question is this. I'm going to change the head gasket, and have the head shaved/pressure tested, but my father are differing on how to do this. So I thought I'd ask you here. Seeming has you probably have a good idea on this.

My father wants to dissasemble the entire intake/fuel runners/and everything else just ot get to the heads. DO I have to do this, or can I just dissconect the lines and take the entire intake off as one peice and go from there. If anyone has made any Guides with images that would be really helpful. As this engine is ALOT different from my dads 1960 wood boat with a simple V8 in it. Not much on that engine to remove to get to the internals. But with the TPI theres alot more in the way.

Any help/insight you provide would be really helpful as I've searched the boards and haven't come up with much on this. So I had to ask.

 

You have to remove the plenum to get the runners off and you have to remove the runners to get at the intake bolts, you can leave the fuel rails bolted down and just remove the flex lines at the front. The fuel rails make nice handles for removing/installing the intake.

 

Ahh, thank you. My father made it sound like we had to completely dissasemble the fuel runners as well as the injectors.

Personally he hate the fact that I chose this car. But the fact remains. For $1,000 you'd be hard pressed to find a car in decent condition anywhere. Its either going to be too high milage, major mechanical problems, or the body could be shot.

I'd rather go with a car that has a good body, and work on the engine from there.