I was wondering if anyone has a diagram or a step by step process on how to remove the intake and install the new gaskets on a TPI engine. Or any general comments on how to go about doing this would help as well.

 

Which gaskets do you want to replace? There are three sets of gaskets.

1. Plenum to runners

2. Runners to Manifold

3. Manifold to heads

You choices are
1
1 & 2
or 1, 2, & 3

 

I guess all three if i'm going to do the job anyway.. but i think the leak is coming from the manifold to head.

 

These instructions are from my memory and experience removing the intake 5+ times. They are also for my '87. No doubt I will miss a detail or two, and your '89 maybe have minor differences. Use common sense.

1. disconnect negative battery cable

2. drain coolant by loosening stopcock on passanger side bottom of radiator

3. disconnect MAF electrical connector

4. remove front plastic air intake

5. disconnect throttle cable, trans kickdown cable (if automatic trans), and cruise cable from driver side of throttle body. Two of these have a little metal clip you need to play with, the one just pops right off.

6. disconnect TPS and IAC electrical connectors from passenger side of throttle body

7. remove two vacuum and one coolant line from passenger side of throttle body

8. remove coolant line from front/bottom of throttle body

9. Remove 4 10mm throttle body bolts

10. lift throttle body away and remove small vacuum line from bottom of throttle body

11. remove throttle body from engine bay

12. remove three 10mm throttle cable bracket bolts from driver side of plenum

12. remove two vacuum lines from the passenger side back of plenum

12. remove single vacuum line from driver side back of plenum

13. remove 4 TORX bolts on each side that hold runners to plenum

14. loosen but do not remove the five lower TORX bolts that hold the passanger side runner to the intake manifold

15. there is a sixth torx bolt that holds this runner to the manifold, to see it look under the plenum, this bolts actually goes from the intake manifold to the runners, you will see the head facing the driver side, remove this bolt

16. now the passenger runner should be loose

17. lift up the plenum and disconnect the IAT electrical connector on the bottom of the plenum, remove plenum from engine bay

18. remove the five loosened torx bolts on the passenger side runner and remove the runner from the engine bay

19. remove 5 lower torx bolts on the bottom of the driver side runner

20. a sixth torx bolt holds this runner to the manifold, just like the passenger side, it is at the back of the intake manifold and the head faces the passenger side, remove this bolt, remove runner from engine bay

21. locate the two gas lines that run from the fuel rail to the front of the engine bay, loosen the two nuts that connect the hard lines. Make sure there is no fuel pressure in the rail before you do this

22. Pull the two gas lines out of the bracket, have rags handy for spillage

23. remove 9/16 bolt that connects the hard line bracket to the engine, this is just behind the fuel lines you just removed.

24. disconnect EGR vacuum line and electrical connector in the middle of the intake manifold

25. disconnect 9 spark plug wires from top of distributor cap

25. disconnect two plugs from back of distributor

26. disconnect two electrical connectors from top of ignition coil

27. remove 2 8mm bolts that hold ignition coil to intake manifold bracket, remove ignition coil from engine bay

28. loosen distributor hold down clamp (passenger side) and remove distributor

29. disconnect fuel injector connectors

30. move all unplugged wires and vacuum lines out of the way of the intake manifold

31. I don't recall if you need to remove the fuel rail in order to get to the intake manifold bolts, but I think you do, use your judgement if needed see 31a, other move on to 32.

31a. remove 4 10mm bolts that hold the fuel rail to the intake manifold, carefully and slowly remove the fuel rail from the intake manifold, this may take some encouragement due to age and resistance from injector o-rings, watch for fuel spillage out the fuel lines, remove rail from engine bay

32. remove upper radiator hose from water neck

32. remove all of the torx bolts that connect the intake manifold to the heads

33. remove intake manifold from the engine bay, this will be tough, the manifold usually wants to stick to the heads, this may require some prying, just be careful what you pry on

You are done.

Make sure to clean up all gasket surfaces before installing new gaskets. Also now would be a good time to upgrade the intake manifold and runners. Also I would recommend replacing all of the TORX runner bolts with Allen Key head bolts. The allen head bolts don't strip as easily as torx bolts and are easier to use in my opinion.

Have fun, take pictures, and label everything with masking tape and sandwich bags.

 

I put allen head bolts on my intake manifold after upgrading my runners and manifold. Big mistake. I can still get my runners on but the allen heads have a much larger head. It makes it tricky to get the runners mounted to the manifold. I would definitely get rid of the torx but I would put 6 or 12pt bolts in there instead of the allen.

 

I'm doing the samething now to my 89. Actually fairly easy just takes time.
Make sure you inspect the manifold once its off,, mine was corroded to the point where the metal was gone.

 

I don't know man, the difference looks pretty obvious to me. I wouldn't have changed if they weren't smaller. The big advantage of the allen head bolts is they have an an internal head. With a hex head bolt, you not only have a head size, but you need to fit a socket over the head too.

The simple fact that you went to aftermarket runners is probably why they are harder to install. Which brand did you get? My AS&Ms are much harder to install than stock. Not a chance you would get a socket on the bottom bolts under the runner tubes, the tubes are just to big.

Allen head with large tube AS&M runner on the left.
TORX with small stock runners on the right

 

Thank you very much for the input.. now i just gotta man up and do it. I replaced the oil pan and gasket that job wasn't that hard... this one seems like a pain in the neck but eh.. gotta do it...

 

one more quick question. The motor has 147,000 miles on it. While im doing this job i figured to possibly upgrade the runners to SLP's and the intake + some shortie headers.. Do you think i got to many miles on this motor to up grade and would the power gains be sufficient as to where i would feel it?

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

 

I think your mileage is ok for performance mods.

Headers are the single best upgrade on these cars. Header are certainly noticeable.

As far as the TPI. If you want to do runners, you should also match the plenum openings to the new runner openings. So you are looking at a bit of work there. Also many people like to do a significant amount of porting to the SLP runners. I don't have SLP's so I won't comment, just do a search.

AS&M makes runners that are a better direct bolt on. They look stock-ish too.

 

I have the AS&M runners and the Bigmouth intake all bolted together with stainless allen heads. What a PITA to get the drivers side runner on. 1 allen bolt needs to be a tad smaller to make it simple.

 

I was wondering why i couldn't remove the driver side runners. Now if I remove the distributor and the wires. Will I have trouble getting the distributor back in there?

 

Is it loose?

Did you remove the last lower runner bolt? Its way back behind the cylinder 7 runner.

Did you remove the bolt between the EGR and distributor that faces the opposite direction as the rest of the runner bolts?

If you have all the bolts off its just a matter of getting it out. It takes some contorting to get it out. It likes to catch on the valve covers or fuel rail. If you loosen the 4 fuel rail bolts it will make this job a little easier.

 

32. remove all of the torx bolts that connect the intake manifold to the heads

I did this today on my GTA i had all but 3 bolts off the intake and the last 3 rounded off to T/45 sockets. I tried useing heat, bolt extractor and then the heads of the bolts snaped off. I spent 6 hours on it and still cant pry apart the intake from the heads.

 

It was the one hiding behind the egr valve! Getting that runner off was stumping me.

Interesting thing was that when I finally had everything off and I pulled the fuel rail off to inspect my leaky injectors (2 on each side, passenger side worse!) I saw that the plastic cap for the 'side that shoots gas into the chamber' was broken. Also several of the o-rings that go into the fuel rail were cracked. And one injector had some bad ohm readings. It never stabilized. The rest were at 16.3-17 ohms.

Replaced them with some injectors from FIC, interesting thing, I was expecting some GM specific injectors but got ford 19lb injectors. They seem to fit a bit loose but seem to have seated correctly anyways. Made sure to reuse the fuel rail cclips. Got the troublesome runner back in there and connected the cold start injector. Then I got stung by a bee so taking a break before going back in there. Also replaced my egr valve since I could tell that things had not been replaced under there for years plus from reading I got the impression that it was probably stuck closed.

Sorry for the thread jack. Thanks for the help.