Help with removing TPI to replace intake I just bought an '86 Z28...I need to replace the intake manifold. I recently got one from eBay. I'm EXTREMELY new to the world of TPI. Is it difficult to remove? Any thoughts or suggestions on the proper steps in the procedure would be greatly appreciated.

I'd probably get a manual and follow the instructions. ...that being said, it's fairly straight forward.

Remove all vacuum lines, including the one hiding under the throttle body that will break when you forget it and try to remove the TB. -AND the two at the pass. side rear of the plenum.

unhook sensors/electronics.
Unhook cables on driver side of plenum.
remove all intake ducts from the TB.
remove the coolant line going from base to TB.
remove four TB bolts and remove tb.
Loosen all the bolts so both runners and plenum are loose
don't miss the front PS bolt that you have to access from the DS AND
...the one on the back DS side that you have to access from the PS.
Be careful not to damage the gaskets and just take it apart.

*** you probably still have "cold start" injector in your 86. Never had that so not exactly sure what's what. Should have PLENTY of info through a search.

Check out THIS thread
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...lp-vortec.html

They're discussing vortec vs. standard heads, bolt angles etc. etc. but for YOUR purposes, scroll down to post #11 and look at the pic. It'll show the lower manifold to runner bolt hole locations, AND....has little orange lines by the two bolts I mentioned that are easy to miss if you haven't done it a zillion times. instead of threading from the outside in, they start on the inside and thread out.

The best thing you can do to make it a lot easier is to get some long torx sockets, the longest you can get.

I'm just putting mine back together now from an injector swap and 9th injector delete. A good quality torx head socket set and a couple different extension sizes will be your best friend. I believe you'll only need the t40 socket but it's still good to have a nice set for these cars. Be very careful when removing these bolts because you absolutely do not want to strip the ones connecting the lower manifold to the runners, they're in very tight spaces.

When you go to put it all back together, replace these bolts with either hex head or socket cap screws so you don't have to worry about stripping them if you ever need to take it back off.

https://youtu.be/y7U0nf2zDDs
https://youtu.be/gvZMRlbxHcg
Hope it helps

They are pretty simple setups, I wouldn't worry too much. If needed, get a hanes repair manual helps a lot.