# Removing the intake manifold



## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

Quick Q. Do I need to remove the collector plate to take off the whole manifold? Looking at the manifold in the car I can see a couple of Allen-type bolts, but are the all that hold the manifold down? I'm trying to get the fuel rail off and also the driver side valve cover. PLEASE give me any tips you might have.

I got the car started recently (for anyone that knows my story) but its still spewing some serious white smoke. I know the driver side VC still leaks, so I'm trying to fix that asap...but all the stuff surrounding it just makes me :jawdrop: :wtf: :crazy: . Any help will be appreciated.


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

I did mine about 20 times, so maybe I can run you through that. 

Should be 4 allen head bolts on top on the intake itself, right in the middle. You'll need to remove the cover plate to get to those. Those are easy. 

Starting on the left side, remove the EGR pipe where it connects to the exhaust mani. Remove the rubber hoses from all fixtures on the side of the intake. 

Going around the back, unbolt everything you can see on top of the manifold.

Go up front and unbolt the fuel line holder from the front of the intake. 

Remove the throttle cable(s) and unbolt the throttle body. I found by far this to be the hardest part. Remove all the intake piping coming up to the TB first, makes it a lot easier. You can't move the throttle body very far, it's connected to the lower intake by coolant lines. Don't pull too hard or you'll cause coolant leaks. 
Remove all the vaccum lines from the driver side, behind the TB area. One is for the brake booster. 

You should be able to pull the manifold now. I may have forgotten a few small details, just go slow. If it doesn't move, something is still bolted to it.


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

Thanks a lot man. I hate doing mechanical stuff, but reading that makes it sound straight forward...I can even visualize some of the steps. Like you said, I'll go slow with it...car aint going anywhere anyway. Thanks a lot man. Really appreciate it.


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

andre said:


> Thanks a lot man. I hate doing mechanical stuff, but reading that makes it sound straight forward...I can even visualize some of the steps. Like you said, I'll go slow with it...car aint going anywhere anyway. Thanks a lot man. Really appreciate it.


Just gotta have a system to it. Start on one side, finish everything on that side, move on. The FSM details this operation too, you might want to D/L that. It's up in the stickies somewhere.


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

yea I was looking at the FSM diagram while typing that. The diagram was just kind of confusing, and I wanted to know the actual steps.


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

andre said:


> yea I was looking at the FSM diagram while typing that. The diagram was just kind of confusing, and I wanted to know the actual steps.


The diagram isn't much help, no. It should actually detail the procedure in writing somewhere, though....


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

ohhh....i didn't see it in writing...i'll try to check again.

By the way, I just called NISSAN about the fuel injector service campaign, but the guy couldn't pull up my VIN number in the system. He tried all that he could, but said it didn't match the ones the recall was issued for. Do you know if a Canadia model would VIN would pop up in a US check?


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

andre said:


> ohhh....i didn't see it in writing...i'll try to check again.
> 
> By the way, I just called NISSAN about the fuel injector service campaign, but the guy couldn't pull up my VIN number in the system. He tried all that he could, but said it didn't match the ones the recall was issued for. Do you know if a Canadia model would VIN would pop up in a US check?


Probably not, but I'm not sure. I think it was only a U.S. campaign.


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

Ok I was on the car again today, and I got a question. When removing the egr valve...you said remove the egr pipe...does this mean I dont need to remove the egr valve from the manifold? Or do I remove the pipe only and leave the egr connected to the manifold. I might have repeated myself....lol....confused. 

Coming around to the throttle body side, should I just remove the 4 allen bolts right by the throttle body. Or do I need to follow the pipe all the way down and disconnect it there?

I feel I may be forgetting something, but I cant seem to think straight right now. :asleep:


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

Yeah just unscrew the EGR pipe from the exhaust manifold. The main part of the EGR itself can stay bolted to the intake, it won't be in the way. 

On the throttle body side, remove the lower end of the big intake pipe first, unscrew the outter most band clamp up by the TB and remove that pipe. Unscrew the other band clamp and pull that rubber connector piece off. Now you can get to the Allen bolts.


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

Thanks a lot. I'm gonna try it again tomorrow.


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

oK I got the egr valve pipe off (with a good amount of persuasion  ) but I'm still stuck. This one's not so simple. I tried to get to the lower intake pipe to disconnect it under the car...cant get to it. The car is parked on a slope tilting backward, on a gravel "driveway", behind another car I have no keys for. Plus I tried to jack up the front of the car with the jackstands laying under the rear wheels to prevent slippage...the frame at the front of the car started bending. So not only dont I have enough room to get under the front of the car, but I also dont want to risk the car falling on me. My question is...*is the lower intake connected just like it is at the throttle body?* (with the metal clamps and rubber connector.) I might just _try_ to rotate it a little, so the upper part will be moved away from the TB. What do I risk damaging under there? I'm not gonna do that right away, but as a last resort. Please offer any other suggestion that doesn't require getting under the car. Thanks a lot!


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

Ok, yours is turbo. The turbo outlet has a single clamp around the lower area, just above the turbo outlet, with a rubber insert inside the pipe, and 2 bolts above on a brace about 5 inches above it. Undo the clamp, remove the 2 brace bolts, undo the one bandclamp on the outer end of the TB connector, and it should pull right off. No need to get under the car at all. All you'll see under there is the bottom side of the turbo.


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

Ok, without removing that intake pipe, I got the manifold off....with a lot of persuasion from a rubber hammer (thanks for the tips). I removed the fuel rail on the driver side to get to the broken hose there. It's one that goes from the rail into the side of the injector. There's a little metal "plate" at the bottom of the hose that spins but doesnt come off. It seems to be holding the hose in place. I tried pulling the hose up forcefully, but it still doesn't move (I already got the top part of that hose off). I just need to know how to get the hose loose so I can change it. I was thinking that plate screws off, but it doesn't seem to.
I'll just try to attack that valve cover until I get an answer on the hose. 
Thanks.


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

anybody.........?


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

It requires a lot of force to remove an inlet hose from an injector. Your best bet is to simply cut it off. To put the new hose on, you'll need a combination of oil, gasoline and strength. The fittings are very tight to prevent fire causing leaks..... 

And did I mention you can't brace the injector on anything, because the tips break off very easily.  

If you're not comfortable with man-handling on the injector or the rail, I would suggest having a shop do this. While you're doing the one hose, might as well do the rest too, they can't be in much better condition.


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

Zen31ZR said:


> While you're doing the one hose, might as well do the rest too, they can't be in much better condition.


Stupid Andre!!!! I wish I had done that...but I didn't.  Well I got that one off but I still couldn't get the valve cover off because of one screw...one bloody screw.  Oh well, I just replaced the rubber washers on all the other screws anyway. When taking the valve cover off though, I realized that a few of the screws were already loose....so that might have been the source of the leak on the driver side. Passenger side doesn't leak anymore. Just gotta put it back together now, and check the spark plugs. What size are the 1/4? I used the 5/8 plug remover and it didn't work, so someone told me to try 1/4. Hopefully I'll be finished with the engine this weekend. Thanks and later. :thumbup:


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

It runs!! :hal: Got done re-assembling it today, started it up, and it ran. Still smokes, but I gotta change the spark plugs still and see if that helps. The exhaust doesn't have any burning smell to it though...just smells like a big cloud of exhaust. If the spark plugs have oil on them, would it smell in the exhaust? No fuel leak, no oil leak, nothing bad so far....I pray it stays that way. Just gotta fix some other wiring issues under the car, and see if I can stop the smoke. Gonna try to do a compression test too. Can I get all this done by monday? B) 
By the way, when I took the intake manifold off, the 3 "chambers" that lead to the driver side of the motor were black on the inside, and the ones on the passenger side were just a little oily. I asked Pep about it but I cant remember what he said.  Any ideas/suggestions?
Also, the oil level light is on inside the car, but the car has oil in it. The gauge doesn't show that there's any oil in the car at all, but I checked the dipstick and there's more than enough oil in there. Ideas? Thanks a lot!


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

What color is the exhaust smoke. 

As far as the intake manifold dirtiness, hopefully the coolant housing isn't cracked on that side. Mine was, also caused a bit of smoking. If the smoking persists, route the coolant around the housing. I'll tell you how to do that, if you need my help.  

As far as the oil light and no oil pressure goes, that's probably just the oil pressure sensor not being plugged in. With your cars wiring issues, I'm not surprised.....


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

Is the oil pressure sensor plugged in at the top of the motor on the passenger side? There's one plug there that always seemed loose to me...a small piece of it is broken off.
The smoke is white. Doesn't smell like anything in particular, just a thick cloud of white smoke. *However*, I just changed a couple of the plugs (I could only get 2 out), and one was black as hell, as I expected, but the other one was dripping oil. :crazy: I kinda expected that too, but now I'm trying to change the rest. There's just a lot of debris in there around the plugs so I cant get the socket to go all the way down. I used a can of air to get most of the dirt out, but now there's a few big chunks of stuff in there. I'll try to use something sticky to get them out. Hopefully after I change the plugs the smoke will go away. What do you think?


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

White smoke is not good, usually indicates a blown head gasket. Or that cracked coolant housing I mentioned before. There is an IAC type module on the forawrd part of the upper intake manifold on the passenger side. There is coolant that runs through the manifold where it is bolted too. That housing was cracked on my manifold, letting coolant into the engine and causing the white smoke. Remove the inlet and outlet hoses from that housing. One goes down into the lower intake. Remove both hoses and route them together. See if the smoke persists. If that housing was the problem, it should stop.


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

forgot to tell you. when I started it up a neighbor came outside. he said based on the amount of smoke it has to be the head gasket. I'm not in NY anymore so I wont be able to pull the motor apart....so the car has to go.  Dont wanna do it, but I cant just leave it there anymore.


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

Don't take his word for it, do a compression test. Bypass that housing like I told you. Your neighbor is not the end-all authority on cars, obviously he knows nothing about these cars. If you're going to listen to some random idiot, then why did you come on here asking our advice..........


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## andre (Apr 30, 2002)

lol. I'm not in new york anymore, so I'm not able to do any work on the car. still dont know what i'm gonna do with it. before i left i did look at the diagrams to figure out the connections for the coolant lines like you said, so when i get back to the city i might give it another check. compression test was also on my to do list.


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## marvintrimble (May 4, 2017)

2007 Nissan frontier 2.5. To replace the plugs I need to remove the intire intake manifold. The bolts are hidden and three cannot be accessed by a socket. What a pain. any suggestionss


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## nissanjuke (May 15, 2017)

There is someone who knows absolutely.


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