duowing

Alright now that the weather has been getting better, and I'm about to turn my 280ZXT into my daily, that way I can keep my L28ET for a future swap into another 280ZX or eventually a S30 and sell my van to my brother for some quick money.

Anyway, I've been going over Shady's thread a bunch and it's pretty helpful. My main question is, when I'm removing the intake manifold, what needs to be removed? I see the top 4 bolts that are 14mm, and then I guess there's a bunch of 12mm nuts? Are these located underneath the intake? I have that top cover off the intake that covers that top exhaust nut. So I assume there are a couple more than need to be undone to remove the intake? Any help is appreciated.

NismoPick

Yep... about 8 12mm nuts that join the intake & exhaust. Loosen them & the intake can be slid up & out. You don't need to take them all the way off... just loose.

duowing

Is it me or are there 2 heat shields under the Intake Manifold? It seems like there's one over the exhaust manifold itself, and then one that runs parallel to the intake manifold. I broke one of the bolts on the heat shield the looks like it's attached to the exhaust manifold. In the Haynes guide it says remove the vertical heat shield that is hanging from the Intake Manifold. Anyway I'm trying to undo the bolts that are going directly up and into the intake manifold that hold that heat shield you can see when you remove that access plate for the top exhaust bolt, right? There's about 5 of them from what I can tell, and they're all about 12mm. I cannot get these darn things to budge. Anyway I hope I'm on the right track and any advice would be great.

Edit: Looking back at some of Wildman's older posts I saw that he said he got the intake manifold off when he was prying at the heat shield, and said that the manifold is only mounted by the top 4 bolts? So does that mean the lower nuts only serve to kind of wedge the intake manifold in place? Also I saw that Apollo said you can manage to get the intake manifold off without removing the heat shield? Also is it necessary to have the Intake and Exhaust manifold heat shields? If I don't necessarily need them then I won't struggle with getting them back on, but if I do I'll make sure to get them back on. I'd think it'd be slightly more important with the Turbo right there, but I'm not sure.

snwbrderphat540

ummm... should still be able to remove it with the shields attatched...

SHADY280

you gotta get them sheilds out, well to make it easier. the very top center bolt is really covered by the sheild. you gotta take out the egr tube to get the sheild out, makes it way easier.

duowing

Sounds like a fun pain in the ***. I'm just gonna work on getting the EGR tube out then and spraying that crap down with PB blaster, liquid wrench, etc

snwbrderphat540

really...hmmm.. i didnt remove any of my shields... than again i think we pulled mine teh engine out so my bad.... but the shields were removed afterward by my dad for no seeming reason. he mightve removed one when i wasnt around though also idk

duowing

Good god this is a pain in the ***. Now I know how Wildman felt. Two bolts I think are rounded off and the last one for this damn heatshield way in the back, I have no idea how to get the wrench on it to loosen it. Are there any other suggestions?

thxone

If it is giving you a pain in the ***...take a break for a bit and go back at it when your head is more clear.

tickwon

Agreed I tend to break stuff when I get frustrated and tried.

When I took out my intake mainfold I left the shield on.

duowing

Well I see you have a turbo, so any pointers as to how to get the intake manifold out without pulling the shield would be very helpful.

NismoPick

Pulling the manifolds while they're still on the car is always a pain... especially on the turbos. I've always just pulled the head w/ the manifolds still attached & removed them from the head outside the engine bay. It's a lil more work, but much easier.

tickwon

Well, this is what I did and always worked for me, a little time consuming, but works. My first mistake (the first time I did this) was taking out the manifold bolts (mine were bolts at first, now I have studs in)...leave them in, like Nismopick said. (makes installation so much easier). I had one of those expandable mirrors to help me see the bolts/nuts I was trying to get at. I also had two extensions with a universal elbow, if I needed and I had to use it twice. So, the tools I used were two extensions, universal elbow, 3/8" rachet, expanable mirror (the kind dentist use, but bigger), and I worked in my garage so I needed a drop light. I hope this helped some. Some of us here had taken this manifold off soooo many times, it comes second nature to us. We are here to help in any way we can. If the shield is still a big problem I would go with a 1/4" rachet with extensions, I'm sure that will fit in between. Good luck.

duowing

The bolts you have to get to, are between the heat shield and the intake manifold? Or are they below the heat shield connected to the intake manifold? Also the bolts you mentioned about leaving in, I'm not sure where those are, but I'll get some extensions, sockets, and that elbow and go at it. From the sounds of it, once the intake manifold is off, everything else is easy.

Oh and can anyone say whether or not the heat shields have to be in there? At least would I need to put the heat shield that covers the exhaust manifold back in if I still have the intake manifold shield?

SHADY280

if you remove the intake manifold, by undoing all the bolts related to it. and leave the exhuast only ones alone. you can take off the intake, then get to the last top center one. even if all you can do is get the lower bolts loose, its all it needs to slip vertically out of place. hope that helps.

duowing

Looking at your thread for the manifold gasket, it looks like the only bolts related are just the couple near the top that are right by the 14mm bolts you undo on the top of the intake, right? You know, come to think of it, what is a universal elbow? I may have used it, but called it something else.

tickwon

It's like one of those swivel eblow looking attachments. So, that you're able to use the tool at any angle. I don't have the heat shield on my intake anymore, I do however have a sheet of heat blanket, my brother used some of that heat blanket to wrap his headers, he had some left over, so I used it...does it help? I don't know, but I guess it's better than nothing. Think of a sheet of heat blanket, that's under the intake and I used the bolts holding the heat shield to hold this blanket. But is leaving the shield off bad, not too sure...I know it was a pain in the *** when I had to take the manifold on and off like you're doing. I've had the metal heat shield off for years, all has been good. When I bought my car from the pervious owner, he didn't have a heat shield over the exhaust manifold. I didn't know one existed on the turbo models.

duowing

Alright, I think I've almost got it. I started looking at diagrams, pics of the exhaust manifold thanks to one for sale on ebay, and looking at the intake/exhaust gasket that I have here. Turns out I finally realized where the nuts are. I've got 5 of them loosened. I'm having a bit of trouble getting to one more, but I'm sure I'll do it. I was wondering theres two nuts or bolts(can't tell) that are really low on the exhaust manifold they're in the middle and they form that triangle shape with the top bolt that is under that little access plate on the intake. Do those have to be loosened?

snwbrderphat540

wow, removing this crap OWNED you, took my under an hour to remove and just over an hour to but back on, but thats casue i did it the hard way, i place the whole exhaust mani turbo and downpipe in attatched to one another. lol...
here is a pick of the header i got chillen that will give you a clue as to where all the hidden nuts/bolts are, and then teh 3 on top of the intake mani that are visible of coarse.
here is my engine where you can see teh nuts in the holes

and the header

duowing

Yeah this thing really did own me, but I feel so dumb that once I actually figured out where these nuts were that I had almost all of them loosened in under 40 minutes. I spent so much time on the intake heat shield now I find out it really doesn't make much difference other than giving you slightly less room. The biggest problem I've had is the stupid exhaust manifold heat shield. Oh and remember too that I'm doing this on the turbo engine, there's a lot more crap in the way, but I'm glad I'm making progress. For a bit there I was just kinda stuck and took a break not knowing what to do. Glad that I'm back at it and making progress. Also it looks like only one of my bolts or studs is broken, the one on the rear of the engine, so that's good to see that I have to only deal with one broken stud or bolt as opposed to multiple.

snwbrderphat540

huh.... mines a turbo engine to now in an S30 though, i did way with the heat shields though. prolly shoulda left one on but, my dad trashed it for some reason. lol. as for me, non of my studs or bolts broke surprisingly, i think i lost a nut though and had to find a fake replacement, oo owait, no i left one out thats what it was, i couldnt get one in do to room, it wouldnt catch and jsut kept faling out, couldnt get my hand in there either to try and assist it. it was bogus.

duowing

I'm going to at least get the bolts out of my intake heat shield and replace the two I rounded off. I'd at least want to keep that shield on, but like I said I see no reason for the shield over the exhaust manifold as it only covers part of the exhaust, and then stops because there is the turbo there. So it's not making any sense to me why part of it has a shield. I'm really looking forward to finally seeing my turbo engine running beautifully as this is the last thing it needs. I've sorted out every other problem with the engine.

tickwon

Yeah I had no idea it had a heat shield over the exhaust manifold. When I bought my car from the previous onwer there was no shield. Oh well...glad to hear you're making progress.

duowing

Oh by the way, I think when you said that universal elbow, you meant a socket that can like swivel and move positions, right? If so I've always called that a swivel socket and I was confused by universal elbow, but anyway I'm gonna keep at it, if it weren't for constant work these days I'd probably already have the thing out. Well I'm aiming for this weekend.

tickwon

You're right...there is a swivel socket (with a swivel and a socket)...I was talking about just the elbow (no socket at the end). Normally used to connect two extensions together, or you can put a socket at the end of it. I've heard people call it a universal elbow...I guess it just stuck in my head. It's all good, you got the idea. That's all that matters. Hope everything works out...good luck.