so im trying to take a peek at my plenum today. I unscrewed the vortec plate and removed the 2 torx screws hold the air flow regulator in place and also disconnected the electrical connector going to it. after a LOT of effort i got the air flow regulator off, but the problem is only the top half of the regulator came off(the black part). there is now the bottom part of the regulator sitting nice and snug in there and wont move at all. After a hour of trying i finally put it back together and gave up.

Is anyone else having trouble takeing that stupid thing off?

Any help would be much appreciated! thanks

 

Damn, that sucks. Hopefully you didn't damage it.

I'd just pull the upper plenum off.

 

Oh no, mine just popped right off by hand. Guess you need one of those now too. Take off the upper plenum, you need 10MM deep socket, and there is 10 bolts/nuts to go around to take it off. Then you can pop that baffle thats broken out from the inside and get a good look at whatever it is you were wanting to take a look at. I would to grab one of those baffles form the auto wrecker, they shouldnt be that hard to take out as yours was. Let us know, and what were you taking a look at in the plenum?

 

well it didnt break it looks like the regulator is 2 pieces that snap together (black peice and metal peice). its hard to explain but the metal part has 2 prongs that go up into the black part.

The reason why im wanting to look in the plenum is because my car is having a very hard time starting at times. its getting worse and worse where it wont even start for a couple of hours or overnight sometimes. i need to go out to get a fuel pressure gauge to do a fuel pressure test, but i thought i would take off the top and peek at the plenum first to see if there are any leaks there so i can make one trip to the parts store...

 

Did you smell your motor oil too? It should be pretty gassy by now if you have a leak inside there.

Anyone care to enlighten me on just what this threads broken part is and does??? If I had to guess its some kind of spoiler type thing that helps with airflow to the rear 2 cylinders...

 

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...colorcoded.jpg

the black round thing on top of the engine is what i am talking about. and it is not broken it actually is able to come apart, and since i was not able to open up the engine i was not able to smell anything at all

 

You dont need to open the engine to smell the dipstick for gassy smells. If it smells like gas on the dipstick then you will be wanting to pull that plenum off and have a peek for where your leak is.

 

The thing is the IMTV, or Intake Manifold Tuning Valve. Depending on the needs of the engine, it turns it into a single plenum or a split plenum.

 

Just an update guys so I finally got some time to work on the truck again and did a fuel pressure test and it's shooting up to 55ish 60 range with key on engine off and when I crank it goes to 45 sprayed starter fluid in and still no start. I just replaced the ignition coil plugs and wires and cap and rotor so I know that's not the problem so tomorrow I'm gonna take the ignition control moduel to the stroessner to get it tested because I'm not getting a spark at all. Hopefully that will be the problem and life will be good