..i have no idea why i thought your rig had EGR being an 05, the vestigial pipe in the center of the manifold there confused the living s#&* out of me lol.

On topic, i have lost track of how many times i've had a near panic over thinking i lost a bolt in the intake. one of these days im sure it'll happen and it will suck.

 

Yeah Mods I thought it must have been that center pipe that was confusing you lol, but yeah this has really sucked.
I went to start cleaning the intake manifold yesterday and was scrubbing at it with brake cleaner for about 45 minutes and it still looked like this.

So I did a lot of searching on what I could do to get the rest of this off then went out and got some scotch brite pads for my die grinder this morning. While being very careful it took all the gunk off very quickly and a quick wipe with brake cleaner it's now looking like this.


I am now pretty happy with how clean it is and ready to clean out the lifter valley and put this thing back on! It has been snowing all day today and I just don't feel comfortable going out there and doing it while it's snowing. Hopefully, I can get it done tomorrow.

 

Looking good. It pays it be careful and methodical so you never have to do it again!

 

So I ended up going out and cleaning the lifter valley some after that post yesterday. Then I finished cleaning it up this morning and decided it was time to go back together. Gave everything one last wipe down and put on the rtv and gaskets then put the manifold back on!! Torqued everything up in the three-step method then went over all of them again at the last torque setting to make sure they were all to spec. Then I put a new gasket on the distributer and slid it down in, to my surprise it lined right up and slid right down in where it was before! So thank you Christine that really worked out well now I don't need to mess with setting TDC. Hopefully, I can end the day by getting the new spider and upper plenum back in but I still need to do a few other things before that can happen. Need to eat some lunch now so I will see how much I get done after lol.

 

Congrats. It id always nice to be in the reassembly phase!

And you are very welcome. It took me a few times to get my distributor back in correctly! I'm my hints were able to save you some aggravation.

 

Much appreciated Christine, it definitely feels good to be putting stuff together finally that's one of the main reasons why I want to get the new spider and the plenum on asap because all the work left after will be much more relaxing lol. I went back out and hooked some more stuff back up, to the point I was ready to put in the new spider and put the plenum back on. Unfortunately, the spider is giving me a hard time going in, it doesn't want to bend down into the holder. The more I work with it the closer I'm getting but it just seems like I need another set of hands to help it go in. So tomorrow I'll get some help and hopefully get it clipped in the holder.

 

Well, this really sucks, I got everything back bolted together today. I used a heat gun to heat up the injector tubes a little bit then I could clip in the spider much easier, I think they were just cold. Once everything was back together I primed the system to check for any leaks around the fuel lines and I was good. Then I went to start it and it barely started the first time and died in seconds then wouldn't start anymore unless I was holding the gas down while cranking it. I should mention it reeked like gas bad around the engine bay at this point so I double-checked the spark plug and coil connections then looked in the throttle body to smell more gas, so unfortunately I'm now taking the plenum back off and going to check for leaks next.

 

Oh man. That sucks.

Are you working outside? Are you confident that the heat gun didn't do any damage?

 

Yeah, I'm working outside... I'm almost positive the heat gun didn't do any damage because I didn't heat anything up burning hot with it I only just warmed up the tubes a few degrees making them easier to bend. I've also spent quite some time looking at the picture I posted above and can't see anything wrong with how it is. Anyways I have a good feeling its something to do with the spider because of what I previously mentioned the very heavy gas smell especially in the throttle body and to add on the distributor went in perfectly it lined exactly up with my markings, all the spark plugs are connected, and it's getting air... I just wish I did a leak-down test before it got dark out that could have really confirmed it, I have everything pretty much disconnected again I just need to take off the fuel lines then I'll be able to take off the plenum again and see what's going on hopefully.

 

Hmmmm. Perhaps when you get back out there you'll find a an obvious gas leak that can be easily fixed. The problem with those easy-to-fix issues is that they are almost always due to some bone-headed mistake. When it happens to me, my pride is definitely hurt but it is more than compensated by my relief at having an easy fix to do. LOL

And you are working outside?? Dang, I am impressed.

Are you wearing nitrile gloves? I've found they can actually keep my hands a bit warmer in addition to keeping them cleaner.

As for some ideas, have you double checked that the injectors are in the proper intake runners? Maybe one popped out and it (they) only needs to be pushed back in.

Good Luck!!