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Author Topic: Did the plenum myself but I can see why some would rather pay about $1000  (Read 847 times)

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Offline theking

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..to get it done by the stealership or about $800 at a reputable independent shop.

Anyways, I decided to change spark plugs and upon reading more on it, some folks suggest that the valve cover gaskets and PCV should be changed too if the mileage is high enough and you don't know if it's been done already since the labor is basically done at that point so I did all three:








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Offline theking

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The front 3 plugs are easy to get to but the rear ones will require removal of the all the connectors, sensors, and vacuum hose on top as well as the plenum:








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Offline theking

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After removing the plenum and valve covers, I took care of the valve gaskets first:






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Offline theking

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Thanks D!

Took me about 8 hours from start to finish doing it the first time. The pros charge about 4-6 hours for labor from what I've read.



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Offline theking

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Obviously, O'reilly's ordering me the wrong intake manifold gasket didn't help so that cost me some time. Had to return it and got the right one at Advance autoparts. You can see the difference between the OEM gasket and the one I got at O'reilly's:








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Offline theking

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The new plugs come pre-gapped but I check the gap anyways just to play it safe. Would hate to do all that labor again just because one of the plugs has the wrong gap:




The old plugs are pretty much done so glad I changed it:





I recommend using these when replacing plugs:








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Offline theking

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I've must've taken about 20 vacuum lines and sensor connectors off during the job so very important to remember where things go. Mark it or take photos of it if needed. Last thing you want is put everything back to together and have to take it apart because there's a vacuum leak somewhere:


















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Offline theking

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On top of that, I must've taken close to 100 bolts off so this is what I did to help me remember where it goes. This is only about 1/3 of the bolts from the top layer above the plenum:






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Offline theking

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some of the best mechanics I know of, work in a different field..or at least now they do..lols because they no longer want to a part of the ripping people off business..lols the saying, do it yourself, at least you know its done right...

Unfortunately, that's true in some cases (rip-off mechanic shops)...

One of the reasons why I do my own work as much as possible...Wha t really suck is when someone messed things up and hide it and as a result, puts you and/or your love ones at risk on the road..examples can be as simple as not torqueing the brake and wheel components correctly and sh1t happens on the freeway.

Quote
10-20 years ago....wheel alighnment use to be 40 bucks, now you're lucky if you can find one that is 85 bucks. haha

Yeah and "85 bucks" may only cover the most basic alignment (front end only)  ;D



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Offline Cali Guy

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That is pretty good, you just gained some good experiences.

Industry with a bad reputation to up charge parts and labor, hard to find a reliable honest mechanic.



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Offline theking

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Yep, learn something new everyday. I've done a couple RWD vehicle valve gaskets in the past and it wasn't as involved as it only took me a couple of hours. But this front wheel drive V6 has a lot of stuff on top before you can even reach the valve cover so took me about 8 hours. If I do it again, should only take me 6 hours for the same job (valve cover gasket, plugs and PCV valve) now that I've done it. I can see why the pros have a shop labor rate of 4-6 hours for the job.



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Offline theking

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Speaking torque, make sure all the valve cover bolts are torque correctly to specs and follow this sequence when torqueing:




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Offline Cali Guy

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YouTube videos are useful, I watched quite a few before to help me along the ways on projects.



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Offline theking

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YouTube is a great resource IMO and they are useful for the most part and I've used it as guides for some of my past projects. However, I couldn't find any video that was detailed enough to help me sufficiently with this project. There were several videos available on YouTube mostly for the 2.7L and 3.5L motor but they were not up close and detail enough in terms of the removing and disconnecting the vacuum lines and sensors steps so I pretty much have to figured out some of it myself. Here's a video I've used to help guide me because the 3.3L motor is the same even though some parts under the engine bay are different due to it being a different model (just sharing the same motor), for example the rear bracket bolt on my vehicle is a 15mm but on his, it's a 14mm.

Even he said this at the 6:10 mark of the video:

"Lots of vacuum leak potentials here so I'll be happy if I put this thing back together and doesn't have any vacuum leak. That would be a really nice absolute miracle."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDcFxYabcfM

 ;D



« Last Edit: January 11, 2022, 08:17:21 PM by theking »

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