Repairing My Car’s Intake Manifold Coolant Leak

Saturday October 10, 2015 Guerneville CA.

Just a little procrastinating before I got her done

I knew I better do the repair on the car intake manifold today, if I could get in the mood. I procrastinated for an hour or so this morning before I felt like getting the job done. I know it’s just a matter of removing one piece at a time until all the parts were removed. Clean them up and reinstall them with the new intake manifold gaskets and reassemble all the parts again. Just takes a bit of time.

I tried to drain some coolant, but it looked like I was just going to have to go for it as I’d be working on top of the engine and I couldn’t see an easy way to just drain a little coolant, so I just started taking things apart. As it was, I only lost about half a pint of the coolant.

Here’s my work area just after I got started about eleven this morning. I just needed to remove the intake manifold, but first all the other stuff that bolted to it had to be removed which included most of the stuff on top of the engine.

Half way

I’m at the half way point here. I have the intake manifold out and sitting on the front of the car and am just ready to install the new gaskets. There’s not really much exciting to see here, but it all has to be done.

Can’t find my torque wrench

I looked up the specifications for tightening up the intake manifold, but looked all over for my torque wrench but couldn’t find it. In the end I just had to use my experience and tightened them by hand getting as close as I could without the torque wrench. I used to remember where all my stuff was, but this older age stuff seems to be getting in the way just a bit.

I have the gaskets and intake manifold put back on here and just a few other things to put back on and I’m done.

Sore back

I worked on and off on this, taking some breaks to put a cold pack on my sore back. I was done by four PM, but the silicone material I added to the gaskets said to wait 24 hours for it to cure before adding any coolant so I had to wait to finish the job until tomorrow at which time I will add the coolant and hopefully be done with this project.

My next project on the car is to check the right front disc brake pads as I see a lot of material from the brake pads on my front wheel. I’m not sure when I’ll get to checking that one out, but I will. I have a few other things I need to get done before winter sets in.

The rest of the day I spent doing mostly nothing, except some sitting in my yard enjoying the evening.