4.0 V6 intake manifold removal question

I have removed all ten of the 12mm bolts from the intake manifold. I got the drivers side of the manifold to life off of the head but the passenger side seems to be held up a bit by those two dowel pins. What's the best method to get that side to free up? ? Just keep wiggling (I've done a lot of that already). ? Perhaps some lube on those dowel pins? Any help here would be greatly apprciated.

Thanks, Homespun

 

OK I wiggled and wiggled some more and it finally pulled off the dowel pins with the help of some PB Blaster. Holy mackeral - lots and lots of leaves stuffed under there. Plenty of chipmonks around here and this is no doubt their work.

 

I'd shop-vac that intake really good.
And rig up something to get down in the intake.
If you get an acorn or twig down in there. You could potentially have a valve stick open.
Doubtful an acorn or small twig would cause cylinder damage, but you don't need any "more" reasons to take it back apart.

 

Those ChipMonks can be a real pain!!

 

Chipmunks ate through the wiring for the knock sensors on my truck years ago. Dealer got paid a lot to fix it. I then trapped and "moved" 5 dozen chipmunks after that. Didn't know that many were around.

 

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That's the problem that I have however since I don't have comprehensive insurance and I'm not rich the job has fallen to me.

 

Yep, understand. My bill years ago was ~$1800 without insurance and $1100 with insurance. I had a $1000 deductible. I got fucking scammed and bent over on that one.

 

I was suprised that there weren't any acorns under the intake manifold, just on the top sides which I vacuumed up before I removed it. Unreal how many leaves those critters stuffed under the intake. I will take your advise and place shop towels in each of the intakes before I remove the gaskets and clean gasket surface with brakeclean. I'm still not quite halfway thru this job as I'm pretty sure that I will need to remove that knock sensor harness because the wires to the drivers side are chewed thru at the plug. Not looking forward to having to remove those coolant pipes for better access. Thanks for the reply, Homespun

 

Since I started this thread I managed to remove the large water pipe that runs thru the V. That lower middle bolt in the water out housing was probably the biggest frustration yet. Tried to fit a socket on it but no go. Had to find and remove all by feel and it required the box end of a 10mm combo wrench with only room for one flat of the bolt head movement per turn. My frustration likely blinded me to a better way.
I'm getting ready to place a parts order and wondered if it's necessary to replace the injector o-rings and seals as I pulled all of the innjectors from the intake to get it out of the way which I realize now wasn't necessary - just removing a couple or three of the rail rail bolts would have allowed room to slide the rail over just a bit in order to reach the intake manifold bolts beneath it. So - here's my long wnded question: is it necessary to replace the injector seals and o-rings? Engine has about 123.5K on it.

Thanks, Homespun

 

I'd replace them. If they were undisturbed with no issues or leaks I'd consider leaving them but now they're out, why risk re-using an o-rings with over 100K on them. I'd also throw in a waterpump if I was into it that deep.

 

O-rings and insulators are non reusable according to the book. Obviously cost will be the driving factor, but if not too expensive it would be worth while to replace them while you're there.

 

Thanks for the quick replies to my fairley rhetorical question. The cost was pretty reasonable thru OEM parts quick. Parts order has been placed and hopefully here in short order.
I thought that I was out of the woods but I have one more thing to remove that's giving me a bit of a fit. I have both knock sensor connectors removed and the tab/wire holder that's on the smaller pipe but I can't see where the main connector is. Harness exits V and turns toward passenger side and then kind of disappears. Will I need to remove the passenger side front wheel and inner fender flap to access?