2001 Chevrolet Express 1500 Van V8 5.0L Upper Intake Manifold Dorman OE Solutions 615-181

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In this video, we're gonna be working with our 1996 GMC Sierra. We're gonna show you how to remove and replace your vehicle's upper intake manifold. If you like this video, please click subscribe. We have a ton more information on this and many other vehicle and if you need this part for your truck, you can follow the link down in the description over 1AAuto.com. Here are the items that you'll need for this repair.

Lift up on the latches and remove the upper portion of your air box. Unplug the intake air step and mass air flow sensors. Pop the breather line off and undo the thumb screw. Rock the upper part of the intake forward and remove it from the vehicle.

Disconnect the throttle cables from the throttle body—the cruise cable just pops forward. With the throttle body open, you should have enough slack in the throttle cable to bring it around to the gap and slide the end of the cable out. Remove the throttle cable bracket. There's a 10 millimeter bolt at the throttle body, and a 10 millimeter nut down on the manifold side. We'll do this with a 10 millimeter socket and ratchet. Lift up and remove the throttle bracket and all we're going to do is just pull this out of the way and tuck it off to the side.

Label and remove all of the electrical connectors. It's not entirely necessary to label these, but I like to just because once you get back to putting everything together it can be a little tricky remembering what went where. We're going to disconnect everything attached to the upper intake manifold as well as the ignition coil module because those will have to come off.

We should have enough room to release the harnesses and move them out of the way while we lift this off. We'll disconnect the throttle position sensor, idle air control connector, the purge and vent solenoids on the side, the ignition control module, and the ignition coil, and of course the injector connector at the top. We'll pop that tab off. It may help to have a small flat blade screwdriver to pry out the tabs and remove the injector connector. You'll also need to undo the connector on the manifold absolute pressure sensor. Pop off any wire harness retainers you find around the vehicle as well. Just to help get some more slack on the harness for when we remove the intake, disconnect any hoses attached to the intake.

We have one on the passenger side, one on the driver's, and then one at the back for the vacuum booster, which we'll need a pair of pliers to remove. Use a pair of pliers to release the clamp on the vacuum booster hose. Sometimes if the hose is stuck, it helps to just hold the edges with a pair of pliers and work it side to side to loosen it up. Remove the three 10 millimeter nuts securing the evap solenoids to the sides of the intake manifold with a 10 millimeter socket and ratchet. We'll now remove these from the vehicle. You can either just hang them off to the side like this or you can undo that connector if you'd like.

Remove the two 10 millimeter nuts on the bracket for the ignition coil and control module. We'll then lift up and remove this harness retainer bracket. Move the harness retainer bracket out of the way. You'll then need to remove the three 10 millimeter nuts below that bracket securing your ignition coil to the intake. You can then hang that bracket off to the side as well. Remove the cap on the fuel straighter valve. It's usually best to use a fuel pressure test tool to thread on there, which usually has a relief hose on it that you can place into an appropriate container. You just want to push down here and make sure you bleed off any pressure in the fuel system.

Using a T-20 Torx driver, you can use a screwdriver and a bit and a ratchet like I am here. Remove the two screws securing the distributor cap onto the distributor. Now, we're only doing this to gain access to the fuel lines, so you should just be able to unscrew the cap and push it back and out of the way without undoing any of your plug wires. If you do find the need to undo your plug wires, just be sure to mark where they came off of so they all go back in the same place.

Now, you're not really going to be able to see the other T-20, because it's on the back side of the cap, but you can see the little indent there and just kind of do that one by feel. Where this screw is hard to reach and see, and you don't want to drop it, I suggest lifting up on the cap while you unscrew it to keep it in there. Once it's out, it should be a little easier to pop out and keep your hands on it. We're going to just move this out of the way. Using a 16 millimeter flare nut wrench, loosen the fuel fittings on the back of the fuel lines. These are down behind the intake on the driver's side. Then remove the 10 millimeter bolt securing the fuel line bracket to the back of the engine block. We'll do this with a 10 millimeter socket, ratchet, and extension.

Remove the 10 millimeter nut underneath the thermostat hose or the upper radiator hose with the 10 millimeter socket and ratchet. This is securing a bracket that holds a little more of the wire harness in place, so we'll want that out of our way. It looks like this one is stuck together a little bit, so we're actually pulling the stud out too here it would appear. That's perfectly fine, because we're just going to hang this out of the way. We would need to remove that stud in order to take the manifold off anyway. We'll also want to remove the 10 millimeter nut securing the bracket over the EGR tube. We'll lift that bracket up and move that out of the way as well.

Now some of our nuts came out with the studs on them, so just follow around the perimeter of the upper intake manifold, which is the black plastic piece, and you should have somewhere between 13 or, in our case, eight studs left to remove. So just go around and just take all of those out with a 10 millimeter socket and ratchet. Remove the two eight millimeter nuts securing the fuel lines onto the injector bracket here. You'll want to lift the bracket off first just a little hold down that we just unscrewed there. Remove that and then pull the fuel lines out of the housing. You may need a little help prying these up. Remove those fuel lines completely.

Work the upper intake. This can take a little bit of effort to remove because the injector assembly here actually stays in the lower manifold. So when we pop this cover off, we're trying to break this loose here too. Once you've got it off of the injectors, just work it up and out of the vehicle.

We'll have to remove our throttle body to install on our new intake manifold. To do this, we'll remove the five and a half millimeter intake hold-down stud as well as the two eight millimeter bolts. We'll do this with a five and a half millimeter socket and ratchet on this stud and then an eight millimeter on the other two. We'll then remove the throttle body.

We'll also need to remove the fitting for our brake booster as well as the one for the PCV and our manifold absolute pressure sensor. To remove the pressure sensor, we'll spray a little lubricant on the bottom side and while you can do this in the vehicle, these tend to break, so removing it this way allows you to lubricate it, or if it were to break on you, it won't fall into the engine. We'll also lubricate the bottom side of the vacuum fitting for the master cylinder. Pop that out, as well as our PCV.

Here we have our old part that we removed from our vehicle and our new part from 1AAuto.com. As you can see, these parts are exactly the same. They have the same size and shape of the intake manifold, same mounting locations, for our throttle body, all of our bolts and brackets, PCV, master cylinder, hose fitting, manifold absolute pressure sensors we have over here as well comes with a new throttle body gasket and the new upper intake manifold gasket. It also includes a new gasket for the injector assembly. If your old manifold has cracked or broken and is creating leaks, this new part from 1AAuto will go into direct fit, just like your original equipment and fix you up right.

Install your PCV, your master cylinder vacuum line fitting, and your manifold absolute pressure sensor. We'll then install the throttle body with the two eight millimeter bolts and the five and a half millimeter intake hold-down stud. Start these with an eight millimeter socket and this with a five and a half. We'll then torque all three to 18 inch bounds.

wipe down the gasket surfaces with some solvent. Make sure all the dirt and oil and residue is removed from it. Use a razor blade to scrape any residue off the flat portions in the engine valley here at both the front and the rear.

This here should be there, so just pick those out real quick. Once everything is removed, spray some solvent on a clean paper towel and wipe down both surfaces. Make sure they are free and clean of oil and debris, as we're going to need to use some gasket maker here. Just have a little piece of tape left over from painting our heads that we're going to want to remove. We'll now install our intake manifold gaskets. Make sure they align, and there are two locking pins underneath that will snap into the head and keep that gasket in place. Put some gasket maker into the valley corners here. You'll want to get the corner under the intake gasket and then run it right along. You want to go too thick. Just like that should be fine.

We'll do the same thing in the rear, and this stuff is time sensitive, so make sure your intake manifold is ready to go on. Then set your intake manifold back into place. Ensure that your gaskets are aligned and reinstall the eight bolts, each in each corner of the lower intake manifold. Remember to leave the bolt out for the EGR tube hold down on the back driver side and then tighten down the seven 13mm bolts with a socket, ratchet, and socket extension.

Kind of like our head gasket, we'll want to go from front to back, crossover a little bit, and we tighten down our hardware here to make sure that it doesn't pinch in one corner so that all four sides seal evenly. Tighten the bolts three steps using the sequence shown. The first sequence is the 71 inch-pounds, the second at 106 inch-pounds and the final sequence will torque these bolts to 11 foot-pounds.

Install your new valve cover gasket. It's just have to be stretched in there a little bit. Reinstall your valve cover. Start your four 10mm bolts. We'll do the same thing on the opposite side. Reinstall the other valve cover the same way. We'll reinstall those four 10mm screws as well by hand and then we'll tighten all eight, four on each side with our 10mm socket and ratchet, which will then tighten and torque to 106 inch-pounds.

Realign your EGR tube. You'll need a 22mm wrench to get it started. Line up the bracket for the EGR tube once the valve cover is on and the front is in place. Reinstall the 13mm hold down bolt with a 13mm socket, ratchet, and socket extension. Reattach the fuel lines at the rear of the intake manifold.

Using a 16mm flare wrench, tighten down the fittings on the fuel lines. Using a T20 Torx socket, ratchet, and extension, remove the two T20 Torx screws from your new distributor cap if it came as one piece. Now these are now captured, so you want to be very careful not to loose them. Once those screws are loose, remove your cap.

Then, using a T10 Torx either screwdriver or bit, remove the two Torx screws in the center of the rotor. Once again, these are not captured so be very careful not to loose these. Remove your rotor from the distributor.

Once we've removed the cap and rotor from our new distributor, the correct way to align one of these, we'll line up the eight in this window with the notch and the housing. This will also leave the side of this window lined up with the edge of the cam sensor there. We'll then set it so that this is just about flushed to the back of the engine, move it a little way one way or the other.

Drop it in, line up our tab, and start our bolt a few threads by hand to keep it in place until we start our engine and fine tune it. Set the distributor in with the flat portion of the housing facing the front of the engine. If your timing marks are correct, it should drop right into place. Start the 13mm bolt into the hold down on your distributor. Then we're going to put this down snug, but not fully tight just yet because we want to make sure the truck runs and runs right.

We'll now install the rotor onto the distributor and tighten down the two T20 Torx screws. Now, when you're in time, that tab should be facing roughly towards cylinder one, which is going to be the driver's front and it is now. Now what we're doing here is just a rough timing or base timing, so this should be enough to get the vehicle running.

However, with these distributors, you do need a scan tool in order to get them dialed in perfectly. Plug in the cam position sensor on the back of the distributor now, as it's going to be a lot harder to get out once we put the cap on. Reinstall the distributor cap. Then tighten down your two T20 Torx screws for the T20 Torx spit, ratchet and extension or a torque screwdriver, whichever you prefer. Just don't put these down too tight, because they're only going into plastic, and these are notorious for breaking.

If you did what we did and threaded the bolts back into the intake just so you wouldn't loose them, you're going to want these two studs. These are in the actual aluminum of the lower intake.

This is where we'll reinstall our ignition coil and ignition control module. These are 10mm but for now right, we're just going to get them in there and get them started by hand. We'll then tighten down the two bolts with a 10mm socket, ratchet, and socket extension. Lay the hold down bracket for the wiring harness back into place. Reinstall the two 10mm nuts onto the hold down for the wire harness bracket here. We'll then tighten them down with a 10-mm socket, ratchet and extension.

Reinstall your power steering and A/C bracket. Reinstall all of your 13mm hardware, which you should have marked on a bolt path sort of like this. Don't forget you also have the nut that goes on that stud on the front of the bracket. Tighten down the power steering pump bolts with a 13mm socket and ratchet.

We'll then tighten down the four power steering pump bracket bolts, three bolts and a nut with a 14mm socket and ratchet. We purchased a power steering pulley puller and installer tool set, but the problem is the threads on our installer tool either don't work, or the threads inside of our power steering pump shaft are damaged.

We whipped up a tool with some things we found already in the engine of our truck, and we'll show you what we made. Now our alternator bracket is off since we're doing our cylinder heads. However, if yours is still attached, this process will still work. You'll simply use a 14mm socket and ratchet to remove this nut, which would secure the bracket on. Then you'll use either a pair of vice grips or preferably an E8 inverted torque socket and ratchet to remove the stud from the front of the head.

Once again, since we have our head apart, some of these pieces are already off, but we also used the nut that holds down the ground on a thermostat housing cover. We'll place the thermostat housing cover nut onto the back of the stud that we removed from our head. We'll then take the nut that we removed from this stud and install it backwards as far down as we can.

Then we're going to use the spacer that I had lying around the shop. You could also use a large washer. You want to make sure it's a nice thick one. We'll toss that on there. There's a trolley, so when we tighten down this nut, it won't rotate this. It will just push it in and push our pulley on.

We're just going to apply a thin coat of brake grease onto the shaft here to try to make our pulley go on just a little bit easier. Line up the pulley onto the shaft and install the stud. You want to get that in as tight as you can to start. Run in our 14mm nut into the spacer which is going to help center our pulley. We'll then use one 14mm wrench to hold the stud and the pump shaft in place and another 14mm wrench to tighten down the nut on the installer.

Reinstall the stud into the bank two cylinder head with you E8 inverted torque socket and ratchet. Make sure it bottoms out. Press the clamp for the water pump hose and reinstall it onto its fitting. Then reinstall your alternator bracket. We'll then tighten down all of the 14mm hardware with a socket and ratchet. Reinstall your alternator into the bracket.

Reinstall the two 13mm at the bottom of the alternator. Reinstall the 10mm bolt in the back of the alternator. Tighten it down with your 10mm socket and ratchet. Reconnect all of your electrical connectors and vacuum hoses. Apply some thread sealant to the cooling temp sensor and reinstall it into the bank one cylinder head if you removed it earlier like we did to paint.

Reconnect that electrical connector as well. Reinstall the ground strap at the bottom front of the motor, tighten down the 14mm nut. Reconnect the crank position sensor. Snap the heater hose back into place, clip it back into its plastic retainer as well. We'll also run the other heater line back through its bracket. Don't forget, remove your bolt if you kept it there like we did. Reconnect the heater hose and use a pair of pliers to move the clamp back into position. Reinstall your 10mm bolt. Reconnect the alternator power terminal to the stud on the back of the alternator. We'll resecure this with the 13mm washer and nut.

Reinstall your throttle cables. Remember to hook them into the bracket over the AC compressor. Loop them around. The one with the barrel end like this goes into the square slot. Then open the throttle body blade. Install by looping at around into its slot, and flipping it back into place.

Then send the round cruise control cable in, lock that in, and just snap that hook back over to tab. Install the vacuum boost to line on the rear of the intake manifold. I'm going to use locking jaw pliers this time to compress the clamp. That can be a little bit easier sometimes, depending on what style. Put the A/C compressor back into its bracket, and reinstall the four bolts and then tighten them down with a 13mm socket, ratchet, and extension.

Reconnect the connector on the A/C compressor clutch and the two connectors on the back. Reinstall the tensioner and the 13mm bolt in the center. Don't forget to line up that tab on the back with its whole in the bracket and tighten down the 13mm bolt with a socket and ratchet.

Reinstall the serpentine belt around the crank shaft. The right side, the driver side of the belt will go up and over the water pump, down and under the power steering pulley, up and over the AC compressor, under the idler pulley at the top and the passenger side will come up over the tensioner. Hold the tensioner with the drive of a 3/8th ratchet and rotate it counterclockwise to release the tension, so you can slide it over the alternator pulley.

Ensure that the belt is routed correctly. Release the tension and remove your ratchet. Using a pair of locking jaw pliers, compress the clamp on the upper radiator hose. If you removed yours fully from the radiator, we're going to install the radiator side first. Release the clamp, compress the clamp for the thermostat side. We left ours on the housing. Reinstall that hose as well as its clamp.

Reinstall the upper fan shroud. If you remember ours was missing two bolts, so we'll only be reinstalling five. Yours should have seven. Don't forget throughout the power wire back over from your battery. Place the coil plug back onto the ignition coil and then the passenger rear on the distributor is marked C for your coil so we'll reinstall that line there. The rest of them are pretty self-explanatory. It goes six, four, two, eight on the passenger side.

We'll reinstall those wires in the same order and then connect them to the corresponding spark plug. Remember the passenger bank at the front is cylinder two followed by four, six, eight, while the driver side starts with cylinder one and goes three, five, seven. Once all the wires are plugged in, we'll route them along to their appropriate plugs. Now your distributor cap is marked on the opposite side so repeat this process and install the wires over there as well.

Reinstall the upper intake and the thumb screw. Reconnect your PCV breather hose. Reinstall the mass airflow and intake air temp sensors. Install the air box lid and snap it down into place. Reconnect your negative battery terminal and tighten it back down with a 8mm socket and ratchet or an 8mm wrench. Once you've refilled the coolant and changed your oil, you're ready to start your vehicle.

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