When you go to remove the upper manifold you will have to take off the SAI pipes. The pipes screw on to an adapter with 2 union nuts, but you do not want to simply take a wrench and start trying to turn the nuts because the pipe is very easy to twist and break. This is the SAI pipe I am talking about. There is one on each side of the engine.


The pipes screw onto this adapter. You are going to want to fit an open end wrench on the square part of the adapter to hold it while you take another wrench and turn the nut on the SAI pipe so it won't twist on you. Does that make sense?

 

Alright well Ill hold off on the valve cover gaskets then. Ill wait until I have the upper intake manifold gasket and enough fluids to do the job. So for this weekend Ill stick with the power steering system and Ill replace the heat plate as discussed earlier. Guess Ill do a couple other small tasks like clean out the leaves from the heat blower motor assembly, and try to tighten up the front passenger side a pillar which has come loose.

And yes that does make sense, thanks for the tips mate. I will refer back to this thread shortly when I have all the stuff i need to do the valve gaskets. Thanks so dam much for everything you guys do for us!

 

I don't think you need to completely drain the coolant to pull the upper intake, but you will need the gasket so you need to wait. Besides, fixing the power steering will burn up your weekend anyway. Pulling the fan can be a bitch. Some people cut the stud to avoid pulling the fan but I would advise against it. The pump isn't held in by much so cutting that down by 33% is a bad idea in my book.


I recently ended up replacing my pump several times so if you have some questions you can pm me.

 

Although you don't have to drain the coolant for the upper to come off, you do for the passenger valve cover and he is taking the upper off to replace the valve cover gasket. Were you just suggesting he drain it like half way? That could work!

The heater core line from the block (behind the alternator) has to be removed to get the valve cover off. Plus with SAI the heater core pipe has to come loose to remove the passenger SAI manifold.

 

The heater hoses are pretty high up on the cooling system so pulling them doesn't drain the entire system. You can leave the radiator and block full.

Regarding the SAI, it's not exactly a heater. The system pumps extra air into the exhaust which gets the catalytic converters to begin reacting faster. The extra oxygen makes the chemical reaction in the converters kick into overdrive, which then makes them heat up faster. Gasoline powered vehicles are their dirtiest when they just start and the converters are cold. The faster they get hot, the faster they clean up the emissions.

 

I wasn't saying that SAI is a heater or part of the heater. I was saying you have to remove the heater pipe to get the SAI Air control valve off. It was late at night and I was running on fumes I probably shouldn't of been typing. I refereed to the SAI air control valve as the "SAI manifold" and said it was the LH, when in fact it is the passenger side. Sorry for the confusion



So you wouldn't pull the lower radiator hose to drain it some first? If you just unbolt the heater line from the block and pull it out won't the coolant drain all down the valley pan and everywhere until enough drains out?

 

Alright so good news! I successfully performed the power steering job myself and thanks to less to you guys!

I had no issues removing the belt, fan or the pump for that matter. In fact the only issue I encountered was while re-installing the bracket to the block. The right most stud would not catch the threads and it took me nearly 10 minutes to get the dam stud in. The other studs went in no problem. But everything else went smooth. I did a good job cleaning up the exposed area while I had the fan and pullies and reservoir removed. All that dirty PS fluid that seeped all over everything is history and that entire section of my engine bay is clean now. Once I got everything together I added the fluid, bleed the system, and took her for a 15 minute test drive around town. So far no leaks and no fluid loss and the squealing noise is gone. Most importantly I have steering once again. Im very happy and I feel like this was a great accomplishment. Tomorrow Ill tackle the throttle body heater plate and diff plug o-rings. Disregard the dates in the pictures, I have not set the date on the camera yet.

Special thanks to Zack and Rovers North for the discount and the fast shipping of the parts I needed ASAP!





With the power steering components removed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUfc...ature=youtu.be


With everything put back together:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1oB...ature=youtu.be