sooooooo, i'm having the typical situation with the missing coolant, and the overheating. the temp light came on bout 2 month ago, and imediatly pulled over, added some fluid and waited for it to cool down. its been fine up until a week ago when the Mrs was driving home from work. coolant is definitely leaking from the thermostat area. new one came in the mail and I'm in the process of removing the intake manifold.... However, after getting all the wiring and fuel lines disconnected, and then removing the 4 large bolts and 4 small ones on the back side, i cant seem to remove the plenum. its rocking back and forth a bit, but i cant get it separated from the intake.

Am i missing some bolts or clip somewhere? seems as though it should pop right off...
any comments or questions are encouraged!
Thanks

 

ok, so with a couple of large flat screwdrivers(4) and a little patience and gentle pressure, intake plenum came off..........though the sounds it made in doing so scared me a bit.
new question........
what is the process of cleaning the plenum and manifolds before i re-install them to the engine? I'm being as clean as possible, yet i would like to remove any possibility of contamination.

thanks again!

 

i figure ill just keep this thread going and sort of document my progree for anyone else who may have a similar situation. yesterday, i removed the intake plenum and a short breather hose and a short fuel line that was connected to the fuel rail. next step, remove the alternator and then fuel rail right? not so much. after getting the serpantine belt loose and removed from the alternator, i lossed both bolts for the alternator and removed the top most. the bottom most is getting stuck on what i think is the engine mount on the passanger side of the engine. Im tempted to attempt removing the fuel rail and both intake manifolds as one piece......hmmm. otherwise i need to remove the engine mount and then proceed as in RAVE. Shouild I change the timing belts now? should i go ***** deep and change the head gaskets too? i might be in my best interest to just go ahead and do it all at the same time. however, the bill($) is starting to rack up..... any sugestions?

 

dude, geez, remove the engine lift eye bracket and remove the three hoses and get it from underneath the intake.

do you even have directions or anything else like that. Don't do the job without it.

 

Do you have rave cd?

 

Hey there guys, I dont have the cd, but I did download it from a link that was attached to another members messages. It's ten times better then the alldatadiy crap I started with. I studied the thermostat replacement section very thoroughly (I thought). I saw nothing that suggested the process like described above. I though it might be a good short cut from looking at the engine, but I'm a strict follower of directions for new things or ones I don't fully understand. Being a audio engineer, I'm required to know multiple formats if digital mixing consoles and many times the short cuts are limited or don't work exactly like they should. Thanks for the advice! I will be stepping back a bit and attempt to pull the thermostat from underneath the intakes!
Thanks for you advice!
Joeking.

 

hello again, I finally got the thermostat replaced and no new leaks! it did take a quite a while though..... my dog decided to chew on all the new parts i bought, then after getting the replacements i broke one of the o rings and had to wait for new ones. in the meantime, my 94 ranger 2.3L blew the water pump and then a week later snapped the timing belt. i recently finished that repair(thermostat, WP, TB, and all new hoses for the cooling system) the ole danger ranger runs like a charm now. after cleaning up the garage from that mess, i was able to finish the freelander yesterday. like I said no new leaks, but the engine is still running like crap, which i expected. Now im getting an awful sulfur smell from the exhaust , and i noticed so oil in the air intake as well as a bit on the MAF. not sure where that came from..... No light at the end of the tunnel yet, but will continue the process.
Joe