Getting ready to tackle the wire swap, again...tried going the route described on here in the "how to" section, but it was a no go...I have the hands of a basketball player and there was no way for me to reach what I needed to...

...after looking the job over on RAVE the only thing that really concerns me about going the route of removing the upper intake manifold is disconnecting the right and left hand air manifold unions...with my luck I know I'm going to damage those pipes...

Is it really necessary to remove them? They're only connected to the upper intake with a couple of nuts on a bracket...can I just remove the 2 nuts on either side of the manifold and then leave the large union nuts connected to the cylinder heads when I pull the upper manifold?

 

No one?

 

Don't remove them from the heads. Try to pull the rubber hose off them, and unbolt them from the plenum. You may be able to flex them a little bit to just move them off the plenum studs to pull the plenum.

An additional note, Remember to put the metal SAI Pipe back in there before putting the plenum back on. I did that. It's possible to get it back in there without pulling the plenum again, but its not easy.

 

Good, I'll try that. It seems that there's just enough clearance, but it's nice to get someone else to say so too before trying it out...

I hate following RAVE too closely...lots of unnecessary steps...I'm surprised they don't tell you to pull the engine for a wire swap

 

Let me know how you make out. I am doing this this weekend. What kind of wires/plugs are you using? I went with the 8mm STI's and the Bosch 4+ Platinum plugs.

 

You might get to yours before I do mine...I'm heading out of town for about a week and not going to risk getting my hands all cut up before I have to do a couple of presentations and meetings...

I went with the 8mm STI's as well, but went with the Champion 7318's (double plat) instead...I've read about too many people saying that they had problems with their Bosch 4+'s (albeit, it sounds like some of it is pretty biased) that I went with more proven plugs. I swapped them in last weekend and noticed an improved idle right away.

If you get to yours this weekend let me know how it goes.

 

I completed the plug/wire swap today. I originally planned to pull the upper intake to change the wires, but once I started I felt I could get to the coil without pulling the upper intake. Sure enough, with a few contortions and a little bit of skin I was able to swap the wires at the coil. However, I did find it necessary to remove all the wires from the coil before installing the new. She runs much better now!