DOHC short-cuts

[bud36light]

the heater core itself wasnt to bad on my 95 just trying to get the hoses seperated from the pipes was THE bitch. They were glued together behind the rear head. That transfer pipe from the pump to the core wasnt cool either. tight fit btw the alt pulley and body. Should have just left the old one on and seen just how long that JB weld would have lasted.Probably the bigest prob I had with that job was it being 105 degrees out and replacing a heater core??!

[Juglenaut]

Tell me about it.... I had to replace the line that goes all the way around the engin to the coolant colector on the water pump assembly housing on 4 different vehicles.

[Gemmer]

Is that the stock 96/97 plenum?! Aside from the polished look, im talking about the shape of it in the back.

Yea, seriously, that shit is huge

Heres a shortcut, when changing the tstat, its easy just to bend that bracket, the one that wont let you unbolt the housing, out of the way, then just bend it back when you are done...

[dohcfiend]

im getting envious..j/k...ok i am a little envious

[joey b]

if you look down it is a very simple chamber shape compared to the 91-95. Probably a 3.5" cylinder down and the runners just shoot straight off and right into the lower intake. It is short and to the point and looking into that plenum from the EGR tube is enough to give you a woody compared to the earlier plenum.

[bud36light]

another short cut is when removing the plenum if it wont seperate from the coolant hose very easy just cut it with a knife or something. All it is is a peice of 3/4 heater hose which you probably have laying around any way. Seems like you have to remove the plenum a awful lot on these cars. Anyone have any luck re using the plenum gasket?

[Juglenaut]

I put anti-seize (some kind of graphite grease) on that coolant hose and use a non-damaging hose clamp. I noticed that the hose likes to bond itself to the connection.

Those darn spring clamps are a pain by themselves.

I couldn't get the hose off the heater core lines so I just cut and put a brass fitting with 2 of the same hose clamps I used on other hoses.

I was able to reuse my plenum gasket 3 times, but damaged it almost on every removal. They are brittle even after removal on a fresh gasket. What I did to get my gasket to limber up some and clean it, is to let it soak in 50/50 Isopropyl, no more than 70% or it will desolve the adhesive holding the layers together. Don't use super glue when attempting to fix cracks or breaks it just makes it more brittle. Believe it or not I have good luck fixing mine with Elmers Glue and pressed into a vise.

I also heard of people making a plunum gaskets out of a high temp telfon sheets, high temp silicone and/or hardened silicone, or both in the same unit and look like the design that 3.1 plenums use.

[jmgtp]

Is that the stock 96/97 plenum?! Aside from the polished look, im talking about the shape of it in the back.

ya thats the stocker. The plenum chamber is huge in comparison to 91-95. In fact the 96 plenum goes down so far that you have to remove the pcv inlet on the rear valve cover (of a 91 engine at least -and in my case I even had to grind a bit of metal away from the valve cover at the pcv inlet) and use the 96+ style spark plug boots because the 91 style wont clear, they are too tall.