Intake Manifold Removal

[VolvoMonkey]

Removing the intake manifold has been a huge pain, and I'm not even done yet. I'm probably not going to bother since I did finally manage to get enough clearance to remove the oil separator, but for future references:

How do I disconnect this wire from the intake manifold:

The connection to intake throttle (?) on the manifold seems solid, I don't want to try to break it off there. And for the life of me I couldn't figure out the connection at the bottom of the wire. Even if I did, there is a bracket on the lower left of the picture that I don't think the connection would fit through!

[Ozark Lee]

You have two choices. The first is to disconnect the wires at the connector that is shown in you picture at the bottom and then remove the ETM along with the intake manifold. Option 2 is to remove the ETM from the intake manifold. It is 4 bolts but you will need a new gasket.

Under no circumstances should you try to remove the wires at the top where they go into the ETM. While you have it off, cleaning the ETM is a good idea but be careful not to get any solvents into the electrical portions on the side of the ETM.

Personally, I would just disconnect it at the connector at the bottom.

...Lee

[mikealder]

Remove the starter motor steady bracket and the cable can be slid out from between the front face of the engine block and the starter motor, when you put it back in loop the cable and tywrap it in place but not behind the starter as this makes subsequent removal (for cleaning) far easier. If you do resecure this way make sure the cable cannot go it to the radiator fan as you can imagine what that would do.
On the connector is a small plastic tab that you have to squeeze to release the locking device, the plug can still be quite difficult to release but I find a large flat bladed screw driver to lever the two parts away from each other while squeezing the locking tab works a treat - Mike