vargas

I have coolant leaking Into cylinder #7 which is causing a missfire o my 97 mustang GT. I'm replacing the gasket because there is oil in the coolant reservoir.

How long will the job take someone with intermediate mechanic skills.
Do I need special tools and anything else other than the intake manifold gasket to replace? What should I I be critical with when I take it apart.?

MU71L4710N

search for username black mage and look at his sig, he has a how to swap NPI to PI intake manifold how-to in his sig. its also on american muscle. its not hte exact same process but its close enough to give you a good step by step on what your doing.

you will want to replace BOTH gaskets, not just the leaky one. its really not a hard job at all and requires no special skills or tools. only thing you need is a torque wrench and a good socket set and a couple screwdrivers. there is a torque sequence for the intake manifold too.

the only thing i can really say to be very careful on, is when you get the intake manifold off, BE VERY CAREFUL about the open intake holes on your heads. you dont wanna drop a screw or something down in there. if your going to leave the manifold off for a beer break or something, lay a towel over the motor or something to keep "accidents" from happening. you dont want to turn an intake manifold into a head job or worse.

all in all its only a couple hours taking your time and having a few beers. oh, make sure you have antifreeze to refill your car when your done, you dont wanna have to walk to oreillys to get some.

vargas

I saw BlackMage's post. Thanks a lot. It's really does look simple. I hope that gasket solves my issues.

MU71L4710N

its very simple. if you can change your oil or a flat tire, you can do the intake manifold. you dont need to remove the air plenum either i forgot to mention that, since your not swapping intake manifolds themselves theres no reason to pull them off. just the 2 bolts that holds the throttle cables to it.

you should be able to find out once you get the intake off. could be cracked somewhere underneath or you should be able to tell if the gasket is worn out.

stangladesh

Just had the swap done last week but I decided to have the local mustang specialty shop do it for me. I could have done it but I wanted them to look for other problems that I might have noticed if I did it. It only set me back 550.

Xemeth

Well that sounds good and everything but I doubt it'll fix your problem.

No coolant passes through the intake manifold on the 4.6 except for the coolant crossover, which connects directly to the water ports on the front of the heads. It never comes in contact with any of the intake ports, so there's no gasket to be leaking past to get into the combustion chamber.

The only thing a leaking intake gasket could cause on these engines is a vacuum leak. You sound like you need head gaskets, not intake gaskets.

MU71L4710N

you spent 550 dollars for a shop to swap intake manifolds? wow... you have more money than you need apparently. theres absolutely nothing a shop is going to "find" doing an intake manifold.

and xemeth, i believe you are wrong. the gasket seals the 4 intake ports, and the coolant port as well. so YES, a leaking gasket can cause antifreeze to seep over to a spark plug well. and if the head gasket was leaking, he would have coolant in his combustion chambers, not his spark plug wells.

Xemeth

Well it's been a while since I've had a 2v apart, but I'm still having a hard time seeing how coolant will make it's way from the coolant crossover into cylinder 7. The crossover is in the front, and 7 is in the back of the engine. He never said it was in the spark plug well, either, unless I misread something. He said cylinder 7. And also, the oil in the reservoir doesn't point to the intake. Oil doesn't go through the intake at all, except from the PCV system, and even so it shouldn't be getting in the coolant from the intake. The gasket could be leaking, but I'm thinking it's a bit deeper than the intake.

MU71L4710N

hmm... well i interpreted causing a misfire meaning coolant is getting in the plug well and shorting the cop which is a frequent problem on these cars. and as for the oil, i didnt even see that but i would assume the op just messed up his words, because i dont see how oil would be in his crossover, or how he was even able to see oil in his crossover.

Xemeth

He said oil in the reservoir. If oil is getting into the coolant, it's probably a head gasket issue.

And the way I interpretted the misfire was coolant was getting on the plugs themselves, not the COP. Which would mean coolant was inside the combustion chamber.