2018 Intake Manifold Removal for Porting

[Idaho2018GTPremium]

Yesterday I was in process removing the stock intake manifold off my 2018 GT to send to be ported. I removed the fuel rails, etc., unbolted the manifold, and had the manifold angled up and slightly out, but I could not for the life of me get the rear sensors unplugged and the harness detached from the back of the manifold with only one hand, while holding the manifold up in the front. With the manifold down there was no way I could get my hand back there. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on getting those things disconnected? I could not pull the manifold out far enough to fit my hand back there to disconnect them. I've done a lot of work on engines over the years and this seemed very tricky.

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[turnswrench]

I used a panel removal tool to separate the harness from the manifold and then disconnected the clips. I did this solo. You'll get it.

 

[EFI]

I think there's a spot where the wire harness is attached to the manifold itself. If you remove that clip, you can extend the wire harness further and pull out the manifold enough to get your hand back there.

 

[kevinvan6000]

When i did mine i found it easier to get the passenger side off first then you can move the intake around a bit to give a bit more clearance on the driver side. It's a pain anyway you cut it though.

 

[Blown86GT]

Yesterday I was in process removing the stock intake manifold off my 2018 GT to send to be ported. I removed the fuel rails, etc., unbolted the manifold, and had the manifold angled up and slightly out, but I could not for the life of me get the rear sensors unplugged and the harness detached from the back of the manifold with only one hand, while holding the manifold up in the front. With the manifold down there was no way I could get my hand back there. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on getting those things disconnected? I could not pull the manifold out far enough to fit my hand back there to disconnect them. I've done a lot of work on engines over the years and this seemed very tricky.

Whose doing the porting Idaho and are they going to provide before/after flow numbers?

 

[Idaho2018GTPremium]

Whose doing the porting Idaho and are they going to provide before/after flow numbers?

If I end up trying again and successfully getting the IM out of the car (I put it all back together last night out of frustration messing w/ that harness for well over an hour), I was going to send it to Bret Barber at Airflow Solutions along with the throttle body. I don't know if they provide test bench numbers, I haven't heard they do. As of now, I'm not planning to send the TB alone. Combined with several other bolt ons the gains are supposed to be somewhat marginal (~5-6 hp). But he offers a $40 discount if you port the TB w/ the IM, so 5-6 hp is worth $160 to me. I'll do them both at once (hopefully on my next attempt at removing the IM in the near future).

I have an OBDLink MX+ that tracks all the car's parameters, you can log any parameters you want for the entire drive, and display any in real time on the gauges. It also has performance (1/4 mile, 1/8 mile, 0-60, etc.) I believe through the GPS functions. I have baseline logs for my completely stock car (i.e. MAF, rpm, 0-60, IATs, throttle position, etc.), and am planning to compare them to after install. My mods are planned to be K&N Intake (installed this morning), ported stock throttle body, ported stock manifold, and AWE touring catback.

My best stock 0-60 is 3.80 seconds, corrected for DA (actual was 3.94 seconds @ 2,900 feet DA). I have the A10 PP1. This was on my winter weather Michelin Sport A/S 3+ all season tires without a burnout - just stop, and GO! I am correcting MAF and acceleration for DA for my before/after comparisons to make sure they are apples to apples.

 

[Idaho2018GTPremium]

When i did mine i found it easier to get the passenger side off first then you can move the intake around a bit to give a bit more clearance on the driver side. It's a pain anyway you cut it though.

Thanks. However, do you have a '17? I think the harnesses are different back there because of the direct injection.

 

[jmeiers]

I used a panel removal tool and persistence. There is a push pin on each side.

 

[Stephen@lethal]

Panel removal tool makes it a lot easier for sure. Once you get those off, its pretty much up and out at that point. Its really not that bad to get off once you see all the connection points. Just take your time and observe behind the manifold for a bit.

 

[Idaho2018GTPremium]

Thanks guys for the suggestions on the panel removal tool. I bought a panel clip removal tool to get those clips disconnected at the back of the manifold to remove the harness. I also called Airflow solutions, the company I am going to send it to for porting. Big shout out to Ariana and Bret over there; Ariana sent me pics and videos showing the back of the manifold describing where the clips and sensors are that you can't see from the top. That was a big help, being able to see what I couldn't see on my own car.

I'll be honest, last weekend I had the manifold unbolted and the only thing keeping me from being done was removing that harness and sensor I couldn't see back there. I actually gave up and put it all back together thinking I wouldn't likely try again. With the help from the folks over at Airflow solutions and this thread, I knew I could get it off, and had it out in 1.5 hours from start to finish (from disconnecting the battery to manifold disconnected and out). It took about 10 mins to get the back harness off once I had the manifold unbolted.

Pretty soon I'll have a ported TB and intake manifold. I'll take MAF logs to see how much more air it gets with the ported OEM components.

 

[gixxersixxerman]

Following, I was thinking of doing this in the coming weeks, on vacation and the car is going on stands to have the brake calipers powder coated. While it’s on stands figured I could do the manifold, haven’t decided on the TB, I hear so much negative stuff about it. Also may do my OPG’s but anyway want to follow your experience

 

[BradN01]

Interested in the logs as well.

 

[Idaho2018GTPremium]

Following, I was thinking of doing this in the coming weeks, on vacation and the car is going on stands to have the brake calipers powder coated. While it’s on stands figured I could do the manifold, haven’t decided on the TB, I hear so much negative stuff about it. Also may do my OPG’s but anyway want to follow your experience

Did you do the IM and TB? So far so good with mine from an idle, response, and no check engine lights.

 

[Idaho2018GTPremium]

Interested in the logs as well.

See post #27 in my mods post for the latest acceleration data:

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/the-mods-have-begun-2018-mustang-gt-a10-pp1.142234/page-2

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