S550MG
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Alrighty, so here goes nothing!! First of all I'll issue my disclaimer, I'm a terrible writer so congrats if you can actually read any of this. Likewise, this will be my first attempt at writing any sort of DIY thread so proceed with caution, lol. A little background about myself first, I am not a professional technician but more of a mechaniclly inclined hobbyist. I have swapped my suspension on my car three times and done my own exhaust and shifter install. I would consider those mods to be tougher than the manifold swap. In other words this isn't that difficult of a job. That being said, perform this mod at your own risk, I hold no liability for you performing this mod and screwing yourself or your car up. This mod will definitley void the warranty on your engine, so again do this at your own risk.
Now with that out of the way, lets talk about the mod itself. So why did I want to do the unproven 18' manifold instead of some of the other proven options out there? Well because 18 manifold offers the best value to performance ratio. You're basically getting the same performance as the 350 manifold at about a third of the cost. I also wanted to maintain my IMRC functionality so this write up will show how I did that. The other option is locking out the IMRC's but you supposedly lose low end torque, fuel economy, and driveability so I chose to keep the IMRC's even though locking them out would make the mod a bit easier. With all that covered, what are we going to need.
Parts and tools needed:
2018 Intake manifold Part #JR3Z-9424-A
IMRC actuator pigtails Part #WPT1492 or plug and play harness
2-3 feet of 3/8" vacuum or fuel line
5/8" hose clamps x 6
Tap splice connectors x 2
Some sort of tune, I went with Lund
Dremel tool w/ cut off wheel
Soldering iron and solder
Electircal pliers
Needle nose pliers
Heat gun or hair drier
Pocket screwdriver / small flathead screwdriver
Deep well 10mm socket and ratchet
Electric ratchet is nice if you have one
8mm socket
Razor knife
Trim panel clip removal tool
Maybe a few other hand tools that I'm forgetting
6-12 cold beers, depending on your thirst and mechanical abilities or lack there of
Without further ado, lets get started.
First thing is first, we've got to get that old, non-breathing manifold out of there. I didn't take many photos of this process because let's face it, if you can't look at you engine bay and figure out how to remove your old manifold, you probably shouldn't be doing this mod, lol. That being said, I will list some of the steps to make it a little easier and give you some direction. Here's what I started with.
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
TAKE LOTS OF PICS OF YOUR CURRENT SETUP AND EVERYTHING YOU'RE DISCONNECTING!!
1. First you'll need to eliminate the pressure to your fuel rail. I did so by starting the car and removing the fuel pump fuse(see owners manual). Your car will die instantly and relieve the pressure going to the rail. This will help prevent fuel from spraying everywhere when you disconnect the feed line.
2. Now you'll need to remove your strut tower bar if your car is equipped. Next you'll need to remove your engine cover. You won't be needing that anyomre. As a matter of fact feel free to send it to me so I can try to mock up a solution to fit it to the new 18 manifold.:cheers:
3. Next you'll need to partially or completely remove your CAI depending on what you have. I have a BBK, I know lame as hell, and I didn't have to completely remove mine. You'll need to remove the vacuum connectors from your CAI and gain access to your throttle body.
4. After you've removed your CAI you'll want to remove the throttle body and associated vacuum lines and electrical connectors. Now would be a good time to remove all the vacuum connectors and electrical plugs from the front of the manifold and evap valve.
5. DON'T FORGET TO TAKE LOTS OF PICS OF EVERYTHING YOU'RE DISCONNECTING!!! This is critical. If you forget where a connector came from you'll have a visual reference. Chances are you won't be looking at it from the same angle I took my pics so you'll be lost if you can't remember where something came from or where it was hooked up on your stock set up.
6. There are two coolant hoses running over the fuel rail, you'll need to pull those out of the way, but you don't have to disconnect them. Remove the four 10mm nuts holding down the fuel rail insulation covers and then the insulation. Disconnect the line coming from the fuel pump to the rail and electrical plugs going to the fuel injectors.
7. Remove the four 10mm bolts holding the fuel rail in place. Remove the rail and injectors by pulling straight up until the injectors unseat from the manifold.
8. Now loosen the bolts holding the manifold to the block. The manifold should be loose at this point but it won't be able to be removed just yet.
9. Pull the manifold up enough to gain access to the back and unplug the IMRC connectors. There are two white connectors for the actuators and two blue plugs for the solenoids. The white connectors have the red lock tabs that have to be released before they can be removed. These connectors were hard for me to get to because the harness is secured to the manifold and there wasn't much room for fat ass hands like mine. The clip removal tool came in really handy here helping to release the harness from the manifold.
10. You should now have your old manifold out and be looking at something like this.
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
So now that you've successfully removed your old manifold without dropping a red locking tab into your engine and spraying gas all over your engine bay you should be celebrating with a beer, or your third.:cheers:
Now it's time to start your wiring. If you bought the plug and play harness you'll just plug those connectors into your IMRC actuator plugs and move to the next step which splicing the blue solenoid connectors. I bought the pigtails before the plug and play adapters were available so I soldered my pigtails on using this diagram from [MENTION=28198]raptorgabe[/MENTION].
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Wiring explination:
1. You'll need to start by stripping back some of the insulation on both connectors like so.
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
2. Now comes the scary part. Time to hack into your $30,000 car's wiring harness. Don't scared, it's just money right??
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Strip the insulation back from the three wires on each connector like this
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
I definitely recommend using the supplied shrink wrap that came with the pigtails as it has some type of waxy substance that melts and creates a water tight seal around your soldered joint.
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
3. Now you'll want to splice the two blue connectors togther. I didn't realize this step was necessary until after I had completed my install so I used the tap splice connectors because I didn't have enough room to get in there and solder them together with the manifold in the car and I didn't want to remove it after the fact. You can benefit from my dumbass move, I mean, learning experience and take this opportunity to do it right and solder the blue connectors together as well. These are the splice connectors that I used.
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
4. Once you're finished with the soldering and splicing be sure to wrap everything up in electrical tape and you have be left with something looking like this.
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
That wasn't too bad now was it? Now would be a good time for another beer!
Now on to fun part of installing the new manifold and routing your vacuum lines. These pics are showing both manifolds and they're vacuum connections. It's really not as bad as I thought it would be and IF you took good pics of where everything came from then you should be able to handle the vacuum lines no problem.
Vacuum line routing explination:
Each manifold has one PCV connection, one evap connection, and two vacuum connections. The the stock manifold has two vacuum connections for the IMRC solenoids while the 18' manifold only has one. I'll show various pics detailing what I mean.
Here are a couple pics of each manifold with all the ports labeled. First the stock manifold:
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Here are the two vacuum lines from the IMRC solenoids going to the front of the manifold to connect to the CAI.
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
This next photo shows the front of the 18 manifold and it's connections. There are few things to make note of before we begin the explination of re-routing everything.
First of all, vacuum 1 is located on the back of the stock manifold and the front of the 18. The stock manifold has two vac lines running through the manifold runners and this isn't possible on the 18. Vacuum 1 is now located on the front so that line doesn't matter. The lines from the IMRC solenoids will need to be run on top of the 18 mani.
The next important note is that the evap system is different on the 18. There is no valve attached to the manifold, like the stock manifold, instead there is a vacuum nipple. You'll have to adapt a line for the evap valve to fit the 18 manifold. You'll see what I mean in the pics.
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
So now that you can see the differences in the manifolds you should be able to consult your photos and decide on how you want to route everything. I'm sure there are multiple different places to route your lines. I actually had mine routed differently at first compared to the pics posted here. I changed it up because my first attempt looked like a rats nest and I wasn't very satisified. You may be able to find a different or better way to route yours. If you do please post pics to give everyone other options. I used 3/8" lines and 5/8" clamps for my connections. In some cases I was able to cannibalize quick connectors from the factory setup and utilize them. Again, you might be able to figure a better way. I'll skip pics of the PCV routing since the port is nearly identical between manifolds and it's pretty straight forward.
We'll start with vacuum 1 routing. I cut about a 6-8" piece of hose and used one of the quick connectors to make my own line for this connection. Remember that the connection was on the back of the stock manifold and now it's on the front so it's a lot shorter.
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Next we'll look at the IMRC solenoid connection from the back to the CAI. I used some of the small vac lines from the old connection and made my own connection because we're going from two solenoids to one.
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Now we'll look at vacuum 2. The port is located on the front of both manifolds but a different angle so I ditched the factory line and make a longer one so it could loop around without crimping the line.
Stock manifold
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
18" manifold
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
The last piece of the puzzle, and perhaps the most aggravating was the evap valve. Like I mentioned earlier, the 18 manifold doesn't have a port for the stock evap valve. I cut a 4-5" piece of line and connected the valve to the nipple. I was limited on where I could position the valve due to the length of the electrical connector. My first attempt looked terrible and put some strain on the wires so I cut the tabs off of the valve so I could position it a little better. After doing so I discovered there is a wiring extension that people are using for the 350 manifold install. If you were to get one of these extensions you might be able to find a better place to put the valve, more hidden perhaps. Overall I'm pretty happy with the vacuum line layout. It almost looks stock except for the shiny metal worm clamps and modded valve. To the untrained eye though, it looks stock.
Stock evap valve
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Modified valve and routing
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
When you're finished with the vac lines you can reinstall the fuel rail and injectors. I routed the line from the CAI going to the IMRC solenoid under the coolant line and vac line bracket on the manifold on the driver side. By now you shouldn't have any beers left.
If everything goes according to plan you should end up with something looking like this!! Congrats you just swapped your manifold and saved a few hundred dollars in the process. For those of you who are going from a stock power train to this mod and a tune, HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS!!! There is a HUGE difference in mid range power and it just keeps building all the way to 7800 rpm!! The best part is you still have your factory IMRC functionality and no check engine light.
Before:
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
After:
Untitled by Tom Francis, on Flickr
I hope this helps some of you guys who are on the fence and trying to decide if you want to tackle this yourself. It's really nothing you can't accomplish with a little bit of mechanical ability, a few hours, and a six pack of beer. :cheers:
If you have any questions please PM me and I'll try to respond as quick as possible. Feel free to add anything useful to this thread if any of you find a better way to route the lines and such.
Here’s a few side notes. If you’re planning on doing the sound tube delete, injector swap, CAI install, or catch can install. You might as well do them while you’re tackling this job since you’re removing all those factory parts anyways.
I have really enjoyed being a member of this forum and found lots of great info here. It’s been a great learning experience so I just wanted to give something back to the community. Mods feel free to sticky this thread if you'd like.
Now with that out of the way, lets talk about the mod itself. So why did I want to do the unproven 18' manifold instead of some of the other proven options out there? Well because 18 manifold offers the best value to performance ratio. You're basically getting the same performance as the 350 manifold at about a third of the cost. I also wanted to maintain my IMRC functionality so this write up will show how I did that. The other option is locking out the IMRC's but you supposedly lose low end torque, fuel economy, and driveability so I chose to keep the IMRC's even though locking them out would make the mod a bit easier. With all that covered, what are we going to need.
Parts and tools needed:
2018 Intake manifold Part #JR3Z-9424-A
IMRC actuator pigtails Part #WPT1492 or plug and play harness
2-3 feet of 3/8" vacuum or fuel line
5/8" hose clamps x 6
Tap splice connectors x 2
Some sort of tune, I went with Lund
Dremel tool w/ cut off wheel
Soldering iron and solder
Electircal pliers
Needle nose pliers
Heat gun or hair drier
Pocket screwdriver / small flathead screwdriver
Deep well 10mm socket and ratchet
Electric ratchet is nice if you have one
8mm socket
Razor knife
Trim panel clip removal tool
Maybe a few other hand tools that I'm forgetting
6-12 cold beers, depending on your thirst and mechanical abilities or lack there of
Without further ado, lets get started.
First thing is first, we've got to get that old, non-breathing manifold out of there. I didn't take many photos of this process because let's face it, if you can't look at you engine bay and figure out how to remove your old manifold, you probably shouldn't be doing this mod, lol. That being said, I will list some of the steps to make it a little easier and give you some direction. Here's what I started with.
TAKE LOTS OF PICS OF YOUR CURRENT SETUP AND EVERYTHING YOU'RE DISCONNECTING!!
1. First you'll need to eliminate the pressure to your fuel rail. I did so by starting the car and removing the fuel pump fuse(see owners manual). Your car will die instantly and relieve the pressure going to the rail. This will help prevent fuel from spraying everywhere when you disconnect the feed line.
2. Now you'll need to remove your strut tower bar if your car is equipped. Next you'll need to remove your engine cover. You won't be needing that anyomre. As a matter of fact feel free to send it to me so I can try to mock up a solution to fit it to the new 18 manifold.:cheers:
3. Next you'll need to partially or completely remove your CAI depending on what you have. I have a BBK, I know lame as hell, and I didn't have to completely remove mine. You'll need to remove the vacuum connectors from your CAI and gain access to your throttle body.
4. After you've removed your CAI you'll want to remove the throttle body and associated vacuum lines and electrical connectors. Now would be a good time to remove all the vacuum connectors and electrical plugs from the front of the manifold and evap valve.
5. DON'T FORGET TO TAKE LOTS OF PICS OF EVERYTHING YOU'RE DISCONNECTING!!! This is critical. If you forget where a connector came from you'll have a visual reference. Chances are you won't be looking at it from the same angle I took my pics so you'll be lost if you can't remember where something came from or where it was hooked up on your stock set up.
6. There are two coolant hoses running over the fuel rail, you'll need to pull those out of the way, but you don't have to disconnect them. Remove the four 10mm nuts holding down the fuel rail insulation covers and then the insulation. Disconnect the line coming from the fuel pump to the rail and electrical plugs going to the fuel injectors.
7. Remove the four 10mm bolts holding the fuel rail in place. Remove the rail and injectors by pulling straight up until the injectors unseat from the manifold.
8. Now loosen the bolts holding the manifold to the block. The manifold should be loose at this point but it won't be able to be removed just yet.
9. Pull the manifold up enough to gain access to the back and unplug the IMRC connectors. There are two white connectors for the actuators and two blue plugs for the solenoids. The white connectors have the red lock tabs that have to be released before they can be removed. These connectors were hard for me to get to because the harness is secured to the manifold and there wasn't much room for fat ass hands like mine. The clip removal tool came in really handy here helping to release the harness from the manifold.
10. You should now have your old manifold out and be looking at something like this.
So now that you've successfully removed your old manifold without dropping a red locking tab into your engine and spraying gas all over your engine bay you should be celebrating with a beer, or your third.:cheers:
Now it's time to start your wiring. If you bought the plug and play harness you'll just plug those connectors into your IMRC actuator plugs and move to the next step which splicing the blue solenoid connectors. I bought the pigtails before the plug and play adapters were available so I soldered my pigtails on using this diagram from [MENTION=28198]raptorgabe[/MENTION].
Wiring explination:
1. You'll need to start by stripping back some of the insulation on both connectors like so.
2. Now comes the scary part. Time to hack into your $30,000 car's wiring harness. Don't scared, it's just money right??
Strip the insulation back from the three wires on each connector like this
I definitely recommend using the supplied shrink wrap that came with the pigtails as it has some type of waxy substance that melts and creates a water tight seal around your soldered joint.
3. Now you'll want to splice the two blue connectors togther. I didn't realize this step was necessary until after I had completed my install so I used the tap splice connectors because I didn't have enough room to get in there and solder them together with the manifold in the car and I didn't want to remove it after the fact. You can benefit from my dumbass move, I mean, learning experience and take this opportunity to do it right and solder the blue connectors together as well. These are the splice connectors that I used.
4. Once you're finished with the soldering and splicing be sure to wrap everything up in electrical tape and you have be left with something looking like this.
That wasn't too bad now was it? Now would be a good time for another beer!
Now on to fun part of installing the new manifold and routing your vacuum lines. These pics are showing both manifolds and they're vacuum connections. It's really not as bad as I thought it would be and IF you took good pics of where everything came from then you should be able to handle the vacuum lines no problem.
Vacuum line routing explination:
Each manifold has one PCV connection, one evap connection, and two vacuum connections. The the stock manifold has two vacuum connections for the IMRC solenoids while the 18' manifold only has one. I'll show various pics detailing what I mean.
Here are a couple pics of each manifold with all the ports labeled. First the stock manifold:
Here are the two vacuum lines from the IMRC solenoids going to the front of the manifold to connect to the CAI.
This next photo shows the front of the 18 manifold and it's connections. There are few things to make note of before we begin the explination of re-routing everything.
First of all, vacuum 1 is located on the back of the stock manifold and the front of the 18. The stock manifold has two vac lines running through the manifold runners and this isn't possible on the 18. Vacuum 1 is now located on the front so that line doesn't matter. The lines from the IMRC solenoids will need to be run on top of the 18 mani.
The next important note is that the evap system is different on the 18. There is no valve attached to the manifold, like the stock manifold, instead there is a vacuum nipple. You'll have to adapt a line for the evap valve to fit the 18 manifold. You'll see what I mean in the pics.
So now that you can see the differences in the manifolds you should be able to consult your photos and decide on how you want to route everything. I'm sure there are multiple different places to route your lines. I actually had mine routed differently at first compared to the pics posted here. I changed it up because my first attempt looked like a rats nest and I wasn't very satisified. You may be able to find a different or better way to route yours. If you do please post pics to give everyone other options. I used 3/8" lines and 5/8" clamps for my connections. In some cases I was able to cannibalize quick connectors from the factory setup and utilize them. Again, you might be able to figure a better way. I'll skip pics of the PCV routing since the port is nearly identical between manifolds and it's pretty straight forward.
We'll start with vacuum 1 routing. I cut about a 6-8" piece of hose and used one of the quick connectors to make my own line for this connection. Remember that the connection was on the back of the stock manifold and now it's on the front so it's a lot shorter.
Next we'll look at the IMRC solenoid connection from the back to the CAI. I used some of the small vac lines from the old connection and made my own connection because we're going from two solenoids to one.
Now we'll look at vacuum 2. The port is located on the front of both manifolds but a different angle so I ditched the factory line and make a longer one so it could loop around without crimping the line.
Stock manifold
18" manifold
The last piece of the puzzle, and perhaps the most aggravating was the evap valve. Like I mentioned earlier, the 18 manifold doesn't have a port for the stock evap valve. I cut a 4-5" piece of line and connected the valve to the nipple. I was limited on where I could position the valve due to the length of the electrical connector. My first attempt looked terrible and put some strain on the wires so I cut the tabs off of the valve so I could position it a little better. After doing so I discovered there is a wiring extension that people are using for the 350 manifold install. If you were to get one of these extensions you might be able to find a better place to put the valve, more hidden perhaps. Overall I'm pretty happy with the vacuum line layout. It almost looks stock except for the shiny metal worm clamps and modded valve. To the untrained eye though, it looks stock.
Stock evap valve
Modified valve and routing
When you're finished with the vac lines you can reinstall the fuel rail and injectors. I routed the line from the CAI going to the IMRC solenoid under the coolant line and vac line bracket on the manifold on the driver side. By now you shouldn't have any beers left.
If everything goes according to plan you should end up with something looking like this!! Congrats you just swapped your manifold and saved a few hundred dollars in the process. For those of you who are going from a stock power train to this mod and a tune, HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS!!! There is a HUGE difference in mid range power and it just keeps building all the way to 7800 rpm!! The best part is you still have your factory IMRC functionality and no check engine light.
Before:
After:
I hope this helps some of you guys who are on the fence and trying to decide if you want to tackle this yourself. It's really nothing you can't accomplish with a little bit of mechanical ability, a few hours, and a six pack of beer. :cheers:
If you have any questions please PM me and I'll try to respond as quick as possible. Feel free to add anything useful to this thread if any of you find a better way to route the lines and such.
Here’s a few side notes. If you’re planning on doing the sound tube delete, injector swap, CAI install, or catch can install. You might as well do them while you’re tackling this job since you’re removing all those factory parts anyways.
I have really enjoyed being a member of this forum and found lots of great info here. It’s been a great learning experience so I just wanted to give something back to the community. Mods feel free to sticky this thread if you'd like.
Sponsored
Last edited:
