So I bought a 97 f150 extended cab 2wd manual that needed some work, including engine reseal and expansion plugs, so this means removing the engine, which I stll haven't, but took out the upper intake manifold and lower.

So this is for entertainment purposes so if you decide to do this know the risk that this might not work for you. And I left alot of the full details out. as I didn't plan on doing a thread on it but did it anyway.

Ok so this is after I pressure washed the engine and got as much crap as my pressure washer gun could reach (no pics with upper intake installed.

This is after I removed most of the accessories and upper intake manifold, look at all that crap.


So I took of the lower intake manifold off and started to clean it, and this is the how it looks after using purple power in a spray bottle and using water to wash it off.


So I started to disassemble the intake runner flaps or what ever you call them so I can reach the runner good and scrape all the carbon build up, it was caked up good. Sorry I didn't take pictures as I wasn't expecting to post this up.
This is pretty much how they all looked even worst because I had already cleaned it with PP degreaser.


and this is after using a brass brush and wire brush, cleaned it afterwards with WD-40 looked almost as good as new.



These are the rods that hold the flaps, I was careful in removing them as I didn't want to bend them or damage them and good thing I did, and you will see why at the end of this post.
Note theres a left hand side and a right hand side so be carefull in not mixing them up, left hand is driver side and right hand is passenger. There's an X on each flap that has tp face up toward the upper portion of the intake you can see it on the pic at the end.







and here we have 23 year old rubber O rings that got replaced as well. There's only one O ring on each bank rod.



And here is the size of O rings I used .176x.070



new O rings installed make sure it's lubbed with oil or assembly lube



So time for assembly, note when installing the rods back on theres two expansion plug looking things on the intake, that have a spring and ball bearing that you must compress in order to insert the rod back in, if not you are going to damage the ball bearing and spring, it took me at least 30 minutes to figure it out lol.. So be patient.

Expansion looking thing two on each bank


and here I used a pic to press the ball on in order to install the rod back in.


rod in.



And here it is assembled and ready to to be installed. Like I mentioned make sure X on the flaps face up towards the upper part of the intake.


tools I bought that were essential in cleaning the aluminium with out leaving it all scratched.





And the loctite I used for the flap Philips screws

 

Great write-up!

 

Earlier today (or yesterday I forgot, working nightshift at the moment) I was just thinking if I need to pick some cleaning tools from the gun aisle to help facilitate my repair job. All the information I've received the past couple of days definitely has me convinced to do the job myself.

 

Egr ports were pressured washed and air gun blown alot of carbon rocks were shooting out just make sure to remove the EGR valve and adapter plate so all that carbon can get out.



I used the pipe cleaning brushes as well in the egr ports as well as in the flap rod openings.

 

Good write up.

Some months ago I did an intake reseal on my brother in laws 2001 F150 4.2 - it was literally caked with grease and crud - on the lowest points on the manifold it was nearly an inch thick.

I discovered that penetrating oil actually works very well for cleaning that crud off. I used a screwdriver to scrape away the bulk of it, then sprayed it down with penetrating oil and let it soak for the night. I took it to work the next day and put it in the hot wash tank for 30 minutes on each side - it looked like a nearly new manifold.

I didn’t remove the manifold tuners, but to make sure the EGR passages were clean, I removed the expansion plug at the back of the manifold so I could push a brush all the way through it.

 

Thanks for the images, I'm planning to remove my lower intake in the near future on my 03 f150 , I'm planning to remove these rods in the process but will the ball bearings fall out? I'm planning to buy a set of nitrile o-rings, I guess I'll try the 3/16" x 1/16" ring, guess I'd need to slip the ring on a cone, then onto a sleeve to slip over the rod then push it into the seat on the rod. The ring seems small so I guess it needs to stretch over? Was the ring size here the same size as the oem? Thanks

 

Ball bearings? No such thing to deal with on these IMRCs.

The little plastic bushings will fall out if they’re the factory installed ones. That’s just plastic getting brittle with age.





Thats all there is to this. Don’t overthink it.

 

Can't really tell, but he's talking about these, above. I would probably just avoid removing the IMRC flaps/shutters.

 

those are the imrc linkage rods, i hope those are still there, i did get a p1518, so i assume the bushing went bad, but the rod attaches to the runner control, then the other end attaches to a tab connected to a rod that runs through the manifold. There's butterfly plates attached to it. Each rod is sealed by a single oring , I was planning to pull the rods to replace the seal.