i was told by my shop that i need to replace the manifold gasket, it is eveidnely sucking in air and messing up my emissions numbers, Now i know that i have to pull the dizzy, How do i yank it and put it back in the correct place and keep all the wires in the correct place, I am sure you can tell that i have never done this type of thing before,so any help would be great thanks

 

you actually can do it all with out pulling the diz, the only thing that gets in the way is the intake which you can wiggle out with out needing to remove the dizzy, obviously this is assuming a 70's V-8

As for wires in the correct place you WILL need to pull all wires just take pictures or remember what is what, most important is the fire order on the spark plugs

after that pull off the easy stuff, covers and intake

then unbolt the rockers pull out the push rods

I recommend getting ziplocks to label everything on how it came out so you can put it back in exactly the same

after that unbolt the heads and then clean off ALL old gasket material, while your in there check your heads if they need machined and a possible valve job if you feel like spending the cash (you allready have the labor done)

recommend having a shop vac handy to clean out the cylinders that are likely full of crud from cleaning also remember the more you drain and blow out the cooling system the less mess you have in this process

also a good time to flush the rad

then put on a new gasket put everything back on the engine, dont fill it with coolant but do fill oil, start the truck and let it run for like 3 min max so its hot help the gasket set with out coolant mess

fill the rad and test drive smoke and stink is normal for a few min it should go away after about 10, after about 15min I would check rad fluid and oil for oil/water, watch the exhaust for excessive water and bam

if you feel you are safer removing the dizz, then just try and mark or take a photo so that you can line it back up correctly, if you can find a timing light then the easy thing is just record the mark and put it back in and retune to that recorded mark. if you have a gear head friend local timing is easy to fix by ear once you know the noises of ping that you dont want.

I just did all this for the first time this year as well I did have a chilton guide which I recommend took about 2 days and was a lot of fun learning. GL

 

Unfortunatly the engine was replaced in the 90's I am not sure if it was replacw with one of the same vintage or not, I will posr a pic this afternoon and maybe that I'll clarify a few things

 

i cant seem to get them manifold off, is there a spot where i can get some leverage to remove this damn thing?! I do have the replacement gasket set.Or am i doing someting wrong?

 

you get all the bolts out?

on the upper left and right there is a small spot to get a screwdriver in to pry

if its not popping off with 10lbs of force or so then make sure you have the bolts off

 

If all the bolts are out, get a BIGGER hammer err rubber mallet

 

i was able to get all but one bolt out, it is the one on the right side bank, 2nd bolt in, i am using a scoket and it jumps but doenst grab, any ideas on how to get it out?

 

smaller socket 8 point socket metric socket file and fix the bolt

all else fails

dremmel a slot that you can use a big screwdriver
vice grips

buy a new bolt

 

you for sure cant remove it with a bolt holding it on!