Guide : RB26 Inlet manifold removal

[RB335]

Guide : RB26 Inlet manifold removal

Hi.

So after finding not too many detailed guides on removing the inlet manifold, some with missing pictures, I decided to have a go at it myself my way and do a guide as I went.
This is not an easy job, however it is not impossible.

Tools you will need will be various 3 inch, 6 inch 3/8" and 1/4" extension bars, Swivel and Telescopic ratchet, 10mm, 12mm socket.  Stubby 10mm and 12mm spanners and stubby ratchet, and Uni-jointed 12mm socket, also long nose pliers of various sizes and angles.  Screwdrivers flathead and phillips various.

1.  Remove Igniter, Boost Solenoid, Washer Bottle, Fusebox Cover

2. Remove 2 x Fuel hoses, feed/return that are at the underside of the manifold, one goes to a regulator under the manifold, these will leak so you will need some sort of rubber caps to put over them to stop the leakage

 

3. Unbolt the fuel filter and swing it out of the way.

4. There will be 3 bolts holding the fuel pressure damper and hard-pipes (Pic in Step 2) on the underside of the inlet manifold.
You can now remove the 2 little smal hoses that link these to the fuel rail.  These are often on very tight and may need to be cut and replaced.
You can now remove these hardpipes from under the manifold.  Picture below of how the piece looks 

 

5.  There will be a large wiring corrugated conduit near the area of these fuel hardpipes that were removed.  This is held on by a large plastic holder.
Use a flathead screwdriver to unclip the conduit from this holder and lower the conduit.

There will also be a cable tie holding a wiring conduit to a bunch of hoses and other things, this cable tie can be unclipped without cutting it

6. The conduit clip in step 5 is attached to a metal holder which is bolted to the inlet manifold.  Feel around to see where the bolt is as it's quite difficult to get an idea
of it's position, you will feel a "hook" like metal piece here too.  Both this hook and the bracket for the conduit clip is held on by the same bolt.

As you remove it, note it's orientation so you can put them back in the same way.  Picture below shows the orientation, 

 

7. Drain oil and remove oil filter

8. Now it's time to begin unbolting the ISCV from the manifold, this is a big aluminium block bolted to the underside of the manifold.
The block is held directly onto the manifold by Three bolts facing upwards, two of which are seen in the photo Below, the third one is at the other side, you will have to feel for it.

Remove the bolts shown in the picture, aswell as the hidden bolt not shown in the picture.  
You will also now be able to remove the clindrical shaped solenoid below the ISCV held on by the bottom 2 bolts shown in picture, it's held on by a gasket that needs to be replaced later,
and also has an electrical connector

Also remove the cable tie shown in picture below
 

 

9. At the rearmost part of the underside of the inlet manifold closer to the firewall there is 2 large hoses that slide onto ports on the manifold, remove the clamps for these
using long-nose pliers or whatever method you can and slip the hoses off.  There is also a brown plug, unplug it.

 

10. At the back of the inlet manifold, at the top there will be 2 large rubber hoses connected to hardpipes, remove these rubber hoses from the hardpipes




11.  The hardpipes in above photo lead down under the manifold, to a metal coupler that holds them together and to the inlet manifold. You can see this coupler if you peer down the gap between the manifold runners.  These hardpipes need to be unbolted either from the inlet manifold, or from the other bracket that holds them to the rest of the hosing assembly to allow the manifold to come out either with this entire pipe together, or without it.

      Option A - Remove inlet manifold with hardpipes attached.  Remove bolt highlighted in yellow.  This option is preferred if you can get to this bolt.

      Option B - Remove inlet manifold without hardpipes attached.  Remove bolt that normally will be found in hole circled in red.
                        If you chose this option this bolt will be a very difficult one to get to, requires stubby 1/4" ratchet and socket.

You will also need to unbolt these hardpipes from the ISCV via flange held to ISCV by 2 bolts, there is a gasket here too (Highlighted Green)

12.  Remove fuel rail and injectors

13. Remove throttle level assembly

14. Remove the large pressure hose from the front of the inlet manifold, loosen both clamps on it to allow the maximum movement.  This one is very stubborn
and prying to with a screwdriver aswell as spraying WD40 deep inside helps make it loose.  You need to pull from the bottom right section of the hose, and pull upward and slightly diagonally.

15.  Remove inlet manifold nuts.  Here you risk losings washers.  There is spring and flat washers.  This is most likely to happen for the underside nuts.
Here you can use a small magnet attached to a screwdriver, then contact the screwdriver to the stud just enough to pull the washers to your screwdriver/magnet combo.

16. Remove the vacuum hose hose and bracket that goes to the brake master assembly, this will give more clearance for the inlet manifold to slide out.

17. You can now slide the inlet manifold out.


 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2016 by RB335

[jmknights93]

Nice tutorial. This will come in handy for those who want to paint their inlet manifold like myself sometime down the track. Thank you. 

[Gareth]

Nice one, if only i had this 18 months ago!

[RB335]

An update on this to add some tips and tricks to help 1st timers out more.  I cannot edit the thread.

On Step 11, when chosing whether to keep the hardpipes attached to the manifold, or to keep them attached to the rest of the hosing assembly on engine before manifold comes out.  

I would probably chose Option B, as otherwise if you go Option A, getting that gasket and bolts to hold that hardpipe to the ISCV is very hard.

I also reccomend putting some sort of protective paper, electrical tape around the brake pipes as you are very likely to scratch these up while working around this area, when the manifold comes out.

Removing some of the rear lower nuts can be quite difficult without losing them, as there is about 1 or 2 where you cannot get your hand in all the way to remove the nut and the washers.  Here you can get some magnets and tape them onto something and extract them that way.  Also using very large long nose pliers, you can remove the washers using the gaps in the inlet manifold runners from the top

[RB335]

When putting the plenum back on you may find it difficult to clear the two air delivery hard pipes that go between the gap between runners 5 and 6 of the plenum, hold the manifold in this angle to clear them then gently manoeuvre it back to the correct location.



Another hard part can be putting the intercooler rubber pipe back onto the manifold, you want to loosen both sides and use all your strength to first get the BOTTOM RIGHT section on, even if it's a little bit of it, do whatever you can to maintain pressure on the hose as the bottom right part of it needs to remain over the plenum lip, holding this in place, use a phillips screw driver and gently walk the rubber over the lip from the bottom working your way either clockwise or counter clockwise whichever you find works the best.