I have a vacuum leak that appears to be between the intake and head. From looking at it, there is little to no room to get the nuts/washers on the bottom of the intake off! What exactly is the preferred method of removing the manifold (hopefully) without having to remove the head??

 

I'm don't know about 88 Accord, but on 94 Accord I had to remove part of thermostat housing to gain enough access to reach nuts on underside of intake manifold on pax side. I also ran into some wiring harnesses bolted to underside of the intake manifold that had to be released from beneath the car. Pretty sure the intake manifold has to come off to allow cylinder head to be removed, not the other way round.

good luck

 

Thanks for the reply!! I understand that the head doesn't necessarily have to come off to remove the intake, it just might be less stressful. From looking at it further, it looks like 6 in one half a dozen in the other scenario! Obviously removal of the head is more entailed than just removing the intake but, on an '88, the bottom nuts are a bitch to get off/on without removing the oil filter tree, a bunch of vacuum lines and, a bunch of other stuff. Even if I can get those nuts off, getting them back on and torque properly will be a neat trick!!

 

It can be done......

Not one of the more fun things to do. Also note there is a little bracket on the back side of the block going up to the intake.

 

Poorman, thanks for chiming in!! It could be done.........words that have brought me a challenge or great pains!!! I am somewhat familiar with the set up as I dropped the engine/trans twice this summer. Once for a blown engine replacement and the other time to do the headgasket. I'm leaning towards pulling the head and making sure that the intake gasket is nice and tight!!! (obviously not too tight!) I'm really trying to avoid ANYTHING involving pulling this head again. If it weren't for the axles/rad/air condensor, I'd probably just pull engine/trans! I'd love to meet the "engineer" who thunk up this intake to head configuration

If I may ask, do you have a preferred method??

 

Faint memories.....I did this on the 86 DX I had...~15 years ago.

I have also had to pull the head on the same car, wife over heated said 86 about a year later

Personally I'd almost call it a tie, but an edge to just the intake. Just the intake takes time, not much room on the bottom...or the top really....so very slow and taking time to "get to" the nuts...then remembering the intake bracket, the PCV tube, EGR tube, ect.....and I'm a little guy so my hand/arms kind of fit above/around the cv shafts and that to get to the bottom nuts. And one more, I will say that I did not use a torque wrench on all of them, where I could get the 3/8 torque wrench in I did....the nuts are like 16 ft lbs. I had to use a 1/4 on a few, so I had to put the 1/4 on the ones I knew were right then estimate...if you know what I mean.

But the head adds more "bulky" things (timing belt, exhaust, ect)...but is also adds to the cost. Added gaskets, the t-belt is off so why not (or did you do that this summer).

So the end of the story, your call.

 

Poorman, I reevaluated the situation and decided to just pull the intake. It wasn't a walk in the park but, it was way easier than pulling the head/intake/exhaust or the engine!!! Basically you have to pull the aluminum/plastic box that runs the length of the intake on top and on the bottom, I pulled the altenator/oil filter/wiring harness that runs on the bottom of the intake. After you pull all of that, you can work a stubby wrench and/or a 1/4" drive ratchet. Whole thing took me ~4 hours to remove/replace the gasket and reassemble. It turned out to be the wrong intake gasket, the one that goes on a FI engine is a little too big and allows the gasket to get pushed out and create a vacuum leak.

 

Good to hear you got it....heck you did better than me....I remember this as a full afternoon (~6 or more hours)