Intake Manifold Replacement

[Hal97Tbird]

My plastic intake manifold has cracked. This is the second time this has happened. How difficult is it to replace the manifold myself? Is it pretty much a straightforward remove and replace? Do I need special tools to remove and re-install the fuel injectors? I plan on installing a Dorman replacement manifold (about $240). Thanks
Hal

[Tbirdracing]

Yeah it is a pain to replace the manifold , but you do not need any speacial tools to replace it and i have one that was used for a very short time and i dont need it for my bird cause im gonna drop a 351C in it.

[Hal97Tbird]

Thanks for the offer of the intake manifold, but I've already bought one from RockAuto.com. (I paid $238??) It's an improved design by Dorman. It's better than the original. The front water passage is now cast aluminum ( instead of plastic) and the rear heater hose connector is now plastic instead of brass. The new manifold won't crack in front because it's now aluminum. Also, the OEM brass heater hose connector would crack the plastic due to unequal expansion characteristics. Since the rear is now all plastic, there shouldn't be a problem. (The plastic is a nylon material.)

The local Ford dealer wants $500 for the manifold and $500 labor to install. This will be my THIRD manifold. Since there were so many problems with all these plastic manifolds, you'd think that for good customer relations, Ford would have sold the manifold at manufacturing cost and also had a reduced price for installation. Since so many have been replaced, I'm sure a Ford mechanic can replace one of these manifolds pretty quickly. (Probably in two hours of less - nothing justifying a $500 labor cost.)

Here's a good article about replaceing a very similar manifold in a Crown Vic.

www.redpulsar.us/~coldfusion/intakeswap.html