[luke9511]

to who ever else has to do this, all i have to say is that if you do this your self may the car gods have mercy on your soul, cause its a b*tch to do, took me and my uncle 2-3 hours to get the intake plenum off and another hour for me to replace all the spark plugs and wires and yes thats the best time to do those imo.

goodluck! cause you're going to need it.

 

[bourbon92]

well damn... going to have to replace both the valve cover gaskets soon myself. your post does not instill me with confidence ::laugh::

 

[Zero Six LE]

I replaced both on a 03 3.3 and it was fun doing the drivers side. Took well over an hour but I got through it.

 

[luke9511]

took me and my uncle about an hour, hour and a half to put everything back together but the truck is running better and it seems to start a little quicker and better thanks to the new plugs and wires, no longer using the 13 year old plugs and wires

 

[robj80]

If anyone wants to the ease the pain a little of this I have OEM parts in a bag. Two VC gaskets and intake plenum gasket. FREE just pay shipping. I grabbed them from the dealer for my nephews xterra but after we all read how much of a pain this was he paid a shop to do it .

My thread is here http://www.clubfrontier.org/forums/f114/3-3l-gaskets-oem-brand-new-308257/

 

[bhom920]

I agree completely with the OP. glad to be done with mine lol

 

[HippiLettuce]

I did this, not once but twice! In the same 2 month period. I made the ever so costly mistake of not having the intake plenum gasket so I left the one it had in there and the put a new one in after around a month and a halfish. After I of coarse found it to be that I will need the metal one, as the AutoZone fiber one won't last terribly long. So it'll be three times doing this removal of the intake plenum. Atleast I was able to do spark plug #6 and knock sensor relocate. Next time I'll end up probably doing timing belt, distributor, coolant flush. Just tackle as much as I can while taking advantage of the extra space under the hood


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[chrisexv6]

A few years ago I bought the vc gasket set then realized how much of a PITA it is to get to the drivers side. Did just the passenger back then because it was easy.

Here we are 3 years later, I needed a new timing belt and I knew the lower intake gaskets were leaking coolant, so I ended up taking off upper and lower plenum, BOTH vc gaskets replaced now, degreased both parts of the intake, new hoses where necessary (and ever where not) on TOP of doing the actual timing belt, water pump, etc.

Truck is 16 years old so I figure this is the first and last time I do all this stuff, not a problem putting the work in for just 1 time.

 

[luke9511]

A few years ago I bought the vc gasket set then realized how much of a PITA it is to get to the drivers side. Did just the passenger back then because it was easy.

Here we are 3 years later, I needed a new timing belt and I knew the lower intake gaskets were leaking coolant, so I ended up taking off upper and lower plenum, BOTH vc gaskets replaced now, degreased both parts of the intake, new hoses where necessary (and ever where not) on TOP of doing the actual timing belt, water pump, etc.

Truck is 16 years old so I figure this is the first and last time I do all this stuff, not a problem putting the work in for just 1 time.

the way i see it, i may not have this truck for another 13 or 14 years so who ever gets from me will have to deal with it then