560 SEL Plenum seal job: Somebody help me out here pleeze...
 

So I am doing the plenum seal job on my 1989 560 SEL. I have all bolts removed that hold in intake manifold in place, including the rear accelerator linkage. The whole intake assembly budges and wiggles in the front part of the engine, but will not budge in the rear. Ruled out are:

-EGR piipe: EGR had been disconnected in the rear of the valve, should not be holding the manifold down.

-Heater hose: Too flexible, not yet removed because of bad angle.

-Any bolts: All bolts have been removed, unless there is some invisible one I am not aware of...

Anyone else run into this one?

Thanks!

hb:

There are two bolts on each side at the rear of the manifold that bracket the water passage between cyl. head and manifold. Get both of them?

Good question. I will check.

Where are these bolts located? I have removed all bolts on top of the manifold.

OK< There is staill an invisible force holding down the rear...
 

OK, these are some very large images, but I must be missing something. As you can tell, all top bolts are gone, as well as the rear hoses now detached. Something is still holding the rear down, I don't know what...

(first image rear is right, second image rear is left...)

http://funnyyouasked.com/Images/Mani...oRemove_01.jpg

http://funnyyouasked.com/Images/Mani...oRemove_02.jpg

Progress report: I have managed to get the manifold off the cylinder heads, but it is still held in place by as stubborn EGR valve pipe. Even though the pipe has been completely unbolted at the EGR valve, it won't come off easily. One suggestion I have gotten is to take a vice grip, clamp it onto the pipe, and try to bang it out using a hammer. This solution does have an appeal to me, since the EGR valve is a pain to remove because of the retaining screws placement close to the wheel well...

It is completed!
 

The manifolds (both the upper and the lower plenum) are in the machine ship for a hot bath cleaning and for checking for warpage. The trick my friend recommended, vice grip and then a ball peen hammer to get the pipe out, worked 100%!

So in two days the reassembly will begin...