Pulling the plenum off for painting

REmoving the plenum is tricky because of washer that fall out from underneath when removing. Do a search there are a couple of threads that go into detail.

As far as refinishing you will get recommendations to powdercoat vs painting. All depends what you are trying to achieve. If you want it to look original then paint it is. I have not seen wrinkle powdercoat show texture as well. VHT brand red is the closest hue of red, but prep and especially curing are key in the best achiveable. Not available from the mass auto parts merchant. Summit caries the entire offering.

 

The dangerous part of pulling the plenum is the 8 small metal spacers that live inbetween the plenum & the top of the manifolds. If you snag one of those while you lift the plenum off & it drops down into the manifold its no fun to try & get it back out.

Its a little more work (i.e you need to remove the injector lines) but you might consider removing the plenum and the manifolds in one unit. That way you will not risk losing a spacer down the manifold & also you could then R&R a few other things in th ecentre of the engine (like the two coolant hose links behind the T'stat/WP housing). You could also clean up the manifolds properly to go with your newly painted plenum.

If you plan to do it this way then what you need to do is to loosen (but not remove) the 8 nuts that hold the plenum to the manifolds & then remove all the nuts & washers at the base of the manifolds. Loosening the nuts at the top means there will be enough play in the thing to allow you to get the manifolds off the studs in the block & lift the whole assembly off as one.

Of course while the manifolds are on the bench its also a great time to replace (or at least clean) the injectors..... etc etc etc !!

 

Those small steel spacers are the tricky part. Luckily my plenum came off with the rubber gaskets and steel spacers all held in place. I refinished the plenum and TB with VHT red wrinkle from italiancarparts and it came out great. Replace the coolant lines under the plenum and injectors while you're at it. It's cheap enough to do and a good idea as well. PM me if you have any questions.

 

When you have the plenum off, replace the coolant hoses under.

 

anyone ever try painting the plenum "in situ" ?

if the entire engine bay,buttresses, rear fenders are covered with drop cloths,
what would be wrong with that?

i've seen hotrodders do things like this with excellent results.

 

I have, but not the 'right' way. I've done touchup w.a colorite pen, and that's a pain in the arse sitting in the trunk. Good enough stopgap until I pull it to do it right.

 

I did my 328 that way with good success.

 

I'm thinking about doing mine in place.

 

I second the attention to the spacers when you pull the plenum off. also when putting it back on- its amazing how easy it is to get an air leak there... I've touched mine up in place, best if you are painting to do off the car.

 

One thing I found out about was the throttle position switch.
If you happen to remove it from the throttle body, it can be put back in slightly differently.
There were 2 screws with some possible adjustment to them.

My Bosch fuel injection book helped me set it back up.

As far as I know it basicly tells the computer when the throttle is closed, partially open and full throttle. Could affect the running.
Brent.

 

During the last major on my car, the mechanic handed me the plenum to have it painted. A local body shop masked-off, sprayed with Red VHT & then went over it with Rossa Corso. Looks fantastic

THis is how I first had it done. Sprayed with VHT & went over it with Rossa Corso. Came out great as can be seen in my avatar. There was some overspray, but not bad.