Ill start by saying Im an apprentice at a local auto repair shop, and today at the end of the day I pulled my DPFI d15 hatch in to swap a head. My master tech told me to remove all the hoses, unplug all the connnectors and pull the intake with the head....I decided to leave literally everything connected to the intake, and simply unbolt it from the head and slide it back enough so that I could pull the head off. It seems to be a lot easier and save time by just removing the bolts and sliding it back toward the firewall. Plenty of room to pull the head and not to mention a lot lighter and easier to pull with the IM out of the way. I wanted to know however, for future adventures what is the most correct way to do this? I dont want my way to be some hack way and me get in the habit of doing it at work on customer vehicles

 

welp all i can think is
if you leave the intake attached then you don't need a gasket...

but its probably easier to remove the manifold before the head because there is not as much weight.

I would say pull the intake and pull the head separately then if you need to clean up the head its easier to work on.. then again most shops probably won't clean up the head before replacing the gasket and cranking it down with a impact hammer heh

and if you get stuck .. removing the intake from a partly removed head is gonna suck

anyway ..
good luck

there are tons of tricks to do things faster you just have to weigh them against return calls and loss of customers .. head gaskets are pretty important .. don't want to mess them up

 

I always leave the intake on.

 

I think i saved a bit of time not having to disconnect all the coolant hoses and electrical connections. Is there anything wrong with this method of head removal?

 

Nope. Just like pulling the trans to replace the clutch instead of removing the whole engine.

I'm not an expert on gaskets though. But new is usually better, right? The way you removed the head was fine.

 

Do whatever is easiest for you. I like taking the intake with it, just to get it out of the way. Getting to that center intake runner bolt that is below the runner is kind of a pain to me, too. Like I said, though: do it however you like. You're certainly not doing it "wrong."

 

thanks for the reassurance. I think I think to much about things. This is my second year so far and I am 19. I never went to school but I am on the line as a full service guy because i picked it up fast. I still have the tech that showed me the ropes as a mentor though. I do some diagnosis but mainly I spend my days doing front end work so with this engine work sometimes I get stupid stuff in my head lol.