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Fitting matched inlets?



  "Navy" N17 TWO
We call it learning mate :)

I'm sure we've all done something sillly to our cars at one point, and caused a few minor problems or a hole in the wallet lol
 
  172 ph1
Preliminary guide to fitting matched inlets, will have to add photos when I get home tonight

Guide to fitting matched inlets on a 172 ph1

Tools:
set of sockets, 2 extensions, 1 universal joint,
set of spanners
penumatic jack
vacuum cleaner
kitchen tissue paper

useful: magnetic dish to hold bolts and nuts, magnet on extendable stick to reach for stuff that you drop

1. Undo 4x torx screws holding down engine cover, remove engine cover

2. Unplug sensor on the left of the plenum

3. Unplug sensor on the right of the plenum

4. Unplug breether pipe coming from elbow to back of plenum

5. Unplug pipe going from throttle body to back of plenum

6. Unplug vacuum pipe on back of plenum

7. Unclip the wire going to throttle body

8. Unclip the coilpack connections, 4 HT leads and 1 from wire loom

9. Unclip the wire going to the breether pipe connector at the back of plenum

10. Undo 4x 10mm bolts holding down the coilpack, put coilpack aside

11. Undo 4x torx screws holding throttle body in place, put throttle body aside

12. Undo 2x 10mm bolts besides the coilpack mount holding down the plenum

13. Undo 5x 10mm bolts holding down the plenum on the front

14. Check nothing is connected any more. Remove plenum

15. Undo 2x 10mm nuts inside fuel rail guard. An extension will be needed for the socket

16. Remove fuel rail guard

17. Unclip wires going to injectors

18. Undo the 3 small (10mm?) bolts holding down the fuel rail

19. If you can, pull out fuel rail and injectors - can be wedged in quite tight. If not remove them once you've removed the lower inlet.

20. Change your spark plugs and leads if needed at this point. Main thing is not to overtorque the spark plugs. Use some copper grease on the spark plugs' threads to make future removal easier

21. Using a spanner, undo the 2 shafts that the fuel rail guard was attached to

22. Using socket + extension, it should be possible to remove 7-8 out of the 10 large (14mm?) bolts at the front of the lower inlet

23. Using socket + extension + universal joint, it should be possible to remove the remaining 2-3 hidden (14mm?) bolts at the front of the lower inlet. Likely to get cut knuckles during these 2 steps

24. Optional - undo bolts holding in the plastic underbody cover, remove underbody cover

25. CAREFULLY place pneumatic jack under sump (I placed it not far from sump hole), support the engine using jack and use some padding material to protect sump

26. Remove engine mount, be careful as the engine will sag and need support from the pneumatic jack. 3x large (16mm?) bolts on the engine and 4x large (16mm?) bolts on the car

27. Jack up the engine some more until the last bolt on the left side can be removed with socket + extension + universal joint

28. Loosen AC bracket bolt, but not remove, just loosen enough to make it clamp down less on the lower inlet

29. Once you're sure you removed all the bolts (check against matched lower inlet for where all the bolts are), start trying to remove the lower inlet.

30. If the inlet will move to the right, some slight tapping from a hammer can be used to help remove the lower inlet and gasket

31. Vacuum the 4 holes on the engine block - you'll find some dirt was dislodge during removal of the lower inlet

32. Plug up the holes with some tissue paper so no more dirt gets in Clean the area around the 4 holes with a wirebrush

33. Remove the tissue paper, vacuum the holes again and clean with some wet tissue

34. Clean the mating surfaces of the matched inlets with wirebrush, vacuum and clean

35. Plug the injectors + fuel rail into the new lower inlets

36. Assemble the bolts for the lower inlet, there should be 4 short ones for the bottom, 1 slightly longer for left side of bottom, 2 long ones for the top, 1 longer one for left side of top, 2 very long shafts where the fuel rail guard will be mounted, and one fat one for the left side at 90 degrees to all other bolts

37. Carefully fit gasket and lower inlet. I used 2 bolts to line up the inlet and gasket, then carefully lined it up with the engine

38. Get the bolts in one by one, make sure you don't tighten any of them until you have all bolts in, otherwise you'll have a slight mis alignment and the last bolt will refuse to go in and you'll have to slightly loosen them all again.

39. Tighten the bolts, bolt the engine mount back. Lower jack

40. Tighten the AC bracket bolt on the engine block again

41. MAKE SURE THE HT LEADS WON'T BE CRUSHED BY THE PLENUM. There is a gap on the plenum for the HT leads to pass through, if you don't make sure the leads pass through the gap (like I did), you will clamp down on them with the plenum and destroy them.

42. If you have matched upper inlet plenum as well, switch the large O ring from the bottom of the one you took off onto the new one. You'll also need to remove the breather pipe connector thing from the back of the old plenum and fit it onto the new one

44. Mount the (new) inlet plenum. MAKE SURE NOT TO CRUSH THE HT LEADS. 5x 10mm bolts on the front, 2x 10mm bolts at the back


45. Clean all the gunk from the throttle body at this point.

46. Remount everything: throttle body with 4x torx screws, plug in sensor on left of plenum, plug in sensor on right, breather pipe from elbow, vacuum pipe at back of plenum, pipe from throttle body to back of plenum, wire connectors to throttle body, connector to breather pipe connector, connectors to injectors

47. Recheck everything, start engine

48. If everything is ok, put the fuel rail guard and engine cover back
 
Last edited:
  172 ph1
Thanks, I might not be able to get a photo for each step but hopefully enough to make things clear.
 
  "Navy" N17 TWO
Nice one mate

It's only pics of removing the lower inlet that the site is lacking at the moment :( there's already a quide for the plenum :)
 
  172 ph1
Posted this on another forum, will need to edit it some more to fit the instructions I wrote above. Like I said before this was the first time I worked on a car so excuse the mistakes :)

At the start:

IMG_0199.jpg


removed engine cover

IMG_0204.jpg


detached a whole load of sensors and pipes from the plenum, removed it

IMG_0205.jpg


removing the lower inlet took a lot more work and cut knuckles

had to support the engine with a jack first, before raising it up to gain access to some bolts

IMG_0228.jpg


IMG_0211.jpg


even with all the screws detached the lower inlet was clamped down by the AC bracket, removing was a pain

IMG_0215.jpg


dirt landed in the 4 ports? had to clean them. Loosening that bolt on the bracket seemed to help in the removal of the lower inlet.

IMG_0216.jpg


"matched" inlets on the left vs original on the right. Might gain a few hp, LOL

IMG_0220.jpg


vacuumed and cleaned, ready for new lower inlet

IMG_0222.jpg


new inlet and gasket went on pretty easily, new spark plugs, leads, ignition coil

IMG_0223.jpg


throttle body needed a clean

IMG_0213.jpg


new plenum and airbox installed. Made a major mistake here when I clamped the new leads between the plenum and engine block, destroying them

IMG_0225.jpg


also changed the engine mount for an uprated one

old
IMG_0227.jpg


new
IMG_0231.jpg


Gearbox mount was like 20x harder to replace compared to the engine mount.

Removed the battery to see this. Had to undo the middle nut but the whole shaft twisted along with the rubber. Had to use the large torque wrench to loosen it. Then I had to undo the 2 smaller nuts and catch the bolts underneath.

IMG_0232.jpg


out with the old in with the new

IMG_0234.jpg


Magnet on a stick came in handy many times while working on the car. Used it here to help position one of the 2 small nuts that has to go underneath the battery tray. For the other one I had to stick my hand down that hole :mad:

IMG_0236.jpg


The whole shaft kept turning so I had to block it with a spanner. Took me a while to position the spanner correctly

IMG_0237.jpg


Jacked the gearbox up again and tightened everything.

IMG_0238.jpg
 
Last edited:
  172 ph1
Hat's off to your efforts mate :)

What do you think of the uprated mounts?
I've yet to do the dogbone mount but it seems like all the slack in the drivetrain is gone. Car is definitely louder/buzzier so would not make sense if the car didn't see regular track use.

The car is a lot more responsive to throttle input as a result, I can induce understeer and oversteer much easier, so I'll have to be more sensitive with my throttle inputs as there's no rubber damping my inputs. I'll probably be slower in the short term.
 

yeecup

ClioSport Club Member
  mk8Fiesta ST,172 cup
notice any improvements to performance with the new inlets fitted?? cant decide whether to get these or not for my phase 1 172 or get a whiteline arb instead.
 


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