any one know a trick to getting the upper and lower intake manifolds together

[Ta2ed Texan]

I just put a new claimer 350 in my tahoe. When I was taking the stuff off of my old motor to put onto my new one...Like a jackwagon I seperated the upper and lower intake manifolds, thinking that I had to get to bolts under the upper to get the whole thing off... Well now I got them apart and I cant get them back together. The spider assembly body is not going all the way through the hole in the upper intake. This is going to create 2 problems for me. A massive vaccum leak, and I cant get the harness to click into place. I tried pressing really hard on it, I tried torquing down all the bolts hoping that it would press into place, I tried attaching the fuel lines and trying to use them as something to pull and pry on to try to force the damn thing through the hole. I am stuck. I dont want to break anything, Any one have any tips here? I know this is easy, I have just never done it before and I cant figure it out. I am going to attach some pictures. The first pic is just a pic of my motor, it was dynoed and it has 348 hp, and 390 ftlb torque. The second pic is the gap between the upper and lower intake manifolds that is caused by the spider not going far enough through the hole in the upper intake. And the third pic is the part I am talking about.. I removed the spider from the bracket and raised it up in an attempt to get it to seat properly, but when I press down on the intake it simply pushed the spider back into its holder and I am still stuck needing it to come up an eighth of an inch or so. It would be easy if I could press the spider through the upper then put the upper on, but there isnt enough room to get my fingers between upper and lower to push it though. With the fuel injection in place I cant lift the upper more than an inch or so. I thought about totally disconnecting the fuel injectors from the lower, then I could press that thing through and all will be good. but I wouldnt be able to get the fuel injectors back into the ports in the lower. SO what do I do here guys

 

[Ta2ed Texan]

tell me that aint a pretty motor

I coulda spent that 4 grand on rims or airbags or something to make the vehicle appear to be in better shape than it really is... but instead I wanted to stomp a mustang or two

 

[Ta2ed Texan]

figured it out

Ok here is what I did. I put a o2 socket between the spider body and the bracket it snaps into. Then I gently pressed the upper intake down over the spider body. The right side went in while the left side wouldnt go in for any thing. So I took the nuts that attach the fuel line and threaded them on then took a flathead screwdriver and gently pried untill the spider body fit into place. The upper intake was at that poing flush with the lower and everything looked pretty good so if any one has this issue, that is how I got past it

 

[lesterl]

Thanks for posting!!!! Nice rig BTW......

 

[clkelley]

Sorry, I missed this, but glad I found it. That is a great looking engine indeed, glad you figured it out as well. Nice job!

 

[Ta2ed Texan]

Thanks guys, I've been workin on this swap for about a month now. I've put 3 engines in it, and decided just to go buya new crate motor.if im gunna spend all this time, effort, and money on puttin a new motor in if rather not ever have to do it again. So I figure if go with a drag racing motor. This way it will last a lil longer, cause im not taking my tahoe to the race track any time soon and the parts in the motor are stronger than oem. I did put a stock lift cam cause I want fuel economy. But that shouldnt hurt me too bad in the hp and torque dpt as the cam that was in.it was just a lil bigger than oem. Other than that its got a new coat of metallic engine paint that looks really cool in the day time. If yall want some its about 9 bucks a can at autozone, and comes in red,orange, gold, and black. This is just where I start on this truck, by this time next year its fun to be one awesome ride. I just got the truck a month ago. I haven't even driven it yet:smokin:

 

[clkelley]

lol, I can't wait to see video of it running, let us know when you get everything together!