Intake Manifold Differences Auto v. Man

bigslurrp · Aug 21st, 2006, 09:19 PM

First let me say thanks to everyone here for their support. This forum is great. Before I tell you my sad story, let me ask the question. I have a 97 Altima (6/96) which makes it a 96 for parts. I have a manual transmission and I am looking for another intake manifold. Can I use a manifold off of an automatic car? If there are differences between the manifolds what are they?

I bought this nice car for $800. It ran rough and needed an intake manifold gasket. I was out of commission with a bad neck and had my son and my father do most the work on the first go round of changing the manifold gasket. Turns out they left a chunk of the old gasket, only a 1" piece, on the engine and put the new gasket on. Needless to say it ran worse than it did before. I discovered the old gasket when I completely pulled the manifold out of the car, put new gaskets on the plenum and the collecter and then reinstalled a new gasket for the manifold.

Everything went back together and worked great. Gassed the car up and it started to whistle. I mean WHISTLE. So loud it pierces your ears. So I took the breather box off and inspected it, installed a new pcv valve, replaced the IAV. Took the belts off, still whistles. I finally took it to a dealer to have them diagnose. The tech worked five hours trying to diagnose this thing. Lucky for me, they quoted me an hour and it cost me $100. Anyway, they say it is the intake manifold gasket. I guess they have a smoke machine they put on it. It kind of suprises me because the car runs good. Not a totally smooth idle but good. When I sprayed carb cleaner on the intake, it actually dropped a few rpm's instead of going up.

I'm afraid that my manifold got warped when it was put back on and tightened with a chunk of the old gasket on there. That is the only thing I can come up with.

What do you guys think? I think finding a used manifold and putting it on there should solve my problem. I DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS AGAIN! On the brighter side, I'm getting pretty good at taking this car apart.

enjoy_incubus · Aug 21st, 2006, 09:38 PM

if you change the intake manifold you have to swap the tps-throttle postition sensor..where you sprayed the carb cleaner, look for a bad hose or a bolt that isnt correctly screwed in.