[95.5 Rodeo]

The "common chamber" or plenum needs to be removed in order to change the valve cover gaskets on the 3.2L. The intake manifold is underneath the common chamber and stays in place while you do the job.

The common chamber is not that difficult to work with except for the bracket in back on the passenger's side which holds the heater hoses in place. Getting the bolts started during installation took a while because there was only enough room to get my fingertips on the bolt heads. I ended up barely holding the bolt with place with one fingertip and turning it with the other hand using an open ended wrench. Getting those 4 bolts started was a lot of fun.

I left the throttle body hanging in place by the small heater hoses after unbolting it. It didn't need to be disconnected from the heater hoses to get enough clearance for the driver's side valve cover to get by it and I didn't want to create a potential leak there.

I also had to remove the engine hanger bracket on the driver's side from the exhaust manifold to get enough clearance. The engine hanger bolted to the passenger's side exhaust manifold guiding the spark plug wires had to be removed as well. I worked through the wheel wells to remove the exhaust manifold bolts.

Check the EGR passage in the common chamber for carbon while you have it removed. Mine was about 50% blocked. I used a drill bit turned by hand to clear it then washed out the crud with water afterwards. I removed the MAP sensor before cleaning the EGR passage.


Dale