I am going in to replace the IMG and have a question about the black heater pipe going from the water pump housing around and back to the heater plumbing near the firewall. At the water pump end there is the one 8mm bolt holding the fitting in. I got that side pulled up and out and after a lot of work finally got the hose clamps backed off and the two small hoses atached to the bottom of the throttle body to release. The black pipe wasn't attached under the throttle body as the 13mm nut was missing (previous jobs I guess) so the pipe is free except for the connection to the heater hose toward the firewall.

Is that enough for this pipe or does it really have to be totally removed to do the lower intake manifold?

I read that it may be in the way of removing the valve cover but my factory manual doesn't say anything about having to remove this pipe (I should say the factory manual is rather vague with much of their descriptions).

I found an old post last year by Sparky (thanks) were he described removing the quick connect by depressing the two white tabs but I have had no luck at getting the hose to release.

Here is how he described it:

... The connection to the heater is a quick connect, there are 2 little white tabs that you have to depress to release it, you have to squeeze the crap out of the tabs and then the tabs stay with the metal heater pipe and the plastic hose pulls off. The tabs are sticking out of the the black plastic closer to the throttle body....

If anyone has anything to add about the black heater pipe it would be appreciated as I have squeezed till my fingers are sore with no luck in getting it to release. Anyone not remove it entirely and still get the manifold gaskets replaced?

If you removed it any tips on getting the end to release ?

thanks in advance

Just swing it out of the way. There will be plenty of room to work around it.

I am going in to replace the IMG and have a question about the black heater pipe going from the water pump housing around and back to the heater plumbing near the firewall. At the water pump end there is the one 8mm bolt holding the fitting in. I got that side pulled up and out and after a lot of work finally got the hose clamps backed off and the two small hoses atached to the bottom of the throttle body to release. The black pipe wasn't attached under the throttle body as the 13mm nut was missing (previous jobs I guess) so the pipe is free except for the connection to the heater hose toward the firewall.

Is that enough for this pipe or does it really have to be totally removed to do the lower intake manifold?

I read that it may be in the way of removing the valve cover but my factory manual doesn't say anything about having to remove this pipe (I should say the factory manual is rather vague with much of their descriptions).

I found an old post last year by Sparky (thanks) were he described removing the quick connect by depressing the two white tabs but I have had no luck at getting the hose to release.

Here is how he described it:

... The connection to the heater is a quick connect, there are 2 little white tabs that you have to depress to release it, you have to squeeze the crap out of the tabs and then the tabs stay with the metal heater pipe and the plastic hose pulls off. The tabs are sticking out of the the black plastic closer to the throttle body....

If anyone has anything to add about the black heater pipe it would be appreciated as I have squeezed till my fingers are sore with no luck in getting it to release. Anyone not remove it entirely and still get the manifold gaskets replaced?

If you removed it any tips on getting the end to release ?

thanks in advancethey make a quick-connect tool that you push into the connect to get it to release but i never had much luck getting it to work on the big connects.i use a small flat screwdriver and pick the white tab so it clears the pipe and get the other white tab to clear and pull the quick connect off. the white tabs should go with the quick-connect and pulloff the pipe. i believe your gonna have to undo the quick- connect on the other heater hose that has the 90 degree on it [to the left of the straight one your talking about]as it goes to the intake.