Hi guys I want to change my plenum and balance bar, I have sourced spare ones but have very little mechanical knowlege so wondered if I could get some pointers and advise, I have read up about people taking their plenums off and once replaced open a tin of worms having lots of problems with the running of the car after? How much trouble is it to do and what problems could I run into during and after? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks

well the obvious problems are damaged/brittle connectors which may break on removal, corroded pins in the connectors, but saying that you can easily do a plenum water bypass and egr removal once it's off

What would be involved in water bypass and egr removal?? And what benifits would that bring cheers mate

water bypass removes all the small waterpipes on the bottom of the plenum total pain in the arse if they leak as plenum would have to come off to replace them, they run to the throttle bodies to warm them up in cold weather but we don't need that in the uk as it dosent get cold enough, egr bypass some say it improves emissions at mot time plus if you ever have to remove the plenum again it makes the job a whole lot easier

I removed and replaced my plenum and it never ran so well afterwards. However, at the time I also replaced all the injector and coilpack connections, did the water bypass, removed the EGR and cleaned every electrical connector I could find. It did take a me about an afternoon to get the plenum off and a bit less to put it back, after I'd replaced all the connectors of course.

Plenum pull with coolant bypass how-to:

 

http://www.pexcom.com.au/z32cms/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.458

 

-Andrew

Looks like a job for later.....alot later lol, I don't think I have the confidence to do all that, think I'll stick with stock for now lol