Removing the intake manifold.

The first thing I set off to do when I got the engine home and finally out of the car was to separate the transmission and the engine so that I could put the engine on the stand and have a easy place to work on it. That was the first problem I ran into.  It turns out that the bolts used to hold the transmission on to the rest of the engine were an obscure shape called a torx head.  This is a common shape on auto bolts, instead of a regular hex shaped bolt, this is a star shape. 

Because once again, I didn't have the right tools I couldn't remove the transmission.  I wanted to start here so I could get the engine up on the stand, but I decided to get started on the engine instead.  In order to properly rebuild this engine I would have to remove all the parts so until I was able to get the Torx wrenches I thought I would get started.

The first part of the engine I decided to remove was the intake manifold. The intake manifold was held on by 12 bolts on six on the top and six on the bottom. The bolts on top were very easy to remove and were pretty easy to break loose with a ratchet and a 10mm socket. The bottoms were harder to remove because of limited clearance and visibility.  I couldn't use a ratchet and instead I had to use a wrench to loosen all of the bolts. Once the bolts were removed the intake manifold lifted right off.

I carefully labeled all of the bolts and set to the side. 

Top view of the engine and intake manifold.

Close-up of intake manifold bolts and fuel injectors.

Close up of intake manifold bolts on the underside.