Cousteau

I'm about to replace my valve lifters on my 5-cyl 88 90 and I'm a bit nervous. Since I have to remove the camshaft do I also have to remove the timing belt completely?
Is there anything I should keep in mind while I get into all that mess?
How difficult is to get the upper intake manifold out? If you guys have a procedure please let me know.

90quattroman

Make sure that before you start, you line up the crank shaft and cam shaft sprockets with the TDC (top dead center) marks. You will have to remove the timing belt (in fact, you might as well replace it and the water pump while your in there, unless that's been done recently. Should be done every 90k miles). When you put the cam back in, make sure that you line it up with the TDC mark again and double check the crank mark too. I replaced the cam in my '87 4000s once and screwed it up. The worst part will be getting everything out of the way...you'll need to remove the timing belt, t-belt cover, which means all the other belts & pully's that are in the way need to come out...etc. Good luck. It's a long project, but it's doable.

GoldQuattro

If you don't need to replace the timing belt or water pump, it can cut down on the time, since you really don't need to remove the t-belt from the crank pulley to get it off the cam timing gear (which is helpful if your pulley bolt is badly seized like mine was when I took it apart!!). However, you do need to take the timing belt cover off like 90quattroman said - I know you definitely need to take the power steering pump off and set it aside to do this (obviously leaving hydraulic lines attached). Otherwise, just pull the intake manifold and throttle body off as one piece (the rubber air boot can even stay on the fuel dist. if you want) after taking off all the crap that holds the fuel lines, throttle cable, etc to the IM. after that its trivial, since you just pop the valve cover off (just be sure you have the torque specs for the bolts that hold the cam in, and mark where the distributor rotor, timing gear, etc is pointing at TDC so you can put it all back!). Also be careful with the oil seal attached to the cam shaft A fun trick with these cars is that, to make access to the front of the engine a lot easier, you can take the whole front grill/bumper/radiator supports etc off, and then there's nothing in your way (although that adds to the time, obviously . . .)