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Removing the J35a8 Acura RL Intake Manifold

Contributed by: Enginebasics.com

Decided to start working on the engine some while it’s currently out waiting on the manual transmission to arrive in the mail.  I started by breaking down the intake manifold so I could gain access to the fuel injectors.  The j35a8 Acura RL intake manifold is different than all the previous J-series manifolds in its design and clearance.  It is almost 1” lower in its height and offers a lot more flow.  If your looking for more clearance in your J swaped car than pick up a j35a8 intake manifold from an Acura RL, or any of the j37 manifolds.  A forum member once tested a J35a8 and J37 sh AWD manifold and found them to be within 5 cfm of flow of each other, which we can rule out as basically being the same and is not statistically significant enough to even consider them being different.   One big change is the opening for the throttle body.  On this J35a8 intake manifold the opening is 67mm but can be easily bored out to 70-72mm do to all the extra material present.   I believe the j37 intake manifold comes with a larger throttle body size and doesn’t need to be bored out.

These manifolds also are considered “tuned runner length” manifolds do to having a solenoid that controls a flapper valve that can change the effective length of the manifold.  This is to provide more torque throughout the power band.  You can see the solenoid and the flapper valve that it runs that opens and closes the division between the left and right side of the intake manifold.

With the cover off we now have access to the lower bolts that can be removed to remove the intake manifold from the lower intake runners.  It should be noted that the lower intake runners cannot be removed on the J35a8 with the heads on.  The only way to remove the lower runners is with the heads completely removed.  Since I am not looking to do a full motor rebuild at this time, this is far as I’m going to go.  A full built motor will be in the future, but I would like to get the swap all up and running first before dumping more money into the motor.   So no port and polish job for now, but instead a lot of cleaning.  The intake manifold had a decent amount of carbon and oil build up in it.