I thought about that too, after I had already put the upper intake manifold back on, so I didn't go back and redo the silicone. I really struggled getting the dang heater hoses clamped down to the heater core nipples. First I was just going to use some standard 5/8 heater hose, then discovered one of the core nipples is a 3/4...aghh..another trip to town to get the right hose, 3/4 on one end and 5/8 on the other...which meant another day, since I wanted to get those done while I could reach the firewall more easily...then they barely gave enough room to get a screw clamp around each of them. Dropped one of the nuts for the throttle body and gave up after about 45 mins of trying to find it somewhere on the engine or tranny...dang...gotta pick up one of those at the store now.

I took pictures of some of the wiring harness connectors as I disconnected them prior to starting this job, but I wish now that I had took a couple of over all pics of the engine so to see how harness and plug wires lay, as well as a couple of small brackets that had me scratching my head a bit as I tried to put my puzzle back together. I still have several things to complete before I can finally fire it up...but soon I hope, my pickup is eating me up in fuel costs.

Another concern on my lower intake job...I am using new plastic coolant elbows and the one that goes into the lower intake casting sure doesn't feel very snug..in fact I pushed it in a little too much and it popped thru the casting port and into the lower intake cavity on the other side, if that makes sense? I pulled the elbow back out and looked the oring over, everything seemed to be ok so I reinstalled it, but this time I did'nt push it in quite so far.,man I don't like that setup at all. I found one parts store locally that had the aluminum ones, but they had to return the whole shipment due to faulty aluminum casting...so I am going ahead with the plastic ones for now ...gotta get this baby back on the road.

some people have complained about the dorman plastic ones having thinner o rings.

https://www.gmforum.com/2000-2005-90...atives-297675/