Recently I have had to change out a starter on a northstar engine for the umph-teenth time. This time I captured some photos for people looking to do this job.

For starters (no pun intended) the entire inake manifold must be removed to gain access to the starter. The intake on a Northstar engine is not too awful bad to remove and replace by the 2-3rd time you do it, however I must tip my hat to the people at GM who designed the intake. It is relatively easy work for someone who is a mechanic, or someone who has mechanical skill. I can't say that would be true for people that don't work on vehicles.

Many times you can re-use the intake manifold gasket. Just cleaning the head surface with a gum-out saturated rag and then the mating surface of the gasket itself with a dry rag should allow you to save a little money without compramising the quality of the job. Just be sure to inspect the gasket to ensure it is not seperating. It's a rubber impregnated gasket. I have had one case where I was unable to re-use the old gasket, however this was the result of the person who did the job in the past over torqued the bolts. The torqe specs of the intake MUST be taken into consideration. Given the number of these that I have done, I have calibrated fingers. Taking down the plastic intake bolts too tight WILL cause serious damage.

If anyone needs any help with this repair, feel free to post a responce and we will try and help. If you are local, you can just pay us to do the job.