[ianmcgrath1983]

In my on-going effort to get this 380SL to run. I removed the fuel distributor and the plate with the.boot assy. Upon inspection I found the boot to be heavily cracked. So a replacement is in order. However finind that I will need a.new plate along with the boot itself kind of stinks. What exactly are the differences between the new plate and old plate? And how can you tell if you have the updated plate already ( im sure I don't, but fingers 🤞🤞🤞)
TIA

IAN

 

[Ricks 380]

You can change it out yourself, just be careful. Getting the old one out was the hardest for me. While you have access, make sure your vacuum lines and throttle positioner is in tac.

 

[ianmcgrath1983]

Can a replacement boot be put on the original plate assy? or is it 100% necessary to get the $150+ new plate along with the new boot assy?
While the whole assy is out, I'm also replacing the air lines that run under the intake boot to the fuel injectors. Along with a new Throttle body gasket, I already inspected the rubber and vacuum lines at the throttle plate and they seem to be in decent condition. I will check the TPs in the afternoon. still have to get the old gasket off of the manifold and the throttle assy.
One thing at a time.....

 

[roncallo]

Send a PM to Jyuma, He just ordered one of these plates and boots.

 

[Jyuma]

Can a replacement boot be put on the original plate assy? or is it 100% necessary to get the $150+ new plate along with the new boot assy?
While the whole assy is out, I'm also replacing the air lines that run under the intake boot to the fuel injectors. Along with a new Throttle body gasket, I already inspected the rubber and vacuum lines at the throttle plate and they seem to be in decent condition. I will check the TPs in the afternoon. still have to get the old gasket off of the manifold and the throttle assy.
One thing at a time.....

The original boot and plate were molded together, you couldn't take the boot off the plate and then try to reuse the plate.
The new design has the rubber boot as a separate part from the plate and you need to order both.
Shop around... the price of the plate can be as low as $100 and as high as $200 and more. It's just an aluminum plate. The rubber boot is a different story. The price can be all over the place with the cheapest being MTC.
MTC has some pretty nasty reviews while others swear that the quality is excellent. I ordered the MTC brand knowing full well that I'm rolling the dice, but I'll be able to tell if the part is junk when it gets here and I'm fully prepared to send it back if it's fitment or quality is poor. I'll admit that I cheaped out on the boot, but for $32 bucks versus $80 or $90 I'll take my chances and like I said... it's a chunk of plastic type stiff rubber and if the quality isn't there (it probably isn't) I'll know before I put it on my engine.

.

 

[ianmcgrath1983]

Thank you!

 

[okyoureabeast]

You will need to buy the new flange and boot. There's a post somewhere here where a guy tried to reuse the old flange. Basically did the job twice.

If you're going that deep in the engine make sure to go for gold and just do the gaskets and donuts down in block valley.

Good luck!

 

[ianmcgrath1983]

Thanks, I'll look into trying to find a plate at a decent price alonf with the boot..

 

[ianmcgrath1983]

Ordered the plate, boot , donuts and intake gaskets. I already have the throttle body gasket on order.

 

[Jyuma]

I received the MTC air duct boot yesterday and I ran into the same problem others have run into when buying the very cheap MTC replacement... it just doesn't fit right. The rubber appears to be of good quality but the lip on the rubber that is supposed to slip into the groove in the frame just doesn't make it into the groove all the way around. Specifically it doesn't quite make it into the groove on the end that is adjacent to the big opening that fits over the throttle body.

Here is a picture of the large opening I'm talking about. The red arrows are pointing to where the rubber boot just doesn't fit into the frame as it should.
The same areas on the other side of the boot (where you can't see) has the same problem. The lip on the rest of the boot fits the groove in the frame ok.

You can roll the lip around between your thumb and forefinger and expose the lip a little more, and then stretch the boot as far as you can while forcing the lip of the boot into the groove in the plate, but you need to stretch it so much that it just springs back when you remove the pressure from your fingers and the rubber springs back before you can attach the plate to the body of the air metering unit.

What I did to get around this problem was I attached the rubber to the plate and while holding pressure on the places where the rubber wanted to spring back, I inserted one of the attachment screws thru a fender washer and then screwed it to the plate which made the rubber lip captive in the groove by the fender washer. I did this in several places around the plate so that the rubber couldn't pull back and was held firmly in the stretched condition overnight.

The hope was that when I removed the fender washers the next day the rubber boot would remain in the grove while I bolted the plate to the air metering unit. It worked and I was able to secure the plate to the air metering unit with the rubber lip now being held captive between the plate and the air metering unit.

Here's another angle of the boot, plate and air metering unit.

It looks like the MTC replacement boot at $30 bucks just might work out fine.
The white stuff on the boot is powder... they ship the boot covered in powder in a plastic bag. I'm guessing it's to keep the rubber fresh until you get it bolted between the plate and the air metering unit.

The MTC replacement boot gets a thumbs up for the quality of the rubber but a thumbs down for fitment. With the one proviso of the fitment problem (which has a workaround) I'd say the MTC boot is a viable alternative to the much more expensive OEM products. Just be careful... there are many on FleaBay who will sell you a $30 MTC boot for $70.

 

[ianmcgrath1983]

Thansk for the update. I actually just got the boot in the mail today. I'm still waiting on the plate to come in. Hopefully I will have it together this weekend.

 

[Alphasud30]

The white powder is a mould release powder otherwise the rubber will bond to the mould press.

 

[Jyuma]

The white powder is a mold release powder otherwise the rubber will bond to the mold press.

(Spoken like Myron Cohen) It would have killed them to clean it off?

 

[ianmcgrath1983]

Well I got the boot im the mail the other day, im still waiting on the new plate for it along with the connector for the boot .
Today I removed the intake manifold assy to replace the donut and intake gaskets.. everything was going good until the last intake bolt snapped 😡🤬😠... and of course its one of the ones that go into the head ☠☠☠.
Strage thing is that I noticed the head of the bolt prior to "removal" wasn't flush with the manifold and was up about 1/4 inch. It appears that the I have about 1/8" of threads sticking out of the hole. And from measuring the broken bolt to a bolt that came out. It aplears that in total of 1/2 of bolt left to remove. Tonight I'm gonna let some brake fluid sit on the broken bolt over night and hopefully free up what ever is keeping it from loosening. And get a left hand drill bit and an easy out tomorrow.. along with a small butane torch to slowly warm the area around the broken bolt. I started to drill the bolt but I decided to stop and get the left handed drill bit instead... side note.. anyone have a intake manifold bolt I could buy from them???