[moltuae]

Originally Posted by Regulus

Thank you for all your comments. I see my options might not be set in stone, especially since Mark had his replaced without any issues.
I won't try to remove the manifold myself, as that would end in disaster, I am sure

I wasn't brave/skilled enough to do the job myself, nor did I have the tools or time to do it, so I gave the job to my mechanic.

Apart from the broken connector and an intermittent knock sensor fault, one of the reasons I decided to get the job done was because I had some oil leakage and fumes coming from under the inlet manifold (plus I wanted to fit a spare new manifold that I'd purchased some years ago). The leak was caused by a failed gasket on the cover that sits in the 'valley' of the Vee (whatever it's called?). If your valley cover gasket has never been changed, it's likely it'll be very oily and gunky under there like mine was, so it's probably worthwhile lifting the manifold off just to replace the gasket and remove all the gunk.