Competitor9

Ok so I have some dry rot in three hoses in my engine bay. One hose comes off the top of the manifold and goes into the intake. Another hose comes off the bottom of the manifold and goes underneath the throttle body. Two more thin hoses come off tiny tubes tucked between the engine and the throttle body.

My question is there is some strange black box that I'd like to eliminate if possible but I have no idea what it is or what it does. Also I find it silly that the hoses interconnect at the bulky metal structure and then continue back in all directions. I have seen engines cleaned up withouth the metal structure and was wondering

A. How to do it
B. What is needed

I know one hose is for my intake, and I'm pretty sure the other thicker hose is for engine coolant, but I have no idea what the thin hoses are for. Someone enlighten me

Lastly what the hell is the black box that the tiny hoses connect too??
Here is a pic so you can see the two things I'm talking about

click to enlarge

Competitor9

I know the pic isn't quite big enough. The top red circle is the metal structure I'm talking about and the bottom circle is the mysterious black box.

SgtB

That's the vacuum reservoir. If you're running a stock ECU you need it. It will throw a cel without it. The larger one coming off of the intake that runs to the IM is the breather line. All of those hoses can be replaced for about $3 at your local parts store. Just bring a few pieces and they'll give you the right sizes. The metal sections are just to hold everything in place. They get replaced with straight hose when you change the intake. You can delete it if you want.

Competitor9

Can I use like silicone red hoses or do they have to be the hard rubber hoses??? It's a question of temperature and if silicon hoses can handle it.

SgtB

You can use silicone. I use black silicone myself.