[mohaughn]

The fuel line clamps at the fuel rail inlet/return lines were crimped hose clamps, and as such were not re-useable. I have no clue how other cars are configured, or if this was something that a previous mechanic had done to my car. I know the lines was pretty hard/not flexible, and it just made sense to replace them. The cost is minimal when you take into consideration how bad a split high pressure fuel line is.

The system will re-pressurize itself once everything is hooked back up and the pump is running.

I've not done a starter on my car, so not making any suggestions on doing it from the top or bottom. I'd probably listen to everybody else and do it from the bottom, but that is only because I would only remove the lower intake and electronic "squid" if I needed to replace sensors located under the intake manifold.

Which, if you are going to continue down the road of removing the entire intake manifold, you should seriously consider replacing the sensors located on the block. There are is a temp sender, and two knock sensors. Also, it would be fairly easy to replace the crank and camshaft sensors. A few hundred dollars in parts, but you don't want to be taking the intake off again any time soon. If the car has really high mileage, having the fuel injectors cleaned at the same time also makes sense. It is a big job, so make sure you do everything that makes sense to do.