I had to take off my intake manifold to replace my rubber oil feed line with a braided one. I have it all together but I can't even find, let alone bolt on the little vvt hard line brace, that bolts to the lower manifold. I know the factory put it there for a reason, but am I asking for catastrophic oil line breakage if I leave it off?

 

It's not compatible with the VICS manifold, and I've never run it, and never had a failure, if that helps. I do usually run the upper one on the valve cover though.

 

Well, I found the vvt bracket. It was the cause for my large vacuum leak. Somehow it got lodged between the manifold and the head. I'll try to bolt it on, but if I'm unsuccessful I won't sweat it. Thanks for your input Curly.

 

You can trim / file it a bit and attach it to a vacant boss on the head. I did this per the recommendation from @Savington here. Takes 5 minutes and gives you the warm fuzzies.

 

^Same.

 

Didn't Savington have a vibration fatigue failure of the oil line when he left this off? I wouldn't run without it.