Help me plan: My first intake swap ... EVER.
I appreciate the advice of using rags or the like to prevent things from falling down in critical areas. I'm bad about not forseeing those kind of issues. A clean work area … that would be nice. It's reasonably clean. The exception is, I have a smelly mongrel that sheds hair. The garage is basically her doghouse. That mongrel's hair gets into everything. I hope I can get this done quick enough that the dog hair is not an issue. How many beers does it take to get this done, so I can plan my time properly? :D
I plan on using the following items:
- Edelbrock Intake Manifold Bolt Kit (EDL-8579), a
- Fel-Pro Performance Intake Manifold Gasket (FEL-1213), and
- Edelbrock Gasgacinch (EDL-9300).
I'm not familiar with the China wall pins. Gonna have to search that out and understand it.
And … what non-hardening sealant on the intake bolts is recommended?
7milesout
Front and back of stock block/manifolds have steel posts at the front and rear of the block for locating the intake.
Most of us pull those out because aftermarket intakes generally don't have them, and if an aftermarket intake is set on there with those posts in place the intake will not sit all the way down where the gaskets can seal.
I like red Hi temp RTV myself, but a lot of people prefer the Great Stuff grey for this kind of job. (either works well)
I also like to put a film of the sealer around the coolant ports on both sides of the intake gasket. (just thick enough to see the color of the sealant.)
If there are metal tabs on the four corners where the heads meet the block those should be trimmed off. (I use a sharp chisel or scraper to cut them by coming straight down on them where they meet the head and block.
Here's where the towel keeps things from going down in the engine.
Clean the surfaces well then put a dab of sealer in each of the four corners and then set your intake gaskets on.
As quickly as you can within reason put a bead of sealer about 1/4 to 3/8 thick from gasket to gasket front and rear on the block. (I like about 3/8 just to be sure)
You can trim of any extra sealer that might stick out after it's cured.
Note the left front corner when you take your intake off, as your sealant will need to be in a fairly specific area in that corner.
Once your sealer is down you want to get the new intake on there ASAP.
Take your time though to let it down as straight as possible the first time so you don't wipe your sealer around and end up with a gap (especially in the back)
Check you gaskets to make sure they stayed where they need to be, and sliding those around a little to line up bolt holes won't make much difference as far as sealing goes.
Pretty much everyone likes sealer on the bolt threads to keep oil from coming up the threads and seeping out all over your new aluminum intake.
Personally I like a bead up under the bolt heads as well because oil can still come up other than just around the threads sometimes and make a mess anyway.
Any that shows after your bolts are down tight can be a pain in the butt to clean off but it's worth it to not have oil on your new intake.
A toothbrush sized wire brush works great for cleaning that off around the bolt heads.
There are varied opinions on some of this stuff, but the above has always worked very well.
Dog hair is not a problem, mopar engines love it, I would say it's a two beer job, but make sure to have a 12 pack ready for after and if a friend visits :thumbsup:
2! beer job?
Shoot I'd kill a 6 pack even though it is an hour job.:D
