intake manifold gasket and installation

-
P

pjc360

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2011
Messages
981
Reaction score
15
Location
montana
Discovered i have a vaccum leak on the intake manifold gasket, this intake manifold gasket is about a year and a half old, so i ether installed it wrong, or got the wrong intake manifold gasket. When i tell the guys at the part stores that i have a 360 magnum with a 4 barrell intake manifold they look at me like im crazy and cant find me the intake manifold gasket i need. So i was hopin some of you would have part numbers to the right intake manifold gasket that i need... And some tips on installing the intake manifold gasket, do i use gasket maker in the front and the back? and if so what kind of gasket maker? Is there a certain way to tighten the intake bolts? Please share your knowledge with me, once i get the right gasket i am going to take the intake off and install it and hopefully wont have this vaccum leak anymore.
 
you need gaskets for a 94 and later 5.9L. Dont tell the parts guy it had a 4bbl.
 
ok, cool, do i put rtv gasket maker in place of the cork pieces? and do i put rtv around the intake ports on the gasket? and on the head?
 
I use Permatex Ultra Black.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-82180-Maximum-Resistance-Silicone/dp/B0002UEN1U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353010876&sr=8-1&keywords=permatex+ultra+black"]Amazon.com: Permatex 82180 Ultra Black Maximum Oil Resistance RTV Silicone Gasket Maker, 3.35 oz. Tube: Automotive[/ame]
 
Yup. Get everything ready, and right before you plop the intake on, lay a nice thick bead front and rear, and drop the manifold carefully in place with a MINIMUM of fussing. Waste no time in getting the bolts at least snug, and give it a quick inspection to be sure it's got enough RTV to seal.

Tighten the bolts down, then take a towel or your finger and smooth the beads front/ rear.

On some manifolds, you MUST examine the overhang on the front corner to be sure it's sealed. Somewhere, there's a photo of an Edlebrock intake that is very poorly made in this regard.
 
well i put it on last night and thought all was well because my vaccum leak was gone, but i drove it to work this morning and smelled oil real bad, so i popped the hood and i have oil leaking out the front and back of the manifold!! so aparently i didnt use enough rtv... I didnt use a whole lot because i didnt want it to get into my oil valley... So tonight i have to pull the intake manifold back off, and scrape the rtv i did have on the front and back off and apply a bigger amount.
 
i used the right stuff gasket maker, but when i take it off tonight i think i will use something else, i still want to use a permatex silcone. I just cant decide between the ultra black or the ultra grey or the hi temp red rtv or the ultra copper. Wich one of these would work best? I'm thinking ether the ultra black or ultra grey. The grey says its ok for intake manifolds and the black says its great with oil and the red is hi temp and the copper silicone is even more hi temp.
 
Use the ultra black. Use a healthy bead and an extra dab in the corners. Personally I use the cork, I put some silicone down and set the cork and weight it down overnight. Then I apply some on top of the cork with an extra dab in all four corners and install the intake.
 
Could the block, heads, or intake have been milled?

Maybe off in the angle or mill too much off one face and not touch up the others to compensate?
 
Dont pull the intake, just inject the RTV into the crack enough to fill and then finish off with a wet finger to smooth it out. Let it set overnight. Sometimes the cork is too thick anyway, and the only place to put the RTV on the gasket is around the water ports on the ends. The print-o-seal goes against the heads as I recall, and sometimes they come with cool little waxy red bolt hole plugs that hold the gasket in place. using flat gaskets is much easier. run in all bolts and snug the bolts by finger or light wrench, Torque the bolts starting from the middle left, diagonal right, next right, diagonal left, then skip over tight bolt and start again...radiat outward left right, right left, left right. Finish with RTV across the end gaps if the cork is not used or is too thin.
 
I would not just inject more in there. At least flush things out with some brakeclean or similar solvent.


"Didn't use too much." What I should have suggested is to "trial fit" the intake, everything nice and clean, on the gaskets. Don't use any sealer, or bolt it down. Just sit it on there and get an idea what the gap is

You need AT LEAST as high a bead as the cork gaskets are high. Seems to me I usually blow about 1/2 a tube to get enough laid down.
 
Well i took the intake off and cleaned everything off, i bought a brand new tube of ultra black silicone, i put a healthy bead front and back and put the intake back on.
While i was torquing it down i broke another intake stud off into the cylinder head right next to the already broken stud!!! So i took the intake back off, and the next day i bought an easy out and some sabre derill bits and a can of sp3 penatrating oil.
I soaked the two broken studs with the sp3, then i did my best to drill directly in the center of the broken stud with the sabre drill bit and used the easy out and i got both broken studs out in less then 15 minutes. I was so supsrised they came out that easy, and by the way those sabre drill bits are what saved me i think, they are great for drilling thru hard metal and they dont wander they stay straight.
So aftergetting the studs out i cleaned the intake off and i cleaned the block off front and back where the silicone was and i started to clean the edelbrock gascacinch stuff off that i put on the gasket its self but that stuff is extremely stringy and hard to clean off. I think i will get va razor blade and get that gascanitch stuff off of it that way. That stuff is pretty thin so i dont think it would make a huge difference if i just threw another coat of it on and dropped the intake back on the engine, but i want to get as much of it off as i can. And i will use a healthy bead of ultra black silicone front and back again.
Are any of you guys familiar with the edelbrock gascacinch stuff? it says to apply it on the gasket and the piece you are applying to the gasket, so should i be putting that stuff around my intake ports on the intake itswelf and on the gasket? or just put it on the gasket? I have heard it works very well and i found it for 5 bucks at car quest so i decided to give it a try, it looks alot like thin honey....
 
If you are breaking off bolts you are doing things WRONG. Even at a very arthritic and painful 64, I can still put all the torque I need on an intake bolt with one hand using a combo wrench or an "average" length 3/8 ratchet.

I don't know about the gasket stuff you mentioned. I see no need. Use good quality fiber (not metal) gaskets, put a thin layer of some sort of sealer (I use "hi tac") around the water passages on the ends, and then use black, red, etc, automotive RTV on the ends
 
If you're using the printaseal gaskets that have the bead of silicone around the ports then you shouldn't need any sealer there. You can put the gaskacinch or any gasket spray sealer and spray the back of the gasket to hold it in place on the head so it won't move around on you as your placing the intake on. Use the ultra black on both ends of the block walls. A healthy bead about a 1/4 inch thick or so, should do the trick. Also,, some may disagree with this, but I did a little test to see how long the ultra black or ultra gray takes before it is "truly cured" and I can tell you that in 24 hours, it is still tacky and moist on the inside and somewhat skinned over on the outside. Believe it or not, it too over 2 days for the stuff to fully setup. I was amazed that it took that long. So I guess if it were me, I'd give it some extra time to fully cure before running the engine. Trust me, I've been through this leak issue a couple of times with my aluminum intake. I was the one that posted the picture some time ago of the Edelbrock that wasn't machined correctly causing a never ending dribble of oil out the right front side of the intake. Take your time and don't be in a hurry.
 
67dart273 I'm not breaking intake manifold bolts, they are little 5/16 intake manifold studs. And i have a very nice torque wrench, i set it at 20 ft lbs because i knew these intake studs were brittle and could break easily because my buddy broke 3 of them trying to pull my intake off years ago. So i set my torque wrench at 20 ft lbs and snap i broke one right next to another broken one lol. But i got both broken studs out with the easy out and did not damage my threads so all is good.
I'm going to leave the remaning 5/16 studs i have on it now just to help with putting the intake on, its nice having them studs for dropping the intake on, once i drop it on i'm going to take the studs out and just use 5/16 corse thread bolts. That way i dont break another stud ever again. I dont know why they keep breaking, but i think its cause there length isnt right or something. But i'll be done with them after this.
 
And i will use the edelbrock gasgacinch on the gasket on the head and put some on the intake its self and use the ultra black silicone on the front and back ends and i will let it sit for at least 24 hours before starting it. Then hopefully i wont have to take this intake off ever again. Oh and i was also wondering... would it be a good idea to use some permatex high tempature thread selant on the intake bolts? because i noticed the threads have oil on em, so i figured it might be a good idea to use thread selaent or teflon tape on them to keep oil from coming up thru the bolts?
 
Just reading thru previous post and havent seen it mentioned. Did you remove the alignment dowels from the block for the intake? The aluminum intake, if thats what you have, more than likely isnt drilled for the pins. This will hold the intake up and not allow it to seal properly.
 
pjc360 said:
Oh and i was also wondering... would it be a good idea to use some permatex high temperature thread sealant on the intake bolts? because i noticed the threads have oil on em, so i figured it might be a good idea to use thread sealant or teflon tape on them to keep oil from coming up thru the bolts?
Click to expand...

It's a good idea, I do it on mine.
 
by the the time i get home to run it, the ultra black permatex will have been on there for 16 hours, i think that should be long enough... even tho it might not be fully cured by then, i should still be able to run it. right?
 
pjc360 said:
by the the time i get home to run it, the ultra black permatex will have been on there for 16 hours, i think that should be long enough... even tho it might not be fully cured by then, i should still be able to run it. right?
Click to expand...

How bad do you want it to seal so you don't have to do it again? Patience grasshopper.

In all reality it should be OK, I usually utilize the cork so I don't have to wait, if I were to use just the silicone I would probably give it 24 to 48 to be sure.
 
Like badsport said...how bad do you want it not to seal so that you can do it again. That silicone will NOT be fully cured enough in 24 hours to seal tight against the hot oil splash and pressure buildup under that intake. Yeah, you might get lucky and have it seal, but why rush it. Take the plastic application tip off that tube of Ultra black after you get done using it without cleaning out whats inside it and leave it set for 24 hours and then poke a nail or any small into it and you'll see that it's still gooey and soft in the middle. 24 hours left out in the open might almost fully cure, but closed in, I don't think so.

Do it once, do it right.
 
416stroker said:
Like I said...24 hours on that Ultra black won't cure it. Just saying.
Click to expand...

Then again, the heat from the engine running may speed that up?

I don't know, but I don't think I've waited more than a few hours after using RTV on the intake cork pieces before using the car and I've never had problems with it. Well, except the first time I did it, on a SBF, when I was 16, and that was because I did it wrong :)
 
mplex2000 said:
Then again, the heat from the engine running may speed that up?

I don't know, but I don't think I've waited more than a few hours after using RTV on the intake cork pieces before using the car and I've never had problems with it. Well, except the first time I did it, on a SBF, when I was 16, and that was because I did it wrong :)
Click to expand...

The key words in your post is the cork pieces. Those will seal by themselves. Even when I put one on with the cork, I usually let them sit overnight.

If I were using the silicone and nothing else, I would let it sit for a day or two minimum, but that's just my 2 cents.
 
Badsport said:
The key words in your post is the cork pieces. Those will seal by themselves. Even when I put one on with the cork, I usually let them sit overnight.

If I were using the silicone and nothing else, I would let it sit for a day or two minimum, but that's just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

Woops, I must've gotten lost. I thought we were talking about just sealing the ends of the cork!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top