Intake gaskets

seawalkersee

Registered User
Well...I hate it when I am wrong sometimes. The bad part about your intake gaskets going south, is that there is not really a warning like blowing the HG...It was leaking from....well...a lot of places into the oil:mad: . The good thing is that now I can clean up my bowels a bit and do some udder work to the some beach. I was going to move it the other day and decided to just check the oil. It was about twice the full level and looked like a malt shake. I figured it was the intake because it was leaking externally at the front. Now I am a sad panda because this is ANOTHER set back to getting the 2.3 atop my engine...I will put sum pix on here later.

How do you guys keep your intakes sealed against leakage? I have not really ever seen one that had not leaked in some way shape or form. This was rebuilt when I purchased it but that was 30K or so ago...

Chris
 
Sorry to hear you are having problems with your intake gasket.
I hope that your rods, mains, & cam bearings are ok. I have
never had this problem yet. But then on the average I have
only been using my intake gasket around 500 to 2000 miles .
Before swaping in a new manifold gaskets while testing
manifold mods..

If your going to have the topend off your motor. Might be a
good time to retorque your head gaskets, if they are not
that old.

Later Randy
 
Im going to put fresh bearings in the crank and rods. I will look at the cams, but I wont replace them if they are still babbit covered. I guess its better than having something knocking at my lower end huh? Im glad I found it now...I just wish it could have waited a tad longer so I could do my long rod setup with the 351 rods I have wasting away in the garage.

Chris
 
Well...here is a pic of my new intercooler setup...it goes in the valley...

Chris
 

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But seriously...it was as I expected when I removed the intake. I was able to look inside the heads and see that the HAD been ported...to a point...I will need to inspect them a tad more to see how much though.

With that being said, here are the upgrades...and the winter ride...Finally came home today after five years.

Chris
 

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How do you guys keep your intakes sealed against leakage?

Smear a coating of Permatex water pump and thermostat gasket sealer (small gray tube) on both sides of the gaskets around the coolant ports. Put a healthy amount of black RTV on both sides of the front and rear gasket (use the rubber ones not that cork garbage), with extra in the corners were it meets the manifold side gaskets.

After setting the intake manifold in place install two bolts in each side to make sure gasket is in correct position....finger tight only. Add a small dab of Orange RTV on the threads of every intake manifold bolt and install finger tight including the first 4 bolts.

Torque down in 3 or 4 steps to 25 ft lbs. using the sequence shown in the repair manual. (many repair manuals say something like 12ft lbs. wrong wrong wrong) Allow to dry overnight before adding coolant and starting the motor.

David
 
25lbs? Wow...thats huge. I will use the hell out of the RTV though...Like I said...I can not think of a single 3.8 engine that I have opened that actually had the ENTIRE intake sealed properly.

Chris
 
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