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Intake manifold gasket question

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1984 t-type

Murphy's Law
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
1,516
I just recently installed a intake manifold gasket (as well as others) the other day while my engine was out, I used the blue steel lined felpro one. I installed the rubber seals on each end with a little right stuff on both sides of them but thats it, now im concerned on if I should have put some type of rtv on the gasket itself. Is installing it dry ok or does it need to come back off ?

Im loosing sleep over this s**t
 
You are loosing sleep over the wrong issue. The lined gaskets are very good at sealing, some guys put a thin smear around the water ports but that is mainly for the steel shim type gaskets.
The issue that should concern you is the use of the rubber end seals. Over time (and not very much time) blow out, split, soften etc and cause oil leaks front and back. Most installers eliminate the seals use a healthy bead of ultra black or the right stuff in its place.
 
Yea I almost considered not using it but I thought maybe it would be ok with some right stuff on each side of the seal. I really don't want to take it back off so I guess time will tell, just wanted to make sure there wasn't gonna be oil and coolant mixing together I guess.
 
I've went both ways. Once I lightly sprayed some Permatex high tack sealant around the water ports but another I did not. No issues ever. What you may do is though, run the car up to temp and retighted the bolts. You should be fine. Those are great gaskets.
 
If it's easy to pull, pull it and get some sleep. I usually put a thin smear of Yamabond on both sides just because the surfaces aren't freshly machined.

Odds are you're fine if you installed it correctly. The FelPro unit is much more compliant than the stock gasket.
 
I agree with Squirrel. (Damn auto correct) and I smear a light coat of Ultra Black on both sides of the mating surfaces of the gasket. (Then wipe my hands on my wife's shirt, just to make points.....she loves me!). (Yamabond is made in Japan........but is great stuff, but is 8 miles further to drive) I do this to compensate for small angularity differences between heads, block, and manifold, even if I have triple checked the alignment between the manifold and head. You can reach in with a long thin screw driver and fair out any squeeze out in the ports if you are as detail oriented as I am. (AKA ......ANAL). Or........you can just bolt it on as-is, and be fine! But we all know fine isn't what we do. Hey........I've upped MY standards, so ........UP YOURS!!! :p
 
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