This is frick'in weird. Installed some Fel-Pro pintoseals and the forward ends have slowly inched upward over the past year. The driver side finally "shifted" so much that it now has developed a coolant leak. It's pissing down the front of the head and block. Not looking forward to pulling everything apart again, but have no choice. Nothing has been milled, the heads were new, and the Edelbrock intake was in ok condition. Followed the factory torque sequence and used a torque wrench set at about 18 lbs. Anyone ever have their intake gaskets "shift" on them?
Yeah,, that sucks man. Heat cycles can do that,, gaskets fail. I had a problem like yours many years ago on my stallion. You are using good quality gaskets,, sometimes even the good stuff fails. Dan
I replied to the same problem on a different thread a few days ago. On small block Fords watch out for the intake gaskets with the large or small water jackets. If it's the small water jacket (earlier) that you should be using and happen to put the larger ones in you will likely get a coolant leak out from the head. One 302 caused me great grief on this as I had an earlier block with a later intake. Fought with this one for hours one night and finally got it sealed by getting the gaskets in just the right spot along with just a very thin coat of silicone smeared around the water jackets. That was over a year ago and the guy drives his truck every day, still holding.
Everything was matched. Stock shaped ports with stock shaped gasket, correct year, etc. But for some reason they seemed to move out of place over the last year. I also used the thin silicone around the water ports. This seems to be a movement problem more than an alignment problem. I also responded to the other thread. His seemed to be an alignment difficulty vs a "shifting" problem.
how would they move....the bolts dont move and i cant see a gasket moving if the bolts are installed.....unless you mean the cork gaskets in the front and rear of the intake....
I only used Ultra Black silicone on the ends. That part was fine. I'm thinking the manual recommendation of 22 ft lb is complete overkill. It seems that much torque actually made things worse by squishing them. Combine that with heat expansion and contraction and they worked upward (at the fronts...ok everywhere else).
I guess this must be a curse. The new Fel Pro's are in and installed with much less torque (~5ft lbs). The SOB's are shifting upward again in the front section (first 4 inches). Not enough to expose the blue silicon beads, but still you can see the difference with the naked eye. W-e-I-r-D!!!!!! Don't quite know what to make of this, but I guess I'll just have to hope they don't squish out completely like the other set.
Damn thats weird. Maybe you could take a punch and make a few small divets in the head and the intake around the problem areas. Then use some black RTV and the divets should give it some "bite". Let it cure for a good day or so and see if that helps. Even if this does work, there seems to be some other underlying problem. It may be necessary to take the intake to a machine shop and verify that the mating surface angles are correct. Maybe you just got a bad intake. Also, maybe you can retorque after an initial heat cycle or two if you arent already.
Interesting idea with the divet routine. I did let the ultra black cure overnight before re-torquing. Hmmm, that old Edelbrock Performer might be a problem. I did notice that the water ports were a little eaten by coolant, but I used the ultra black to fill them in. A 17 year old intake and 1 year old heads......you never know.
Ditto. I had that problem on mine. Water ports on the gaskets were large enough that the hole stuck above the intake. A good bit of grey silicon and all was well. Got several thousand miles on it without issue. Considering there is only 1 gasket in my wife's Sentra (headgasket), grey RTV has gotten my respect.
Felpro makes really good gaskets so I'd recomend them. I recently changed my intake and went with Felpro and I haven't had a problem with them moving on me. Nor has my friend who has also changed intakes quite a few times. One tip is to torque them down in squence, and after the engine has heat cycled a few times then torque them again. Also silicon helps as well to prevent leaks
Do you have any way to post a pic of this problem? I'd just like to see exactly how much it's moving myself. I've never heard of anything like what you are describing...but knowing my luck, it will happen sooner or later! Later,
I don't have a digital camera, so I go in cycles with pics (use cheap disposable units). Put in new Fel-Pro printo-seals (same as last time).......same thing is happening... the forward part is squishing up. Everything is still holding this time though, probably because I used much less torque. Done the factory torque sequence. Even waited a day before the retorquing. Put Ultra-black silicone around water ports...lo and behold that's the area that's squishing around. Hmmm, maybe the silicone is actually making the movement problem worse. Gulp.
I just thought of something that may possibly be happening. I may be way off track and have never heard of it happening before but the next time you take the intake off put a straight edge on both sides of the intake and see if you have any warpage. Also do the heads. Like I say, it may be a long shot but what the heck.
