Plenum Gasket Question.
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Grand Champion
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 5,584
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From: Lima, Ohio
Yeah, I am. V8 plenums has to be on the top 10 list of things discussed often in here and easily answered by doing a search. Look at the post after yours. A question that has been answered a hundred times already. So, now we have yet another plenum thread cluttering up the place. Along with the half dozen A/C threads currently on pages 1-2. It's always better to post to an existing related thread rather than start a new one. That's basic forum etiquette.
So, with that said,
That is all.
Don't mind Miami, he just hadn't had his meds yet last night.
I've been running the hughes kit for about the last 20L miles with no problem what so ever. I did upgrade to the Felpro gasket as well.
I've been running the hughes kit for about the last 20L miles with no problem what so ever. I did upgrade to the Felpro gasket as well.
QFT!!
Thanks Vaughn for making me not only spit out a perfectly good mouthful of coffee, but for making me chuckle
No, you can not reuse the intake bolts as they are torque to yield (TTY). All new there.
You will need to study up on how to do the gasket properly. Success revolves around the gasket prep and gasket application. 99.5% of the job is about the gaskets and how you create the gasket seal. That is the focus that anyone who's doing an intake should pay a lot of attention to.
I replaced my old kegger with Hughes FI Airgap. All the bolts and other items were all included. The only thing was that they picked the wrong parts at time of kitting and, some of the parts were not included at all such as the inlet pipe. Luckily, there's a great hardware store that had the correct taper fitting in brass. Nothing but brass should be used for your water connections. Zinc plated steel should not be used for it will rust and gaul in the intake threads. Steel in Al should never be used. For when the times that you have to remove it, the threads come out with it thus requiring the end user to drill it out and retap the Al intake which is a major pain since, it must be taken off the truck to do so in order to prevent metal shavings from ending up inside the intake.
I used the Hughes gasket kit by the way. Felpro is a bit over-rated. Some of their gaskets such as the valve cover kits are great and so is their oil pan gasket. But, for the money, the Hughes are just as good and when done right they work. No leaks. Felpro gaskets are known leakers on the intake. Lots of places out here no longer carry them and are moving away from Felpro due to performance and price. No need to look for another gasket set.
Here's a method that works:
1. Before removing the intake that is on the truck now, use some CRC Freeze off on all 4 of the outside bolts. There's the two front and two rear bolts. The two front bolts are through holes so, they can also be sprayed from underneath as well as on top. If you don't do this- I guarantee that you will snap them off in the heads. Let them soak for hour. The inside ones you can hit as well but, do focus on the two rear and two front bolts as these are always rusted like a SOB. If you snap them, you can later try and use the freeze off after the intake is off. Just spray it on, tap on the bolt a few times and grab it with vice grips to gently wiggle it to loosen it. Then it will come out by hand. If you snap it off in the head- you can grab at it with needle nose pliers after spraying it and once it's loose, it will twist right out.
Also, prepare four dowel pins by simply cutting the heads off of the old ones. Clean them well.
2. Cleaning step: Place lots of paper towels or shop rags into the lifter valley first. Then, place pieces of paper or shop towels into all the ports on the heads. Your now ready to start cleaning.
a. Clean: the old gasket material off with a thin blade putty knife, straight razor etc at the heads and front and rear seal areas.
b. Sand: using sandpaper wrapped around a flat block of wood or, you can also use a sanding spong- about 150 grit, to remove the fine gasket material left behind. This also makes a nice surface for the new gasket sealer to adhere to. Do both rear and front seals as well.
c. Wipe: Using Acetone: soak clean rags- don't use paper towel for it shreds and ends up all over the place. Use non dyed fabric. I prefer to use white material as it shows dirt. Clean until the white material remains white after cleaning- that's when it's clean. Now your ready to prep your gaskets and heads. Note: clean all holes out as well using brake cleaner or acetone on a shop rag and work in the holes to remove any oils.
3. Gasket Sealer Step: Note: use Gasgacinch only. I don't care what anyone else recommends, I have worked with Permatex and RTVs, silicones etc, Indian head, and none work as good as Gasgacinch for intakes. Look around for it. Car Quest carries it. It is THE BEST sealer around and has been for years. Permatex HI Tack doesn't work as good for this application and if someone is trying to sell you on that- don't do it.
a. Apply the sealer to the heads, front seal area, rear seal area and on the intake 100%. Use a shop light to see if you have any holidays- if you missed a spot- it will fail. It must be coated 100% on the entire surface area and it must be applied in one shot to make a perfect seal. Watch out as it does dry fast so, avoid overlapping a section that has begun to skin over. Let dry min 10 minutes. The working time is about 3 hours. So, you have plenty of time to work.
b. Apply sealer to your end seals- BOTH sides. Make sure it is totally sealed- NOTE: not so heavy that it fills in the mid section that is between the two outside seal lips. Set aside and let dry.
c. Apply sealer to the intake gaskets- Do both sides PRIOR to installing them on the engine. Do this on clean cardboard. Avoid dirt being stuck to them.
d. Apply Permatex Silicone BLACK- RTV to all 4 corners of where your end seals sit and around the water ports only. DO NOT use around INTAKE OR EXHAUST ports. This should be about a 1/4 for front and rear seals and only 1/8 around the water ports. If using 1/4 around water ports, remember to apply it back away from the edges about half that amount to avoid excess squeeze out into the port area. If that happens, wipe immediately. Apply around water ports on the intake as well.
e. Place your intake gaskets on the heads and seat into the RTV. Try not to disturb the RTV too much. You have about five minutes time to do both sides before it begins to skin. OEM recommends 3 minutes to assy but, that's not happening with one person. The main thing is to have the gaskets sitting IN the RTV. Oil will leak behind the gasket if the RTV is not applied first. The gasket must be seated into the RTV in order to seal behind it.
f. Place your end seals on now. Set them in place. They align using tabs. Drop them straight down and firmly press down to seat them into the sealer.
g. Now that your intake gaskets are in place- use a CLEAN socket to firmly roll out the air from behind them. Do not squeegee it for it will tear the sealer.
h. Apply more Permatex silicone black (about an 1/8" bead) over the 4 corners where graphite intake gaskets meet end seals. Same spot that you applied to minutes earlier- just apply more over the entire junction there.
i. Thread in the 4 dowel pins that you made earlier into the number 5 and 6 holes and number 11 and 12 in the front I believe. Two up from the rear holes. If you use the rear holes, this particular intake will not slide under the distributor.
j. Angle the rear side down and under the distributor while aligning with the rear pins first followed by the front two pins. Gently lower straight down and DO NOT MOVE it.
k. Insert your new bolts and torque per OEM recommendations.
Note: I assembled my entire intake on the bench- including fuel rails and injectors. They make nice handles by the way. For all your brass fittings, use Permatex hi temp thread sealant for all your water fittings. Use Indian head shellac under your T-stat. Let it tack up. Do pay attention to installing the T-stat in the proper orientation. Apply Indian Head on both sides of the cork gasket and T-stat housing. Assemble the T-stat into the intake, place the cork over it, then place the hose fitting / housing on and seat fitting so that it seats flush. Torque to OEM spec.
Once that is all done, she's ready to drop in.
You will need to study up on how to do the gasket properly. Success revolves around the gasket prep and gasket application. 99.5% of the job is about the gaskets and how you create the gasket seal. That is the focus that anyone who's doing an intake should pay a lot of attention to.
I replaced my old kegger with Hughes FI Airgap. All the bolts and other items were all included. The only thing was that they picked the wrong parts at time of kitting and, some of the parts were not included at all such as the inlet pipe. Luckily, there's a great hardware store that had the correct taper fitting in brass. Nothing but brass should be used for your water connections. Zinc plated steel should not be used for it will rust and gaul in the intake threads. Steel in Al should never be used. For when the times that you have to remove it, the threads come out with it thus requiring the end user to drill it out and retap the Al intake which is a major pain since, it must be taken off the truck to do so in order to prevent metal shavings from ending up inside the intake.
I used the Hughes gasket kit by the way. Felpro is a bit over-rated. Some of their gaskets such as the valve cover kits are great and so is their oil pan gasket. But, for the money, the Hughes are just as good and when done right they work. No leaks. Felpro gaskets are known leakers on the intake. Lots of places out here no longer carry them and are moving away from Felpro due to performance and price. No need to look for another gasket set.
Here's a method that works:
1. Before removing the intake that is on the truck now, use some CRC Freeze off on all 4 of the outside bolts. There's the two front and two rear bolts. The two front bolts are through holes so, they can also be sprayed from underneath as well as on top. If you don't do this- I guarantee that you will snap them off in the heads. Let them soak for hour. The inside ones you can hit as well but, do focus on the two rear and two front bolts as these are always rusted like a SOB. If you snap them, you can later try and use the freeze off after the intake is off. Just spray it on, tap on the bolt a few times and grab it with vice grips to gently wiggle it to loosen it. Then it will come out by hand. If you snap it off in the head- you can grab at it with needle nose pliers after spraying it and once it's loose, it will twist right out.
Also, prepare four dowel pins by simply cutting the heads off of the old ones. Clean them well.
2. Cleaning step: Place lots of paper towels or shop rags into the lifter valley first. Then, place pieces of paper or shop towels into all the ports on the heads. Your now ready to start cleaning.
a. Clean: the old gasket material off with a thin blade putty knife, straight razor etc at the heads and front and rear seal areas.
b. Sand: using sandpaper wrapped around a flat block of wood or, you can also use a sanding spong- about 150 grit, to remove the fine gasket material left behind. This also makes a nice surface for the new gasket sealer to adhere to. Do both rear and front seals as well.
c. Wipe: Using Acetone: soak clean rags- don't use paper towel for it shreds and ends up all over the place. Use non dyed fabric. I prefer to use white material as it shows dirt. Clean until the white material remains white after cleaning- that's when it's clean. Now your ready to prep your gaskets and heads. Note: clean all holes out as well using brake cleaner or acetone on a shop rag and work in the holes to remove any oils.
3. Gasket Sealer Step: Note: use Gasgacinch only. I don't care what anyone else recommends, I have worked with Permatex and RTVs, silicones etc, Indian head, and none work as good as Gasgacinch for intakes. Look around for it. Car Quest carries it. It is THE BEST sealer around and has been for years. Permatex HI Tack doesn't work as good for this application and if someone is trying to sell you on that- don't do it.
a. Apply the sealer to the heads, front seal area, rear seal area and on the intake 100%. Use a shop light to see if you have any holidays- if you missed a spot- it will fail. It must be coated 100% on the entire surface area and it must be applied in one shot to make a perfect seal. Watch out as it does dry fast so, avoid overlapping a section that has begun to skin over. Let dry min 10 minutes. The working time is about 3 hours. So, you have plenty of time to work.
b. Apply sealer to your end seals- BOTH sides. Make sure it is totally sealed- NOTE: not so heavy that it fills in the mid section that is between the two outside seal lips. Set aside and let dry.
c. Apply sealer to the intake gaskets- Do both sides PRIOR to installing them on the engine. Do this on clean cardboard. Avoid dirt being stuck to them.
d. Apply Permatex Silicone BLACK- RTV to all 4 corners of where your end seals sit and around the water ports only. DO NOT use around INTAKE OR EXHAUST ports. This should be about a 1/4 for front and rear seals and only 1/8 around the water ports. If using 1/4 around water ports, remember to apply it back away from the edges about half that amount to avoid excess squeeze out into the port area. If that happens, wipe immediately. Apply around water ports on the intake as well.
e. Place your intake gaskets on the heads and seat into the RTV. Try not to disturb the RTV too much. You have about five minutes time to do both sides before it begins to skin. OEM recommends 3 minutes to assy but, that's not happening with one person. The main thing is to have the gaskets sitting IN the RTV. Oil will leak behind the gasket if the RTV is not applied first. The gasket must be seated into the RTV in order to seal behind it.
f. Place your end seals on now. Set them in place. They align using tabs. Drop them straight down and firmly press down to seat them into the sealer.
g. Now that your intake gaskets are in place- use a CLEAN socket to firmly roll out the air from behind them. Do not squeegee it for it will tear the sealer.
h. Apply more Permatex silicone black (about an 1/8" bead) over the 4 corners where graphite intake gaskets meet end seals. Same spot that you applied to minutes earlier- just apply more over the entire junction there.
i. Thread in the 4 dowel pins that you made earlier into the number 5 and 6 holes and number 11 and 12 in the front I believe. Two up from the rear holes. If you use the rear holes, this particular intake will not slide under the distributor.
j. Angle the rear side down and under the distributor while aligning with the rear pins first followed by the front two pins. Gently lower straight down and DO NOT MOVE it.
k. Insert your new bolts and torque per OEM recommendations.
Note: I assembled my entire intake on the bench- including fuel rails and injectors. They make nice handles by the way. For all your brass fittings, use Permatex hi temp thread sealant for all your water fittings. Use Indian head shellac under your T-stat. Let it tack up. Do pay attention to installing the T-stat in the proper orientation. Apply Indian Head on both sides of the cork gasket and T-stat housing. Assemble the T-stat into the intake, place the cork over it, then place the hose fitting / housing on and seat fitting so that it seats flush. Torque to OEM spec.
Once that is all done, she's ready to drop in.
Last edited by cmckenna; Aug 31, 2009 at 10:44 AM.
