Originally Posted by HeyYou

I didn't use any sealer on the plate, but, you are supposed to use a bit at the corners where the manifold meets the engine. (and a couple gaskets come together.) Mine was still clean 7 years later.

Originally Posted by M tspace

Finally got around to doing the intake plenum gasket repair on muh 96 Dodge Ram 2500 5.9 V8 two wheel peeler. Used an aluminum replacement plate I bought off ebay, a Fel Pro gasket set from RA and a couple of parts from a Dorman kit I had also purchased. I'm not going to go into minute details as the procedure is well documented here. The process took two days under the shade tree. Everything came apart pretty easy with basic hand tools. To be honest the biggest PITA were the electrical connectors. After 120,000 miles and 24 years they had sealed up pretty good, but I managed o.k. Broke the connector for the engine coolant temperature gauge sender clean off, but stuck it back together with some RTV and it still works (ordered a new one from RA just in case it does quit). Everything went back together pretty easily too. Started it up and had a misfire due to switching a couple of plug wires, but after remedying that the truck runs like new. No more surging at idle, and hopefully no more oil consumption I'll attach a couple of pics I took of the blown out gasket where you can see that I was getting a nice, even flow of engine oil for the burning. Thank you to everyone for the info here. It's priceless.






P.S. While the service manual is awesome for torque specs/sequence and whatnot, the procedure for Intake removal is def. over simplified. I could not figure out how to take the intake out with the throttle body still attached. The cable bracket prevents this. The rest of the intake came out as a unit after a couple of thunks with hammer and wood block.. I also did not remove the fan shroud or radiator as many have done. After removing the bolts for the generator and AC mounting brackets and disconnecting the electrical connectors for both, I had plenty of room to very gingerly twist the whole assembly off to the passenger side of the engine compartment, being as gentle with the AC lines as possible.

Originally Posted by MoparFanatic21

You just remove the cables from the canoe bracket and you can take it off with the intake

Originally Posted by M tspace

4 steel bolts vs. 24 year old plastic clips... I'll take the bolts and leave the plastic alone.

P.S. i was scared to death the plastic ends on the cables would crack when I took them off. They did not... thank goodness. Hopefully I will never have to touch any of the plastic parts on the intake again.

P.P.S. ... and how about 12 Ft Lbs. on the main intake bolts? I don't know jack about intakes, but after torquing them in sequence for the second time... I don't know... It just did not feel like it was gonna be enough to hold the thing down. It works but it felt weird leaving it like that.

Originally Posted by PurplDodge

I did have a Plenum gasket "end all, be all" thread in the FAQ section, but the last time I looked, I couldnt find it. Thanks Dodge Forum Moderators...

EDIT: Luckily I had it saved im my Private Messages.
One FAQ that we get way too many times in the 2nd gen section is on the plenum plate gasket.

The Problem:
The plenum plate is a plate on the bottom of the intake manifold, which we call the "Kegger" (Because it looks like a beer keg cut in half). The bean counters at Dodge made the plenum plate out of stamped steel. And they then mounted it on the aluminum Kegger intake manifold. Due to differences in how steel and aluminum expand and contract, over time, the steel plate will start to rip the gasket between the plate and intake manifold. This allows oil from the lifter galley to seep into the manifold and get sucked into the combustion chamber, causing misfires and pinging, and not to mention the loss of oil.

The Solution:
Due to the differences in aluminum and steel, we need to replace the steel plenum plate with an aluminum piece. Two companies make a new plenum plate made out of 1/4'' thicl 6061 aluminum, APS Precision and Hughes Engines. APS Precision supplies their plates with new Mopar hardware, Mopar gasket, and a bottle of Locktite. You can also get the APS kit with new Mopar intake manifold gaskets and bolts. Hughes Engines supplies their plates with new bolts and a gasket that is similar to the Mopar one. The bolts and gaskets for the intake manifold can be bought separetly from Hughes. The choice of APS or Hughes is totally up to you. You can also make your own plate, like I did.

The bolts on the intake manifold are TTY (Torque To Yeild) and cannot be re-used.

Since I chose instead to make my own plate, I had to find somewhere to get my gaskets and bolts. I was not going to pay $32 for a set of FEL-Pro bolts. Other than use regular Grade 8 bolts, My only option was the dealer. In this case, the dealer was actually cheaper than anywhere else! Part Numbers and prices are listed below.

The Parts:
Here is what is required when replacing the gasket with a Hughes or APS plate -

Hughes:
Plate - http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/p...z&partid=22220
Intake bolts and gaskets - http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/p...b&partid=23039

APS Precision:
Plate, gaskets, etc... - http://www.apsprecision.com/

Mopar (Kidd Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep) (With 10% discount):
4897383AC Intake Manifold gasket pack - $45.81
6034583 Plenum Plate bolt - $4.65
53032603AA Plenum Gasket - $16.29
6035967AA Intake Manifold bolts - $17.28

(IT is reccomended that when you do the plenum gasket repair that you do a tune-up (Plugs, wires, dist. cap and rotor), oil change, replace the thermostat and thermostat housing, running a can of Seafoam through the gas tank and through the motor, and replacing the front Oxygen sensor).

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, corrections...Please PM me!

-PurplDodge