ok, i dont wanna talk about the deal with the devil i had to make to get a set of new odessa heads coming my way but i wanna make sure i get things right when they get here... i got a fel pro head gasket set and im wondering if im going with the steel plenum pan again for now, how do i seal the blue rubber-ish gasket between the steel and aluminum? im also a little unsure of which way the head gaskets themselves go on. theres no left right top bottom anywhere, and on one side of the gasket u can see the metal in between each cyl. but on the other side it has the black stuff in between. which side of that should go up? and for my final question, theres 16 rubber o-rings in the kit. are those for my fuel injectors? theres no description anywhere, just says o-rings/taiwan

thanks for all the help. i hope to have this thing up and running some day soon!

jesse

 

The o rings are for your injectors. I believe it doesn't make a difference which way the head gaskets go on on these motors. I've put the metal side up though just because and it works. I wouldn't even mess with the steel pan, pick an aluminum one up off eBay for 50 bucks and call it a day.

 

i wish i could afford it, but its not in the cards. i didnt think i was going to be able to fix the truck at all for a minute. so please i dont need to be convinced of how much better the aluminum plate is, im sure its great but i cant afford it right now and i just need to know the best way to seal the steel pan to the plenum with the fel pro blue gasket.

thanks

 

Cut the bolts shorter and clean the holes out good, use that gasket and keep torquing to spec a few times(not just once).

 

as zman said, rumor is that the plenum bolts can be too long. test fit each into the hole, grind off any excess length so the bolt head will bottom out to the plenum w/o pan and gasket. but - make sure that provides at least 3-4 rounds of thread contact with pan and gasket. use blue thread locker and torque to spec. its a very LIGHT spec, something like 72 INCH pounds not foot pounds which is only 8 FOOT pounds.

 

There is also a specific tightening order, same with the heads. I hope he has a manual.

 

Head gaskets are the same right or left, one side will have the print up, one won't. The guide pins on the side of the block will tell you if you got it right or not. You'll see the guide pins when you pull the old heads off.
Sealing both the head gaskets and the plenum gasket requires you to follow the specif torque science in the FSM. If you aren't using the thicker aftermarket aluminum pan, you'll need to either grind on the tips of the belly pan bolts, or space them out a bit with a few washers. Blue locktite is a must on those bolts.

 

i have the factory service manual, a chiltons book and alldata 10.4 so i should be good on manuals, lol. aim, i know they will only go on one way, but which side is up? the gaskets say fel pro on both sides, and if u flipped them around they could go on either side. the only difference i have found is on the gasket itself in between the cylinders fel pro has coated one side of the gasket and the other side is just metal all the way between the cylinders with no coating... im wondering which side should go down, the coated side or the un-coated side? as far as the plenum, with the fel pro gasket should i use any type of rtv or anything like that? or just torgue the bolts down on the gasket dry? thanks

 

Which gaskets? Got a part number?

 

fel pro hs 9898 pt-1 is the kit i got