Inlet Manifold gaskets woes

[k@rlos]

Evening all

I’ve got a 2110 with cb 044 ultra mag heads and idas on scat tracs, it has an appetite for blowing inlet manifold gaskets (head to Manifold) I use the fibre gaskets which I match the ports and torque the manifolds down to 16 lbs ft with flanged m8 nuts. It’s not a difficult job I know but it is getting rather tedious

Never had this issue when I had the old drd heads with 44’s on CSP manifolds, used the same gaskets, hardware and torque setting. Scratching my head a bit now... is it down to poor quality gaskets? The lack of material between the inlet port? Would a sealant be better? Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[67rustavenger]

Blown out? Or sucked in?

Blown out would be rather strange. But things happen.
Perhaps the intake valves are a little tight. Or your jetted o the lean side of things.

Sucked in. Are you sure that the manifold base is flat and true?

You can use Locktite 518 sealant in place of the gaskets.
But the head and intake manifold mating surfaces need to be flat, to get the sealant to work correctly.
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[k@rlos]

[67rustavenger]

I have a recent pair of JayCee intake manifolds.

I flattened the mating surfaces with a belt sander. Just to make sure that the mating surfaces are in good nik!
_________________
I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!

There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!

[Glenn]

[modok]

Make sure the manifold will bolt on flat with no gasket......not hanging up on some edge or another. No "rocking"

[oprn]

My manifolds hung up on the top cylinder tin. Had to trim it back a wee bit in a couple places.
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[74 Thing]

All the tips mentioned above about the manifolds being flat and easy on and off without interference and spread a small amount of loctite 518 on the bottom of the manifold with your finger and install (no gasket/no leak).

[Wreck]

I use a flat piece of thick glass ,In my case a oven window from a scraped stove,spare bug windows work well and a sheet of coarser grit wet and dry sand paper .
Handy to surface all sorts of things . tops of cylinders etc .

The fibre type gaskets dry out over time and shrink , then you get and air leak , then an intake backfire from the lean mixture which blows out the gasket .

One engine I have has very small sealing surfaces , about a 1.5vmm in some places , I just use sealant no gasket after countless fibre gasket failures . The other engine has welded heads /manifolds ,good 5mm sealing surface all round , I use a fibre gasket and glue it to the manifold with a very light smear of ultra grey . I can remove the manifold and the gasket stays on the manifold to be used again .

[sled]

zero gasket and this

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[57BLITZ]

[k@rlos]

Thanks for your input people, I’ll have a tinker today and also order some 518

Many thanks

[UK Luke 72]

I've been using black RTV, same as my cylinders get and it holds up fine, not difficult to clean up either.
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[k@rlos]

[UK Luke 72]

[GARRICK.CLARK]

I would as many have said check the flatness of the manifolds. To do it properly you need an engineers flat block. Put stuarts Blue on the faces of the manifolds. Wait till it drys, then wrap some 600 paper around the flat blocks and flat the faces till the blue disapear's.. If this problem still happens, me personally would try another set of manifolds. I hope the head/seating surface is flat.

[Cusser]

[Glenn]

[GARRICK.CLARK]

Make sure the area on the manifold where the washers and nut"s fit is flat also. 99 percent of manifolds I see are just cast aluminium and the nut area is always ruff cast and not flat.
If the porting is big and the gaskets are thinon the edges you may also need to weld them to thicken up the thin part of the gasket.
Pics are needed

[k@rlos]

I’ll blue up the manifolds bases tomorrow and bolt down to see if they and the head surfaces are flat. Will check the surface where the nuts go too, my manifolds have plenty of material around the outside edge but the split between the 2 ports is quite tight.