Intake Gaskets

[feadam]

Have a bbm iron block, BBM aluminum heads, Blue thunder intake, when I put intake on with gaskets sitting in place, I can get a .035 feeler gauge between heads and intake on both sides. Question is is this normal? I tightened intake down and it closed gap that I can see, does intake and heads come together that much with torquing intake?

[blykins]

Make sure the head gasket tabs are not holding the intake up. 

[feadam]

Tabs are good ports line up and valve cover rails are good. Just seems like a lot of gap.

[jayb]

I don't think you should have that much gap.  I'd be looking at that a little closer.  Is it tighter on the top than on the bottom?  Are both ends the same?  If that all looks consistent then I would say that there is definitely something holding the intake up.  How about the end rails, do you have the corks in there?  They will sometimes hold the intake up too...

[feadam]

Corks are in, gap is the same at bottom and top. 

[blykins]

Take the corks out and try it. 

[Falcon67]

Don't use cork - I save old gaskets and use those for test fitting, rather than new items.  I use only RTV on the china walls, does carefully no problems.  And no worries about end gaskets holding the intake proud. 

[feadam]

Brent
Took them out and it closed gap a lot, should I just use RTV instead of the gaskets? The gap on the valve cover rail didn't change much but without the end gaskets the gap between heads and intake closed a bunch. 

[blykins]

If you have any gap whatsoever (on the ends) without the cork, lay a bead of silicone on the ends. 

Some guys use TA-31, some guys use Right Stuff, I use Dow Corning 732.  Pick your poison....

Before you seal it up, take a look around, make sure the valve cover rails match and if you have a wait of checking port alignment, I'd check that too.

How much gap do you have on the sides now?

[feadam]

maybe .005 before torque.

[blykins]

Seal it up then. 

Make sure you glue the gaskets to the heads and also use sealant between the gaskets and the intake manifold.

[feadam]

Thanks Brent

[wowens]

Use no cork

[cjshaker]

What am I missing here? Why would there be any gap between the intake and head? The intake should be sitting on the gaskets squarely, with no gap visible or measurable. If there's a gap, isn't something holding the intake up? Tightening the intake to close a gap should not be happening.

[blykins]

He had cork end gaskets on and they were holding the intake off the heads.