Felpro printoseals intake gaskets

[Jim Comet]

I know this is kind of a rehashed subject but I thought I would share my last experience. I am going to try a set of Blair's pro ports on my 390 so I pulled the top end of my motor apart. I built it in 1998 and raced and drove it until 2006. It has to have at least 500 passes on it and 1000 street miles. It then sat from 2006 until now when I took it apart. The intake never leaked and as you can see the gaskets held their shape well. I used permatex High tack on the head side and I think that was why they didn't squirm. I probably defeated the purpose of the printoseal gasket but am very happy with the seal. Jim

[gdaddy01]

you lucky dog , you must have drained the water out after racing , I was not so lucky with my printoseals , fill cly with water .

[Jim Comet]

Nope, sat loaded with 50 50 antifreeze mix.

[feadam]

what would be a good intake gasket to use for med riser head port size (BBM) heads? Was going to order the felpros, not so sure if an alternate is better.

[Joe-JDC]

I am another builder that has had a very good luck with the Print-0-Seal in a FE.  I rebuilt my 428CJ back in 1982, drove it for two years, put the car in storage and shipped out to Germany for three years.  Orders to San Antonio, and after nine years here decided to go get my cars out of storage in SC, and brought three of them back.  I tore down the 428 CJ after 27 years to reseal the water pump, oil pan, rear main seal front crankshaft seal, and I was sure the intake gasket was toast.  However, the anti-freeze was still inside the engine, and the intake was perfectly in place with no tears, or leaks.  So, my FE intake Print-O-Seal lasted 27 years without an issue.  I usually don't comment because so many folks have had issues with them, but my usage has been different.  I have had the SBF intake gaskets leak, so I don't recommend them to anyone.  Joe-JDC

[cjshaker]

That's the thing with Print-O-Seals, they have worked for some people, but there are tons of people who have had them fail. I've had both experiences with them. They do seem to be very sensitive to torque applied. And it's just my opinion, but I think they have a better survival rate if they're used with matching head/intake metallurgy, like aluminum to aluminum and iron to iron.

I've moved to the Mr. Gasket 202A intake gaskets. They're a little old school, and it seems like I have to clean up the inner port edges from loose material from the stamping process, but as long as the machining and geometry is correct, they have worked great for me. Not sure how they fit a BBM head, but they fit my MR stuff just fine.

Edit to add that just last night I watched the latest episode of Roadkill Garage on MotorTrend. Freiburger and Dulcich stuck a brand new Windsor crate engine in their Cougar and had problems with it. When they took the intake off, there was the Print-O-Seal intake gasket ripped to shreds. That was a brand new crate engine from a very respected engine company!

[Tony Fritz]

What about using the 1247S Fel-pro's with the steel sandwiched between the layers???

[Barry_R]

What about using the 1247S Fel-pro's with the steel sandwiched between the layers???

Those work just fine

[gt350hr]

  +1 the steel inside does the trick.