Leaking intake manifold

[Grnstang]

Hey guys, just a question. I recently discovered my intake manifold was leaking near the rear of the intake. I have the new improved manifold with the aluminum crossover and when we removed the manifold, we found the gasket was a bit worn and just around the gasket on the head itself, there was pitting from the coolant. The guy that's helpin me said he was going to put some permatex liquid metal in the pits on the head and let it dry overnight and said it should take care of it, along with some new gaskets of course. My question is, does anyone here know anything about this liquid metal permatex stuff? Will it fill in the pits fairly well, or will I have to re-do it again in the near future? The pits are pretty small and it sounds like a good idea. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all

 

[ripper]

They have permatex just for aluminum. If he used that you will be fine. Be sure it is good and dry before you put your intake on, im not sure if it will react with the plastic. Stupid plastic intakes.

 

[Grnstang]

Thanks. Just wanted to be sure and yeah, my thoughts exactly on the plastic intakes. Thanks again man!

 

[voidfinger]

well it should be fine, i kinda like the plastic intakes......lighter, cooler, but breakable and don't like backfires to much

 

[Grnstang]

Well, I guess the permatex sealant seems to work great, but we found another problem!!! The aftermarket intake manifold with the aluminum crossover is made by Dorman and Dorman made the manifold so that you could not use the regular gaskets. In fact, you can only use their gaskets, and now it's going to take 3-4 days before they get here! Needless to say I will not ever be using their products again. I should have just replaced it with the PI manifold :-\ Well, anyways, thanks for the help guys.

 

[voidfinger]

well the surface should be the same.....if its just those pins that are attached to the gasket, i would do like i did with my pi intake, i would have just snipped them off. Thats what i did and no worries.

 

[Grnstang]

Yeah, I guess I could have tried some other alternatives, but we decided just to order the gaskets anyway. I just can't wait to get my car back on the road. Thanks for the insight man.

 

[Grnstang]

So voidfinger, did you use the NPI gaskets for the PI intake? I've heard if you use the NPI gaskets the manifold should work fine. Is this true, or is there something else you have to do in order to get a good seal?

 

[voidfinger]

o your using the pi intake on a npi engine, sorry didn't know that.

at the moment thats what i got and i will tell you that i would never do the npi gaskets with the pi intake, basically with the pi gaskets all you have to do is put a little dab of rvt on the corner of the water tube, but if you use the npi gaskets then your going to have problems with the runners sealing since the npi runners are smaller it might not seal correctly.