fel pro gasket question

[hosser]

i am getting ready to put the upper intake to plenum gasket on, should i use silicone or gasket sealant on it?

[Guest TurboSedan]

no. i probably wouldn't use Felpro gaskets either. i used them and didn't have a problem, but i think some other people have had a problem with them not torquing evenly or something. when i replace mine i'm going to try the cheapo paper variety. i think Niehoff makes them.

[Guest TurboSedan]

thought i would add this....

 

  \ said:

I liked the metal/rubber composites from FelPro, until a local buddy used them and cracked the end of his upper intake while trying to get them evenly-tightened. They are tricky to get secured evenly, even when I used the appropriate inch/pound torque wrench. I let my buddy use this torque wrench but as he progressed adding an even amount of torque until he reached the final value, still found other bolts were loosened, and every time he tighten the loose one to spec, found the others had loosened, to the point he snapped the end of one ear piece one the upper intake, the rubber allowed the upper intake to not be resting on the lower intake facing section while being tightened, and with this allowed leverage to strain the upper intake ends. I was lucky when I use them but found later upon disassembly, that the rubber had split and had broken out of its original shape, and was leaking (why I took the upper intake off). So my first impression was like others that this would be a slick gasket, having the rubber somewhat isolate the heat soak from the lower into from getting so much into the upper intake, but in the end found GM paper was the way to go, and GM’s paper version has been upgraded as compared to what came on the engines new. So live and learn from other’s mistake :oops:

 

Jeff M

[manitcor]

I just use the GM stuff, they have the desgins down pat. Ive never had a problem with them.

 

The felpro uppers are actually repackaged GM uppers, at least in thier full top end gasket kit it is.

[Brian P]

If you have a gen 2 3.1, I used silicone black RTV around the coolant ports on the LOWER gasket. That's as much "extra" as I've ever done. The uppers I put on dry.

 

I also know another person that cracked their gen 2 plenum trying to use the metal/rubber '91-94 gasket on a '88-90. You can only use that gasket with the '91-94 manifolds and intake bolts, simply because the intake bolts never touch the plenum, there's rubber around it to "float" the whole thing. Anyway.