Hey Guys.

I have finally cracked my intake manifold bolts which means this coming Sunday i will be replacing my rear plugs, gasket and all the leads.

Question is:

When i go to put the manifold back on can i reuse the gasket if it is in good cond? Otherwise can i just use the gasket and aid it with a bead of gasket goo?

The upper section/plenum is joined the the lower intake manifold with a steel gasket, all prior advice in here was that it is perfectly acceptable to re-use this gasket with no worries whatsoever.

I had made enquiries at the parts counter (Mitsi) and found out that the steel gasket was only $7-00 ( a yr or so ago), so I had bought 3 of them for our cars before the question was asked in here. The new steel gasket has a slight "crinkle" pressed into it, which gets flettened out as the upper and lower sections are bolted together....... but re-use of the steel gasket is well-established as a fair practice.

No need for any gasket-goo, and might be best avoided.

A good practice, which I picked-up from Mal (Madmagna) is to cover the holes in your lower intake manifold the instant you pull the plenum/upper away. Or stuff cleanish rags into them - saves any dropped rocker-cover nuts falling into your donk. (Obviously, you then remove the cover or stuffing when rocker covers are back on and you are ready to re-fit the plenum).

If you are changing the rocker cover gasket, make sure you get spark-plug tube seals too - these are a donut-ish shape, sit on a ledge of the spark plug tube, and flare out to seal flat against the underside of your rocker-cover. They have a habit of hardening and losing the integrity of the seal. Oil leaking into the plug tube will swell and weaken the long insulators on your plug leads. Best avoided!

for what it's worth +1

there's a bunch of topics on whether to reuse the gasket and uniformly the answer is yes

If you are changing the rocker cover gasket, make sure you get spark-plug tube seals too - these are a donut-ish shape, sit on a ledge of the spark plug tube, and flare out to seal flat against the underside of your rocker-cover. They have a habit of hardening and losing the integrity of the seal. Oil leaking into the plug tube will swell and weaken the long insulators on your plug leads. Best avoided!

Ah the guy at Motor traders said that i should get the seals aswell, but i just took the gasket, if i can make it back there i might swap my lonely gasket over for the kit.

How do you remove these spark plug seals?

P.s Bloody good info buddy. :happy:

I put a barry's kit on mine when I did the rear plugs, but I have known people to reuse them without a problem

I put a barry's kit on mine when I did the rear plugs, but I have known people to reuse them without a problem

That might be what the guy wanted to sell me.

Hey Guys.

I have finally cracked my intake manifold bolts . . . . .

They may have been bloody tight, but the manual says they shouldn't be. Just don't do them up that tight, 19 Nm if you have a torque wrench IIRC.

EDIT: just checked, its 17 Nm for both the short and long bolts. If they were very tight to undo, look for alloy on the bolt threads, they tend to tighten up over time. Same for the rear spark plugs, they may be tight to undo, but need 25 Nm for new ones.

Thanks for the Info MadMax, i dont have a torque wrench but i have been thinking about getting a cheap one.

I dont know why the old bolt was so hard to undo but im thinking that when i get it out, i might take it down to bunnings and get some high tensile ones that are the same specs. I usually just wing it with spark plugs but i tend to be alright as i dont over tighten them.

NO real need for high tensile bolts ! As Madmax has written, the tension shouldn't be too much and they are going into alloy. A high tensile bolt would just give you more leeway to strip out the alloy by over-tightening (bolt much stronger than needed). A bit of oil on the threads when you refit, or some anti-lock stuff, might avoid difficulty next time.

The plug tube seals just sit there - if you are pulling the rocker covers off, you will see three tin tubes poking up out of the heads, there will be 3 flat rubber circles at the top of tubes on each head. They are not a seal like you'd see on the end of camshaft etc, they are just a rubber ring. Sitting there. The removal and installation tools are called fingers - mechanics gloves optional.

The "Barry's kit" would not be suggested by a shop - it was a slightly-controversial "mod" when I first found AMC forums. Barry was/is a member, and had theories about some simpler engine mods. One idea was to use a heat-proof gasket between the lower intake manifold and the upper part/plenum.... it was made from phenolic something-or-other. Idea was that it would stop heat from block/heads being conducted up to the upper intake manifold. Thus intake air would be cooler and killerwasps would ensue. Debate in the forums was divided amonst those who thought it was pure genius, and those who thought it wasn't much more than hooey. Barry had the gaskets made and sold them, they were not available except thru forums. If you bought a Barry's gasket, there wasn't much point in re-using the steel gasket. One counter-agument to the heat-resisting gasket was that the bolts were still metal and would conduct heat up, and that whole engine bay gets hot and upper plenum would warm up anyway. Just re-use your steel gasket. Please. (LOL).

EDIT: The bloody good info I relayed was all learned from AMC, either Forum discussions, the PDF file of Workshop Manuals, or by observing Mal (MadMagna) at work on my cars - he did rocker cover gasket and plug-tube seals on 3 of our cars at same time as doing the Timing Belts and water-pumps.

I would lend you my tension wrench, but it's in the boot of my car in the paint shop

I would lend you my tension wrench, but it's in the boot of my car in the paint shop

Thanks Michael but doesnt matter, if i need one i would buy one but i seem to do fine without one.

Edit: Thanks again for the advice Elwyn, it seems like an idea that someone didnt iron the creases out of. I think i will just stick with reusing my steel gasket, it saves money and effort.