Second Felpro gasket out of an undamaged box. Does this look normal or is the stamping die pooched? Even google images show this gasket bent up like this.

 

I would be more worried about the water outlet part on the far end than I would be about the deformed center. Looks like a heavy object was stacked on top of the box and crushed it. Take it back.

 

I purchased from Rock Auto, but I had to send 2 gaskets back before I received an acceptable one. Both of the rejected gaskets had deformed port holes.

 

That’s totally unacceptable. Those boss indents at each corner are certainly going to be off-centered. I’d never accept that turkey tray gasket.

 

Doesn't look normal nor mis-shapened from a die, it looks damaged. It may work if the sealing dimensions didn't change. Send it back.

Good luck!!!

 

When I went to Rock there were 4 different brands available.
All 4 info images showed the same deformations all different brands.
Check it out, I'm losing my mind on this.
Felpro said they're not concerned with the windage area of the gasket as long as the ports line up.

 

I have had some pretty bad hacked up packages by the time they get to my doorstep, Its most likely UPS or whoever when they pack there truck. Like another member said, heavier packages were stacked on that.

 

it's not shipping damage, the boxes are perfect.
Look at the images on Rock, they're ALL this way.

 

I did. NONE of the RockAuto images look ANYTHING like yours.

 

First image is the intake manifold gasket I took out of my 1971 CS. Second image is the Mahle intake manifold gasket I installed in my 1971 CS.

 

thank you thank you thank you
I didn't tear this down, but knew something was wrong.
Shocked it's so widespread across different vendors and Felpro doesn't seem to even wonder what I was asking about.

 

Fel Pro's weren't like that in "the old days." I have a bunch of them still. Some from different vendors, but the steel gasket still has Fel Pro stamping on it. I haven't tried to get rid of any of them because shipping would probably be high. McCord made some of the OEM gaskets and they were painted black, not silver. Also good quality.

 

I have used several Fel Pro "turkey trays" in the last couple of months and have never seen one damages like that. I just sold one Friday to a customer for a 455. I will call him Monday and see how it looked.

I have never worried much about the big pan area but the one in your first picture had the water port mangled on one end

 

I just called O'Rielly's to check on #3.
Had them open the box...
Same damaged pos in a perfect box.

 

What manufacturer is it you’re talking about? State the manufacturer please.

 

FWIW, when I was on eBay yesterday I saw tons of beat-up turkey trays. I’m thinking someone is ditching a really bad lot of turkey trays. That’s why it’s good to know the manufacturer.

 

These are Felpro, but of you search Rock Auto there are 4 vendors including Victor that all feature the same gasket defect in different pictures.
if you search eBay the same thing is present although I did see one listed that wasn't damaged.

 

So skip the 1-piece turkey tray and get the 2-piece gasket set. Cut out and use the valley portion of your existing turkey tray if you feel you need a valley tray.
MS99471 $6.26 on RA


FYI, my engine has 2-piece composition gaskets and no valley tray for the past 20-odd years with no issues.

 

I just looked at those pictures on RA and they look OK to me.

 

Well it turns out there is a reason the tray is there and thats from Felpro.


I had a Mr Gasket 2 piece in there that leaked at 30Ft #'s.
This is after 2 tanks of fuel following a full overhaul.
The reason that the 2 piece was in there is because the 1st tray I got was bent up like this.
The proof was when I pulled it down the cross over was cooking oil coming off the cam and the sludge hanging waiting to drop into the engine was a clean save imho.
Search ebay and among the defects you will find one at this link that is stamped correctly.
I do not want to do this again.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/39185446594...0AAOSwFKlfKZUj

 

Did you re torque the intake bolts after several heat cycles? I had to retoque mine 3-4 times over a period of several months.

 

FWIW...I ordered (and received) one from Amazon a 3 weeks ago. It looks fine

 

Ok so here is an update on this.
Having exhausted all hope of getting a correctly formed and stamped gasket, a friend found this company in California.
Got on the phone to get some details ironed out with a tech there.
The apparently solution to all this nonsense is going back to a 2 piece high temp performance gasket and adding a bolt down splash tray that replaces the marginal one in place currently.
As it stands in the discussion, the heads were cut 010 and the deck was cut 010 and the engine was apart 2 times prior that I know of so the heads may be even lower than just 010..
So with the gasket thickness in consideration, the tech is having us cut 030 of the intake port flange to lower the intake which should eliminate the vacuum leak and also insure no coolant leaks at the cross over and block offs.
I hope this misery helps someone down the road dealing with this kind of problem.
https://mondelloperformance.com/

 

Do some research before buying anything from Mondello Performance. You need to be fully aware of what you are getting into beforehand so that you can make an informed decision.

I see in your pictures above that you have an aluminum intake manifold. Be aware that the Mondello valley tray WILL NOT fit beneath the Edelbrock Performer 350 intake manifold. I tried and it did not fit, even after Lynn at Mondello assured me that it would. When the intake would not seat due to the tray being too high, Lynn then claimed that Olds made two different block versions, and I must have "the other one". Lynn does not issue refunds, only store credit, so I ate the cost of that tray.

If you have something other than a Performer 350, then I cannot say whether that tray will work or not. But as said above, you can cut the center out of a turkey tray and use that as the valley tray - this has been done for ages.

 

Well some know me better than others.. others just judge me
I don't come here to impress anybody or make anybody look silly.
In fact I come shamelessly seeking help as a 66 year old business owner tech.
However that said, this is a stock iron original intake, not aluminum.
2nd its not my practice to disparage companies based on here say.
3rd I am only here for "research"
4th, this is not a 350, its a 400.
5th, You don't sound like fun or anything relating to "fun"
6th post counts don't mean **** to me.
#lightenthefuckupdude

 

You definitely have an attitude issue. I am providing information in an attempt to help you, but apparently you do not want help. So you're on your own, have fun.

 

Lynn at Mondello will screw you any way possible.

Whatever parts you currently have, are wrong.

Whatever part Lynn has in stock is perfect for your application.

Lynn makes no mistakes...ever. If he is wrong, it’s because you screwed up.

Because Lynn makes no mistakes, snd whatever goes wrong is your fault, he will never do anything to help, unless it involves giving him more money.


Joe Mondello spent 40 years building his business, it took Lynn a fraction of the time to drive it into the ground.


Whatever Lynn told you, I’d question it. If money hasn’t exchanged hands, run away, forget you ever heard of Mondello in California.

 

I had my customer look at the one I got him last Friday and he said it is fine.

By the way for your application the stock turkey tray should be all you need. I am really having a hard time believing that there are that many bad ones out there. If you want I can get my warehouse to pull one and check it and I could have it drop shipped to you. Or get a local parts store to get one for you. Where are you located ?

 

Guys, I'm not here to pee in anybody's Cheerios.
Truth be told I am at the end of my rope with this.
If you compare the first picture with 99% of the ones being sold online, clearly there is a botched batch.
I ordered 5 from different sources near and far and found this pattern right inline with a batch of screwed up steel fuel lines from Fusick sourced from Inline Tube where the inverted flare second flare was pooched.
Fusick and ILT didn't seem to care and this was after several lines were sent to me and Fusick's only comment was "well that means I got a warehouse full of them and I doubt it" followed by a "send it back for a refund" and "contact Inline Tube"... Way out of character for them imho.
Eventually I had to straighten out the flare with my own tool to stop the leaks and make a seat cutter to restore the brass filter basket in the carb..
Its pretty frustrating talking to the hand especially when I have a clue.
So these "remarkable" finds that I'd rather not find have just made this project more frustrating.
I mean when it takes 4 tries to get a flywheel from Jegs and even the B&M page is wrong in the application, we are in a drafty cave with a candle trying to figure things out.

As for Fun, well sorry for the push back, but when giving advice its gotta apply or its misinformation imho.
The intake was retorqued to 30 as I posted in the string, is cast not aluminum and its a 400 not a 350.

As for this Mondello company, obviously as a solution to this nagging assache, it seemed like a score.
If they screw it up the CC company will deal with them, but its a solution to this problem.

 

I got one today for a 425 I am doing and it is fine. The big center area is deformed a little but that gets half bent up when you put it in anyway. That really does not bother me in the least bit. The side rails were fine, thats all that matters.

 

Nobody was meaning anything bad to you. It is just that we see people get screwed by Lynn on a VERY regular basis. When the name is even hinted people try to warn that he is not a friend to Oldsmobile people. It really hurts me and others to see people get screwed so bad. I have not heard of one single good thing from them in over 10 years.

 

Wow, just wow. Only 3 days of top secret engine application silence and now the cat leaps from the bag, though I now see this is BBO forum

Fun71 was trying to help you, not only on application intricacies but the likelihood of being sodomized by Lynn. Might want to rethink who is actually in your corner and who might not be.

 

Yeah...I'm not a "cool kid" yet, big problem with BBS forums.
Somebody with 3 posts is a dumbass...
But lets review, cause the post detail is pretty spot on whether its members confirming or disputing this.

Regardless, I did post a "sorry" and back off post to Fun, just not enough I guess..
But the reality of help is escaping me.

Now Felpro is stating specifically that this shield is necessary, yet he's run 20 years while my intake looks like it does after 2 tanks of fuel, run without it?
Maybe he should pull his intake would be my advice.

I clearly stated the intake had been re-torqued to twice the recommended torque to 30.

I have no idea where how this was determined except for the color, but its cast, is a 400 not a 350 and was blasted, yet we transit to the Mondello disparaging and certainly if they suck they suck.
The fact is that I wasn't even the purchaser, my machine shop found and ordered it,

I found this page with a search regarding Olds 400 vacuum leak, and wasn't expecting to get mis information nor to be spanked for my "attitude" as a result of that.

I will let the prior comments speak for me here. I'm a bit **** when it comes to builds and this gasket would never go into an engine I was building.
This is why the bolt down tray was the answer for me and why I passed it along to share a positive solution regardless of the namesake of its source.

Special thanks to BillK who contacted me on PM to help.

 

You made me open my new Felpro one I got from rockauto today. It was just fine.

 

I've been using the FelPro metal intake gaskets for half a century with no real issues. The deformation in the center is meaningless - you're going to bend that anyway. The damaged corner is unacceptable, however. That's a screwup on their part, pure and simple. I WILL say that there have been prior issues with bad batches. About 5-6 years ago, I got several that had the locating bosses positioned incorrectly. They would not fit into the holes in the heads. This is why you should always dry fit the gasket before applying RTV. In my case I just ground off the offending bosses and all was well, but it was definitely a manufacturing issue, so that's not unheard of.

 

Especially if the offending part was manufactured in China.

 

I was looking at the one I have here and I think the bent corner is almost certainly from an automated packaging machine. There is no way throwing the box around would bend it that far over.

 

Not certain why it requires a political response - but for some reason people are hell-bent on condemning other countries (political entities) when things get broken. Your cell smart phone working? How about your computer? Ever see where the majority of all medical scientific equipment in the world is produced/manufactured? Have a new vehicle with integrated electronic circuitry (ECM/PCM/BCM), throttle by wire, ad infinitum. Yet, some find it necessary to hoist posts to a denigrating level based upon politics. Such B.S.

 

I'd have to agree automation is a part of this problem from the roll to the box with a label no humans involved.
Now onto the good stuff.
In the process of cutting this port flange clearly a turkey tray would have leaked again based on the warpage shown after the first pass had this not been cut.
This is exactly where the leak was as it happens #5.
Kind of relieved to finally get some confirmation and connecting the dots on why.
Again I apologize for my "tude", but the frustration got the best of me.
r