Ok, I know it has been covered a million times before; but, which intake manifold gasket should I use? I did some research on our website and it seems there are two different thoughts.
1) Use the turkey tray after cutting off the tray and putting it in the valley.
2) Use fiber gaskets with the front and back rails and use plenty of RTV.

I was looking on Summit, to decide which one to buy and the bad part is that most of the pictures aren't included, or if they include pictures they might not be for a specific application. I imagine if the composition is anything but metal than it won't be a turkey tray gasket. Am I right?

The problem is that I don't have the old intake manifold gasket. So I can't order a fiber gasket and use the old turkey tray for the valley. IF you know what I mean...

So anyways. Which one should I get?

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...115+4294840139

 

What intake are you running? Iron,aluminum? I personally hate the tray. BUT I also hate iron intakes.I BELIEVE that if your using iron,use the tray.Using aluminum,use the 4 piece. If using the 4 piece,shitcan the end pieces and use ultra grey or ultra black. Regular blue is bad news. This is MY opinion. I'm sure others will chime in. Good luck. Hope your end result is leak free.

 

How about 3) turkey tray. Olds used it under the W-30, W-31, and A4 aluminum intakes. I've personally used it under a Torker and an Edelbrock dual quad intake with no problems.

 

Hmm... I will be using an Edelbrock Performer intake. I didn't ever consider that Joe. I guess if it was good enough from the factory it is good enough for me. I will call the Summit tech number at lunch and let you know what I order.

 

The turkey tray is on ebay for $15. I bought some from him, good seller. At that price, get a few. I spray Permatex copper on it, except at the water ports where I use a bit of ultra RTV, and the end rails where I use RTV instead of the rubber seal.

 

I just ordered a turkey tray from Summit. It is the Fel-Pro one so it should be high quality. I should get it next week.

 

Be sure to use a bead of RTV around both sides of all four water ports in the gasket.

 

also, clean and rtv all four corners formed by the heads to block well.


bill

 

Yes, excellent point. One last thing is to be sure that the four small flanges around the outboard bolt holes fit correctly into the recesses in the heads. I often suspect that this is the reason why people have problems with this gasket.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I will probably et it this week and get it done in a few weeks since I don't even have an intake yet (I have the stock one I just want to use an Edelbrock Performer). Mostly, I just wanted to save a bit on shipping through Summit. Plus, it is always cool to get toys in the mail.

 

[QUOTE=joe_padavano;39507...One last thing is to be sure that the four small flanges around the outboard bolt holes fit correctly into the recesses in the heads. I often suspect that this is the reason why people have problems with this gasket.[/QUOTE]

Yes I agree with you on that. I have struggled with them in the past myself.

 

I have gotten better sealing if the intake surfaces of the heads were resurfaced when I got the main surfaces re-done.

 

Ok I need to do this task and I thought it would be like replacing intake gaskets on any other car. Apparently I was very mistaken. Can someone list all of the parts I need to replace all the gaskets, flanges(whatever they are), and tray or anything else I don't know about. Pics would be nice. A step by step would help. Thanx so much. You have no idea how much it is apprecitaed.

BTW I just noticed(after posting this) that this is in the Big Block section would everything be the same for a 350 SBO?

 

I'm a big fan of the factory turkey tray gasket, as you can see in my posts above. Installation is the same for both big and small blocks. It's covered in the posts above.

 

Ok so let me get this straight. I can reuse the factory turkey pan which may or may not be under my 350 which was rebuilt, but should be under my 307? Or do I have to buy a new one? And what of those flanges people have a problem with? So all I need is a gasket set?

 

If you buy the new Fel Pro gasket you will get a metal turkey tray that is attached to the intake manifold gaskets on either side. These CAN'T be reused. What you can do is cut the tray out of your old gasket and reuse it underneath the intake manifold with high quality fiber intake manifold gaskets.

 

I went through two turkey trays before I bought the Mr Gasket 2 piece fiber set. When I installed the fiber set, I cut the flanges off the tray, but kept the locating "buttons" and installed the tray in the vally, then used the fiber set in the sealing surfaces, a whole summer driving without a leak, that's more than I could say for the past two years...

350 with Edelbrock performer

 

You cannot reuse the metal tray style gasket since it is the embossed bead around each port that creates the seal. I'll be honest, I've been driving Oldsmobiles since 1974 and have never had an intake leak with the factory style metal gasket. That's iron, aluminum, factory, and aftermarket intakes. Now, the P.O.S. rubber end seals, that's a whole different problem...

 

I tried the factory turkey tray on my Olds from a new requild. It had a vacuum leak within 300 miles. That may be from the intake itself being 35 ish years old.

I installed the fiber gaskets and had an oil leak at the rear of the block. I tried again with a new set of fiber gaskets and had an exhaust leak at the intake to head interface. I was told this was because I didn't retorque the gasket. I changed it a third time to the fiber gaskets and I'm hoping that is the last time. 100 miles into it and about to retorque.

Just my experience with a factory Olds intake on factory Olds heads.

 

I have a slightly different experience on my 65 442. I used a thick bead of black rtv instead of the end seals. The Edel Perf manifold is not a perfect match to my 400 block, in the back by the distributer. It leaked badly, even after 2 tries. The 3rd time, I glued the rubber end seal to the block and used rtv. Leak problem solved. So I suggest dry fitting parts and do a through inspection before assembly.