I bought a set of gaskets for my 330 so I could replace the head gaskets and taking a shot before I pulled it apart, I ordered the one-piece (turkey tray) intake gasket. Once the intake came off I realized I needed the two-piece intake gaskets for my engine. NOBODY in Albuquerque carries that gasket set! Not even a cheap Mr Gasket set! I tried 'em all! Auto Zone, O'Reilly's, Pep Boys, NAPA, Car Quest, even Yearwood! Is there any problem with cutting the middle section out of the metal gasket and using that? It is warming up here and I want to get the engine back together. Was hoping for this weekend if possible.

 

You can cut the valley pan loose and use the two side pieces...

 

It is FEL-PRO MS99471.

 

Or order from summit, usually their stuff is at my door next day.

 

Rockauto stocks them.

 

Are you saying you need the two-piece gasket because you have an early 330 with the tray in the valley? You can use the one-piece gasket by simply removing the tray.

 

Thanks Joe! That would make life much easier but fortunately I will now have time to wait for the right gasket set. Unfortunately I will have time because I won't be working on the Hooptie 2 because I was rear-ended by a Freightliner on the freeway today. I expect I won't feel much like bending over the engine bay for a while.

My truck...
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The other guy...
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Holy crap

 

I was told it took 40~50 G's of impact to fold in the outside mirrors like it did. That thing was unbelievably HUGE and YELLOW in the mirror just before impact!

 

That'll rattle yer cage for ya.

 

At my company Enginetech, we are having to add a P/N O403-1 because application is currently in the top 10 of our lost gasket sales. Our customers are telling us they are having trouble sourcing some of this stuff. We're having to get the head gaskets from Fel-Pro and pair it with the Olds 350 Victor Reinz lower set. Lots of older iron parts being discontinued recently - stock replacement cams are the worst.

 

It'll sure as hell remove your sunglasses for ya! I had a firm grip on the wheel though!
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Holy cow man, glad to see you're alright to a certain extent, that's one hell of an impact!

 

Any updates?

 

Why are you driving around with your snow tires on? We usually take ours off just after Easter...Snows off, summers on and a fresh bumper.

 

Man, that doesn't say much for the structural integrity of the Freightliner. Front end completely off. Maybe it is designed to come apart for impact energy absorption.

 

The problem with pickup trucks getting rear ended is they are designed to be rigid with no crush zone. This results in the passengers pretty much getting the full G force transferred to the cab. Although the damage to your truck looks minimal, my bet is the frame is bent. Glad you survived but judging by that steering wheel you took a good hit.

 

I keep the aggressive tires on year-round because of the places I have to go for work. If I am on-call and I have an outage, I absolutely hafta get there. I am on-call for places like Taos Ski Valley where we have snow at most any time of year. It snowed there today as a matter of fact! Some of the other places I have to get to are sloppy muddy when it rains. Street tires won't cut it in that kind of mud. The tires you see in the picture are dangerous because they make you brave. If I have to put my chains on, that is to get me out of where I have made it to. You can see the mud on the side of the truck from just a day or two before. The tilt of the camper shell hints that this is more than a bumper replacement.

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Here is another pic of the frame in at least one place it is compromised. You can see the compression in one spot and the bending of the bumper brackets towards the rear. It has been totaled out.

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So... Back to the original subject, engine repair. I have been feeling bad about leaving the engine apart with nothing but a towel to keep dirt and debris out. I couldn't put the engine back together with a clear conscience without cleaning things up a bit. So the rockers, bridges, and pushrods went into the parts cleaner. The difference was quite refreshing for the short amount of time the parts spent in the cleaner. The lifter valley was vacuumed out with the shopvac and then blown out with compressed air. The valley pan was treated to a session with a wire brush.

Here are some before and after pics.
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With the intake installed I can be fairly sure that the internals of the engine will now stay clean and protected from Mother Nature. The valve covers are reversed but I need to take them back off before I start it up again anyway. I need to pour some oil on the rockers and bridges because they are completely dry after being cleaned. Interesting note, the pivot surfaces of the aluminum bridges looked factory new and the steel rockers show lots of wear.
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You may notice that the original intake was for a two-barrel carb and this one is for a 4-barrel. This intake was essentially free so why not use it. It is an EGR manifold so I plugged the holes at the bottom of the plenum with pipe plugs that came in an engine freeze plug kit from years ago. I had to find the correct size NPT tap and the only place I could find one was at Harbor Freight in a three-tap set. Obviously there is a bit of a rough surface with the hex socket of the plugs, but it seems better than the holes that were there before.

Here is what it looked like when I found it.

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After some clean-up, rust remover, and some surface prep. You can see the EGR holes in the bottom of the plenum here.

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The holes drilled out.

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Plenum plugged! All threaded holes cleaned. I will need to find some solid covers for the EGR port and the choke heater port since I have an electric choke for the carburetor.

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