Hi guys!

This is the 3rd time Im having to remove my intake because it keeps sucking oil from the Valley area into the intake ports and then into the chambers, fouling the plugs with oil after a few minutes of running time....

I have checked proper alignment, bolt interference with the intake bolt holes, etc....face of intake is parallel with heads....so its not that the faces are crooked and not sealing right one against the other, they are nice and parallel whenI shim them and then I check them with a gauge on all 4 corners.

I have glued the head side of the gasket to the head with silicone, and I have left the intake side of the gasket with NO silicone, just some grease....but its still sucking oil.

Im sick of this so Im just gonna silicone both side of the gasket to assure a tight leakproof seal.

Now, my other concern is the torque Im applying to the intake bolts.

Richard Nedball's book asks for 25 ft-lbs torque on these bolts....but it sure looks like a lot to me. Its just 1/4" bolts threading into ALUMINUM cylinder heads.

I have just tightened them with a small socket wrench till I felt they were were tight enough, didnt want to overtighten them and risk stripping threads on my brand new ALUMINUM heads!!

Should I just go ahead and torque them at 25 lbs-ft??? Is it safe to do so on aluminum heads? Still it sound like a lot for such a small fastener threading into aluminum.

I would go back and re-read that part in book, it should be inch lbs not 25 lbs. Thanks / Gary

Ditto, re-read that. It's 72 in lbs on some and I think 48 in lbs on the others. Thats 4 ft lbs and 6 ft lbs!!! The proper intake torque and sequence is in the Mopar Hemi engine manual which should be on top of your work bench.

Yes, I do have the MOPAR HEMI ENGINES Bible and it states the tq figures in in-libs and it states to use different torque figures on the center bolts than on the outers.....

There is a majour mistake there on Richard Nedball's book. And I was right about it, its waaaay too much torque!!! I see some people will strip their threads following the suggestions on that book.

Also, it states someplace else to torque the valley head bolts to the same torque as the rest of the head bolts....which will probably cause the intake valve seats to distort and not seal right....

I love Rich and his book is the best but it is wrong on this. Use the torque values and sequence in the Mopar Hemi engine book. That is the only way to do it right. The bolts will loosen up after you run it several times. Retorque every month until it settles in. If possible I prefer to use studs on aluminum heads. I get mine from ARP.

I read somewhere that because the bolts are verticle, if you over-tork the intake bolts, it can wedge the heads apart and crack the block!

domingo make sure it is not the cylinder head studs in the intake ports sucking oil up and through, also if the heads are ported do they have brass tubes for the push rod holes?sometimes those leak.

if those two parts are ok i would only use mr gasket intake gaskets, glue them to the cylinder heads and let the glue "set up", silicone the face of the gasket and the bottom of the intake ports, the silicone will allow the intake to slide down on the gasket as you tighten it down with out pulling the gasket with it.

is this a mp cross ram? or single 4 bbl? if it is a cross ram use lots of silicone down the bolt holes to keep them sealed as well.

Its a stage V dual carb intake. Known as the RAT BUSTER.

I redid this once more. I put silicone both sides.

I torqued it down per the Mopar HEMI BIBLE and we'll see if this time around it seals.

The oil is seeping through from the intake to head joint. When I take out the carbs this intake is big enough to let me see that there is oil right at the seam between the intake and heads. every time is the same. Its the first time im using silicone on both sides of the gasket....lets see how it holds up this time....

I also put some goo on the outside bottom of the intake port so it seals up with the intake when torqued down, I hope it helps sealing...

i had this same problem on my motor. stage v heads and mopar performance x-ram(has very bad port alignment on bottom of runners) I glued the gaskets to the heads with 3m weatherstrip adhesive and ran a thin bead of silicone around each port. 6 years and no leaks. I have seen over tightening of the intake cause the heads to leak water out of the corners, retorqued and it was fine

Sorry guys. Definitely a typo there. I have been seeing a lot more of this problem lately. On the last few engine I did these steps:
* I glued the Mr. G 303G gaskets to the heads using Gasgacince.
* Bolted on the manifold for an hour to press the gasket to the head.
* Removed the manifold and trimmed the gasket to the port using an Exacto.
* On the manifold side I used "The Right Stuff" around each port, spread very thin with my finger.
* Bolted on the manifold using the torque sequence.
* Went over all the bolts several times until there was no more movement.

Not a leak since...

Another thing to check is intake fit. Let's say the block was decked alot. Now the holes in the intake don't line up with the threads in the heads. The intake bolts end up hitting the sides of the intake. You can be tightening the intake and it feels snug but you are really just jamming the bolts. To check this, put intake manifold studs in the heads, (best without the intake gaskets on), and see if the intake manifold will slide all the way down to the head. If not you will have to get a rat tail file and elongate the holes in the intake manifold until it will slide down to the head without wedgeing into the studs.

Be very careful on which type silicone you use on intake gaskets, I like and use "adhesive" silicone only on any gasket that is exposed to oil Make sure the label says Adhesive silicone, not gasket maker or any other label Let it dry 24 hrs or more

I have pretty good luck with the Permatex gray..

I didn't read any comments for checking gasket thickness. If you have too thin a gasket, it could appear to be clamping down enough but isn't.

Had my intake off last week.Used the Mr G 303G and "The Right Stuff to glue everything back together

Thanks again Rich

I glued it back on with grey silicone on both sides. Torqued the 4 center bolts more than the 4 outers....

we will see if the problem is solved this time around....

I used a set of MR Gasket 0,060 gaskets....even though they are thicker than what Id like to use for better port alignment(0,030 would be better) I am gonna try this time with the thicker ones to see if they seal better.

Port aignment is not exactly on center, its like the intake would like a thinner gasket to go down a bit more so the intake ports are more on center with the head ports....

although the intake is sitting a bit high and the ports are not perfectly concentric, I am still not seeing a "step" whhen looking down from the carb opening into the intake ports. The top oprtion of the intake runner is perfectly flush with the port roof on the heads, and the lower portion of the intake runner sits about 1/8" higher than the intake port...(the stage V intake ports are smaller than the head ports...the heads are CNCd and gasket matched,k the stage V intake is untouched, hence the smaller runner openings).

If leaking at the bottom persist carefully check the following areas:
Head to manifold alignment(top to bottom)
Head to manifold angle and gasket thickness that's required.
Manifold to block rail spacing(make sure nothing is holding the manifold up)
Head intake surface flat and not cut at an incorrect angle front to back,Check same for the intake surface.
Make sure there is no warped surfaces.
The angle and straightness can be checked buy using four block(steel) guages at all four corners then check all the areas at each port for discrepencies and if the four corners don't set tight on the corner guages then you know something is out of square.
We usually use 2"X 1"X .060 thick block steel guages at all four corners and check for the manifold setting flush on the guages and then pass a aluminium welding rod flattened to just a hair under .060 through the port area to see if it's loose or tight in any one spot.
We never use any torque values when tightening the intakes but use a sequence of side to side and repeat till there is no more bolt rotation with a 1/4 drive then we repeat it after the engine has heat cycled a few times.We also recheck them every few seasons if the engine sets for long period of time.

Dom
what are you using to seal the ends of the intake to the block? Are you just using silicone or are you using the gasket that is supplied with the intake gaskets for the end rail. I had a problem with those gaskets holding the intake up too high and the intake gaskets would not seal properly. I left out those end gaskets on each end and just used silicone on the ends and then the intake gaskets sealed up on the ports with no leaks.
Just a thought

Yep guys, I checked all of that and it all seems to be OK.

So Ill run it one more time after all the MEGA SILICONE APPLY and see if it seals up good.

If not, its tear down time again...Ill recheck everything and use a different brand gasket and a different brand gasket adhesive.....

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Dom: cometic makes a thinner gasket, .045 I think, and that's what I ended up using. The only thing I did different was I glued the gasket to the intake so if I had to change it again I would not be scraping in to the lifter valley. That is for a newer mp cross ram on a street car. Dave