Hi everyone.

I have a Mini ram intake and noticed that the driver side coolant passage is cast in the wrong spot... I'm using felpro gasket and it fits my l98 heads perfectly... And it lines up perfect with the PASSENGER side of the Mini ram... But not so much on the driver side.. Take a look..

There's no way this will seal properly.. You can see by the impression left by the raised part of the gasket.. This also restricts water flow.. I can barely get my index finger inside the passage..

I'm going to talk to Tpis and see what they say about this obvious manufacturing mistake. Btw the date on the pressure regulator is 11/04

 

I don't know why this doesn't let me load more than one pic at a time. In this pic u can see the impression of the old gasket..

 

Both left and right sides of coolant passage are suppose to be equal..

 

Another pic

 

All the intake ports and bolt holes fit perfect.. Only the coolant passage is off. And only on the driver side. The passenger side is all perfect..

 

Does it leak?

 

Yes it leaks..

 

TIG it a bit and plane it so the gasket will seal.
Not a big deal. Water flow? Don't worry about it.

 

Ok thanks man... i ll just grab my tig welder and weld it up and then grab my planer and machine it down... i totally forgot i had a tig welder and a planer to machine an intake just sitting in the corner of my garage collecting dust.. . Thx

 

With a little time and simple tools and material you could make your own gaskets that fit. Just my 2 cents.

 

What gasket are you using?

 

That kind of work is extremely eeeeeeeeezy and cheeeeeeeeeeep to have done, and there are plenty of people who can do it. Try checking around at motorcycle shops. Even if TPIS blows you off (no idea whether they'll step up or not), it's not hard or expensive to get fixed. Certainly not the end of the world or anything.

 

Looks pretty normal to me, mine looked the same. Trim the gasket some if it blocks the port but you should have enough of a seal for it to not leak. If needed put some silicone around the ports.

 

They are all like that. A little bit of 'the right stuff' around the port and it will be just fine.

-- Joe

 

Thanks guys for the advice.. I will have to silicone it up... Kind of sucks to spend $1500 on an intake and I have to silicone the gasket and hope it doesn't leak..

 

Yeah unfortunate but thats way it is. Sometimes bolt ons dont exist and quality control doesnt either. Surprised to see it that far off but if tpis wont replace then what can you do? Have to rightstuff it. Heck, a few of my last intake swaps havent used any gaskets at all, just all right stuff

 

No gasket huh? I've always felt I needed at least a normal thickness gasket. Sometimes I felt like I needed twice as much, even when the heads where machined to account for milling.

-- Joe

 

Throw a smooth bead of right stuff around it and it will seal anything. I think my first turbo build was no gasket. You can literally lift the motor up with just right stuff holding intAke to the block and heads. No bolts. Its a pain to get off lol. I use a gasket now and right stuff aroud all ports. Taking no chances under boost