Hello All,

I am having problems putting on the Intake Manifold on my car. The first problem I have is with the Gaskets. On the gasket set I got there are three Gaskets. I don't know which is for which side. I have taken a picture below. I have placed two of them up againt the side of the heads for illistation. The one on the right has no square silver part. The one on the left has the silver part with a hole in the middle(that is the one I am pointing to). The one laid flat also has the silver part with no hole. Would anyone know which ones to use and which goes on which side. I can't remember what they were like when I took the manifold off. It is off a V6 engine. Why are the different anyway.

I put the heads on and hand tightened the bolts. I put the manifold between them to check how it fits. When I tighten everything down there is a gap at the front and rear of the manifold. It is well over a millimeter. In the picture below I have just left the manifold between the heads with no bolts in for illistration. I don't want to torgue it down fully incase I crack the manifold. Obviously I am doing something wrong but don't know what that is. Am I doing this wrong? I have put on new head bolts but surely this wouldn't make a difference.

Can anyone help,
thanks.

 

well though it may not be much help ill try. The gaskets seem to be the same other than that metal part. I had those metal parts too i just didnt use them. My felpro gaskets actually came with a side that said this side up. Anyway on the ends of the gaskets ull notice a small tab a few mm long that tab goes down into the manifold. your pic on the right side looks right. make sure you use good sealant such as ultra copper. The gap in the front and rear usually come with rubber gaskets as well. I dont use those either instead i use a nice bead of RTV on the front and back. Those rubber gaskets have a tendency to suck bad. you should use guide bolts as well. those are manifold bolts without the head, you screw them in so you can drop the manifold perfectly on top. if you misalign the manifold and make small adjustments you will move the gaskets and create a leak so make sure you drop it perfectly. Its very essential. Then just torque down to spec, wait a day or so. Crank it then retorque and you should be good. Make sure you rtv on the gaskets and make sure the mating surfaces are as clean as can be before install to make sure you get a good seal. Did mine recently and im pulling awesome vacuum as opposed to before. good luck

 

actually the more i look at it the more i think they are wrong. the flattest part of the gaskets should be pointed toward the ceiling. part number on the gaskets i believe should face down. anyone got any input??

 

If you look on the manifold is there a corresponding hole on one side that would match up to the one on the gasket?

 

Thanks for your reply guys. I done quite a lot of searching and found a picture of a Felpro set that I could see the writing on the front. The one with the small hole in it is for the Left Hand side. I presume that that is the drivers side and you are not ment to look at the engine from the front. The old set I dug out of the trash and these silver metal parts were burned off so shouldn't make a lot of difference hopefully.

Thanks.