ok I'm FINALLY getting around to installing my intake manifold back onto the 3.4 (ahh...gotta love procrastination....) and I have a small little problem...

I have FELPRO intake manifold gaskets, but as we all know, the intake gaskets do not clear the pushrods. The haynes book says to merely cut the areas out to clear the pushrods, but the felpro gaskets and the felpro instrucions say NOT to cut the gaskets but to instead remove the pushrods and install the gaskets to make sure they do not leak etc.....

Soooo...it's one of those questionable issues again....so what do you guys say? What did you guys do?

Cut the gaskets and just slap them on (I hope it is this way lol), or remove the pushrods and then install the gaskets? Thank you!

 

I am pretty sure i used felpro and they either already had a cut or said cut here.
But i didn't have to take the rods out to do it.

 

Thanks for the reply!

Hmm, mine says "do not cut" on the Felpro gasket (where you would normally cut) No pre-made cuts either. I know the stock OEM gaskets say "cut here" though, but I'm not sure what to do with these felpros. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

 

Ive cut them before. The reason they say do not cut is they bend easy and can easly then not line up and either not seal/gasket properly, and/or block part of the air passages.


Ive seen somewhere, someone compressed the spring, rocked the rocker with some plyers, pulled the pushrods out, then put them back in. But it looked like more work then its worth.

 

I cut mines when I put my intake on and have had no issues. It said the same things yours says not to cut btu I don't see the issue as to why not. Where they need to seal tha has nothing to do with it.

 

ahhhh thanks guys. Those are the exact answers i was looking for! Now ccomes the fun part of laying the intake down after cleaning off some of the dust/debris/lint that has wound up in the oil galley (right word?? lol) from taking off the old manifold

 

hey man! listen its cool you should be able to post as much as you want on this topic,,,comon honestly dont listen to these folks who wanna chew yer head off about doing a serch first,,dont listen to these tards,,honestly if you actualy do a lil serch, and are not satisfied on wht you found, then by all means, please feel free to post here,, i got yer back bro~ lol, post away!

Also about this topic, i need to replace my intake mani gasket, and ide like to hear from you, on how hard/easy the job is, guied me thru steps that you found most diffacult,,,,my concern is the distributor, i believe it will need to come out and i need a easy way to do it, with out fuggin it up lol,, any way thanx for the post, and keep um coming!.................

 

Your not cutting where it seals, no. But when you bend the gaskets to work around the pushrods, the places it needs to seal are not in the proper places anymore (depending on how you bend them).

 

i dont fully understand what you guys mean?.. and of course its cause i have yet to be under the intake, what i dont under stand is what you folks mean about the push rods going thru the gasket? W,T,H,,, lol,, isint the gasket like all other gasketts? trans pan gasket/oil pan gasket, ect, any one have a visual for me, or could help explain a lil better?

 

it's kind of hard to explain unless you see it. The intake on these engines actually makes up a part of the cylinder heads. So the pushrods are actually above the intake ports. Since the gaskes are one piece, you can't directly lay the gaskets flat on the cylinder heads because the pushrods get in the way (the bottom parts clear though). If you see a picture with the gaskets installed, you'll know what is being talked about. The Haynes manual shows a pretty good picture.

 

lil advise, next time, lay a rag in the valley so you dont have to try and clean quite as much out of there, saves so much time and less chance of some getting where you cant get at it.

 

advise taken! Actually, I did put a rag, but there is a bunch of gasket pieces that broke off, and the rag i used left quite a bit of lint. So I'm working on that now. Oh and i also plan to use some air to help blow some of this stuff out!

 

Good point there Dale and I did pay close attention to that when I was installing mines. My dad pointed that out to me so I was careful not to bend the gaskets when it came to those sealing points.

 

Atleast I'm not the only one here that understands my jumbo