Everything was hooked up as factory. I put the new sensor on and the P1401 went away!
When I have time i'll tell you what Fel-Pro says about their gaskets and Ford's
gaskets and the design of the 4.0. OFF the record of course! :P

 

My 4.0 is still water-tight and I have a few minutes so here goes on what I have learned doing my lower intake gasket replacement. First, DON'T use a one piece gasket,from anyone,OEM or other makers. Why,you ask? Well according to a major gasket maker,the fit between the head,the intake and the block is NOT correct due to improper angle intersection and fit tolerance on the manufacturing level. Seems the block-to-intake fit is too tight,so when a one piece gasket is used,the added thickness of the gasket between the block and the bottom of the lower intake will hold up the lower intake causing a loose fit between the heads and the intake,not allowing the head/intake gasket to fully compress resulting in a leak over time. The intake ports seal OK but the water ports at each end are under-compressed and hence prone to leaking. If you have a 4.0 with a one piece gasket, if you don't have a leak,or at least a seep, at this head/block/intake joint, you are very lucky. The solution is separate gaskets for the intake-to-head sealing surfaces and NO gasket under the lower intake-to-block joint. They recommend only RTV on this surface. They supply black RTV,but I prefer PermaTex Ultra Grey and let it set over night with the lower intake in place with the bolts just snugged down some,(5 ft-lbs)but not fully torqued down to specs to avoid squeezing out the RTV. After this waiting/curing period, continue reassembly as directed. I now have 500+ miles on such a replacement with no oil or coolant leaks. The gasket set was $108.00 at AutoZone and included all the gaskets needed ,including the very good PermaDryPlus® valve cover gaskets, with the exception of the UltraGrey RTV. Since mine is a '97, I replaced the fuel rail gasket,too,since it came with the set and I had time because of the cure time wait. HTH!

 

Do you have a part number to reference at Autozone?

Did you take a pair of scissors and cut this yourself, or? How did you seperate the gaskets into multiple pieces?

Part number please if you can.

Thanks in advance,
Eddy

 

Yes,indeed. I would have included it but the box was out in the garage.

It is: MS 98005 T

It has the modified instructions and information in a separate sheet in the box on the one piece gasket that in no longer made by them.

 

Thanks for all this info, I just replace lower intake gasket on daughter's '94 Explorer 4.0 with 200k miles.

Used the Felpro 2 piece "Problem Solver" set and used the Permtex Ultra Gray on the front/rear intake sealing surfaces and around the 4 water jacket openings. For the water jackets, I put a thin layer on the maniford and the head at all 4 corners, rather than using the bead method. I also put the Ultra Gray at the valve cover seal point where the intake and head meet up, before setting the valve cover gasket.

The Felpro 2 piece set has "ears" that hold it on the manifold, but you need to prefit them and put some marks on the ears and on the heads to know you have the gaskets lined up front-to-rear once you set the maniford back on. The sealer you put on for the 4 water jacket openings will also help hold each gasket.

The aluminum intake's 4 water jacket sealing services were pitted pretty bad, up to a 1/8" deep in a couple spots. To repair this, I cleaned with brake cleaner real well and then dug the pits out with a drill bit. Then I coated all 4 corners with JB Weld. Work it into the pits with the putty knife and then put a a thin final coat. Let it harden for 15 hours like they say to. Then I sanded it down, using 36, 80, 180 and finishing with 320 grit papers ON A SANDING BLOCK. Be careful and don't touch the aluminum with the 36 or 80, and minimally with the 180 & 320. Once you're done sanding, the only JB Weld left will be in the pits. It is good for 500 degrees and it is very hard, in fact if you slop it, get it cleaned off while it is soft cause it is tough later.

The Felpro instructions say to check for pitting and then say "some mechanics fill them with epoxy but we recommend machining or replacing the intake". I took the epoxy idea and ran with it, instead using the JB Weld which is basically a hard epoxy I think.

Other thing is the torque values, they vary for different years, I went by the ones in my Haynes service manual. The Felpro instructions had values, but it was more than I had seen elsewhere and I did not want to chance busting a bolt or something.

Last item - I originally bought this Victor Reinz intake set (http://carquestgaskets.ca/solutions/SS-CQ-F-15.pdf) which is about $30 more than the Felpro set. I took it back becuase it did not have the 2 different sealing materials that they stated, don't know if it was an old set or what.


Again, thanks for all this info - I may not have done this job without this head start.

 

Adding to above, as far as the gasket pre-fit goes, actually the gaskets have holes for locater pins so the later models must have the pins so that would make the pre-fit unnecessary, but the '94 4.0 I was working on did not have any locater pins.

 

Rockledge really has a good tutorial on this,doesn't he!? I, too,was a bit intimidated by this job before tackling it. BTW, my 1997 4.0 didn't have pins either.
As for the JB Weld,once it cures and is clamped between the mating surfaces,I would expect no problems,now or in the future. I have used Devcon on 302 head/inake jionts with no fall out from it after many thousands of miles.

Congrats for your job,painterbob!

As for me......I need to tackle replacing the throw-out slave cylinder in the near future...for the 3rd time! NOT one of Ford's better ideas! (Grrrrrrrr!) I had a cable clutch on a Mustang ll and NO trouble from it in over 200,000 miles.

 

I guess I should add my 4.0 is still watertight after about 8000+ miles. The Fel-Pro two piece gaskets seem to do the trick.

 

I really need to do mine and have been wanting to for years but either the honey-do list gets in the way or something else comes up. Always something!! I did re-torque about a year ago and so far no leakage here on my ole girl at 190,000, but I'm one of those that's all about preventative maintenance and need to get it done.

 

Yeah, his write up was a huge help.

The ironic thing is, now that I have done all this research and figured out where the daughter's '94 Explorer 4.0 was badly leaking, I actually drive a '94 Ranger 4.0 with 245k on it that I have been adding coolant to once in while for years.

It is probably on the brink on failure also, but I guess I know how to do it now, lucky me.

I have retorqued my 4.0 before, but that was in an attempt to stop pinging, not for the water leak, but that probably helped in prolonging the gasket failure. (Now I know about the de-carbon methods out there for the pinging - Ford cleaner or some say water, using the vacuum method).

Talking about other projects here's one for ya. I have a 2000 F350 7.3 diesel which just so happens be one of the 2000 7.3's that slipped by with some bad "LB" date stamped rockers/pedestals, so at 155k it bent/broke a pushrod. Ford/International put out info on this, but not a Tech Service Bulletin, cause they really did not want to create a stir that would have cost them more $. Luckily I pulled the other half of the pushrod out with a telescoping magnet and am waiting of my new rockers/pedestals and pushrods to arrive. Also luckily, I looked at the roller lifter down in there with an inspection camera snake and it looks fine. (Edit 1-8-10: Have about 1200 miles on the repairs now and this old 7.3 seems to be home free.) Could have been a even bigger disaster - on a 7.3 you have to pull the head to even get at the lifters, and you need a hoist just to lift one of those heads. After all this, I would say avoid year 2000 7.3's (along with the '03 to '05 6.0L Ford/International diesels, for other reasons). On the positive side, getting the 7.3's valve covers off is easier than the 4.0L, you take off the two big intercooler tubes and you are basically there.

 

Good to know that the Felpro 2 piecer is holding. Knock on wood, I figure if the stock 1 piece can hold for that long even with the tolerance issues and no Ultra Grey around the coolant ports, then this new setup should hold for a long, long time.

I tell you what, when I started tearing the 4.0 down, I was thinking "what am I getting myself into", but you take your time and label which hose came off what etc (or take pics) it is not that bad. You need a big wrench for the EGR tube and a big socket with extensions to get to the coil pack bolt down on the passenger side manifold.

Cleaning all the sealing surfaces takes a while. I also found about a 1/8" buildup of carbon aroung the intakes in the head and at the manifold outlets. I stuck the crevice tool of the shop vac in there while I cleaned it off to catch a lot of it and then stuck it in the intake ports to suck most of the rest of it back up out of there. This took quite a while also.

I doubt I would have tried this without all this up front info so thanks again to everyone.

 

Same here! I am very grateful for the super help from the great people here! The best people in the world drive FORDS!

 

so how did you manage to remove the egr tube from the upper intake

 

Some twisting and turning of the intake should do it. I think I may have even sprayed some penetrating oil on the connection and let it sit for a few minutes.

 

Yes,as I remember,you just have to turn the intake just right for the tube to come out because of the curve in it. When you get it just right,it will come right out and you'll say,"huh,that was easy" kinda like getting the pilot shaft into the crankshaft bushing.
My 4.0 has been leak-free for close to another 10,000 miles now with Rockledge's help. Thanks again!

PS,that gasket set from Carquest/Victor Reinz,actually a DANA company,looks like a perhaps better gasket set than the Fel-Pro.