I've had incredible luck with a product called Gaskacinch. You put a thin coat on the gasket and the bare metal. You let it dry for a few minutes. It creates a tacky enough texture for the gasket to hold itself in place, seals any irregularities, and here's the best part; if replacement is needed in the future the gasket peels off effortlessly!!

I've always used a thick bead of RTV on the end rails with good luck. I see the new end rail gaskets are a neoprene saddle as opposed to the old cork, they look like they'll stay in place easily enough.

 

I used a lot of RTV in my rebuild, after a year theres no problems. RTV seals where gaskets wont, I usually use quite a bit of RTV. I also have no leaks. When I was rebuilding my FE, I had to take the intake (4V) of about 4 times because I had forgot about the oil gallery plugs, and yes the 80lb intake gets to be a bit much. Good workout though. Whats the average weight of an intake of a regular V8? FE's are all I know the strangest and quirekist engine like the back of my hand.

 

Edelbrock specify the printoseal gaskets for their aluminum intakes foe what it's worth. I use 4 studs at the corners, drop the gaskets over them, and then drop the manifold in place. It then drops straight down in perfect alignment, with no possibility of a gasket sliding out. Mine was last worked on at a garage when they changed the heads. They used the cork end pieces, the rear of which leaked. Now that I've got the top end open for a cam change, I plan on installing the printoseals, throwing away the end pieces, and laying down a bead of rtv on each end of the manifold.

 

I'll 2nd the Gasgasinch. The only place I find it is the local Harley shop.
I use this especially on the intake end peices, on the block side.
The problem I've found with RTV it tens to make gaskets slip out of place when torqued.

Tim

 

Absolutely. RTV replaces gaskets (in certain applications) I would never use it as a gasket sealer/adhesive..

 

Good comments from everyone. I got the intake in place over the weekend, along with a couple of other items. Using Torque1st's recommendation to estimate the compressed gap at the ends, I laid the manifold in place with only one side gasket. Doing this, I was able to see that there would be about a 40% crush in the end gaskets, which seemed excessive (even though the instructions say 15-60% is expected). Based upon this and recommendation of a friend of a friend who used to do this for a living, and based upon Torque1st's comments above, I used RTV in place of the cork end gaskets that came with the set. The gasket set was a printoseal set.

In answer to Ford352V8's question about the weight of a "regular" intake, I'm guessing it's about 20 lbs. I can easily pick it up with a couple of fingers.

 

Good call on the RTV!

 

I wonder why the FE intakes are so freakin heavy? Man Ford sure does do some strange things.

 

I'll third on the Gasgasinch. I use it on motorcycle engines because the oil passeges are so small they will clog with a small speck of anything. Most gaskets we buy now are a new metal design, to crush. The previous gaskets had a silicone bead on them. Anything that didn't have the bead on, we used the Gasgasinch. And on anything that moved during assembly too. So I took to using it on my truck engines and never had a problem. The only place I found it is a motorcycle parts store.

 

Well, it does seem rather heavy, and it took me by surprise at first when you said it was 80 lbs. But if you think about it, cast iron and steel are both approximately 2.5 - 3 times as heavy as aluminum for a given volume of each material. In other words, a cubic inch of cast iron or steel is about 2.5 - 3 times as heavy as a cubic inch of aluminum. Steel is generally a little denser and therefore a little heavier than cast iron, but it still falls roughly in this range as compared to aluminum.

When it comes to manifolds, I don't think there's much difference in the thickness of material used for the cast iron ones vs. the aluminum ones (I could be wrong, though). Assuming there's not, then if my aluminum manifold weights somewhere between 20 and 30 lbs, then the cast iron ones could be anywhere from 50 to 90 lbs, and yours falls right in that range.
I don't know what size engine your cast iron manifold is from (perhaps a 352, judging by your handle) but it may be a significantly larger manifold than the 302 part.

I agree, it still seems heavy, though. No wonder my Haynes repair manual talks about using a hoist to remove the manifold, even though mine it's aluminum. I thought that sounded odd for my application, and now I realize that sentence in the manual must be a carryover from the cast iron days.

 

"Edelbrock specify the printoseal gaskets for their aluminum intakes foe what it's worth."

Edelbrock also recommends (this is from the instructions included with the performer 2181 intake manifold I put on my 351W), "We advise eliminating the end seals. Use RTV silicone instead. Apply a bead of sealant approximately 1/4" high across the block end seal surface, overlapping the intake gasket at the four corners.This procedure eliminates end seal slippage and deterioration."

 

FEs are different in that they are wider, take up part of the head area in that the pushrods go through the manifold. The iron ones are heavy, sure nice to change to an aluminum one.

 

I just installed the OEM aluminum intake on my 83 351W. I used the regular Fel-Pro gaskets. I used RTV for the end seals, and as per instructions, I put a bead around the end water ports, and a dab sparingly along the heads, then installed the intake gaskets. I read in a post here by Krehmkej that he never uses RTV as an adhesive. I had concerns about that as I was applying it myself, hope no problems occur. I did let it dry before I proceded, however. Now that I have the manifold tacked in place with the bolts part way threaded just to keep it place while I attach the pipe fittings, I am wondering WHAT THE TORQUE SPECIFICATIONS ARE. I have looked at several online sources for comparison, and a Fairlane /Torino Chilton manual I have, and it appears that the tightening sequence is the same pattern for the everything from the 260 to the 351W (which I am working on now). But, there seems to be some variance in the sources I have viewed as to what the FOOT POUNDS should be as well as whether the 1st, 2nd, 3rd passes have different values. Can anyone enlighten me as to these points, i.e.: RTV vs. Adhesive, Torque Sequence, Torque Foot Pounds, and how many passes?

 

I used the standard Ford published values of 23 - 25 Ft. Lbs. and made 3 passes (cold). Then I made one more round after the engine was up to operating temp. RTV is the way to go for the end seals and around the water ports.

Torque Sequence is as follows:

5 - 6
1 - 4
9 - 12
11 - 10
3 - 2
7 - 8
(Front of Engine)

 

The corners is the only place to use sealer.