1996 Mustang GT 4.6

Craigace101 · Mar 24, 2018

Hey Guys I have a 1996 Mustang GT with a 4.6. Shortly after I bought this a piece of the intake manifold about the size of a quarter flew off and it sprayed anti-freeze everywhere, I tell you this because I was a dumbo and bought some problems when UN-knowing ordered a Dorman intake. One side of my engine all four spark plugs were submerged in good old anti-freeze. I am on a short budget and I have to fix it by Monday, I started a new job and don't want to miss any days. The intake comes with rubber o-rings but they won't hold the water jackets, I even tried a little of the Gray Gasket Maker. Do you think I should lay a nice even coat of that down and drop the intake on that and when it's starting to set tighten and torque in sequence? I don't know what else to do. Any Of your Idea's would be appreciated! Thanks!

wmburns · Mar 25, 2018

A couple of questions.

Are you positive that you have the correct intake manifold for your engine? Attempting to put a non-PI intake on a PI motor (or the other way around) will cause sealing issues.

The intake ports of a non-PI motor are tear drop shaped. They are more square shaped on the PI motor.

Are you using the Ford gaskets or not? The Dorman unit comes with it's own gaskets and does not use the Ford.

Where is the main coolant leak exactly? Is it from the t-stat housing? It can be hard to get the O-ring to fully seal the T-stat as the Dorman supplied O-ring likes to roll under. I went so far as to reuse the old t-stat O-ring.

Just wondering. HOW did you clean the metal mating surfaces? Are the any scratches in the metal of the heads. Any pitting of the metal?

Yes the Dorman unit isn't as well constructed as the Ford unit. But I have been able to repair two Ford 4.6's using the Dorman unit.

Some pictures might help.

Craigace · Mar 29, 2018

wmburns said:
A couple of questions.

Are you positive that you have the correct intake manifold for your engine? Attempting to put a non-PI intake on a PI motor (or the other way around) will cause sealing issues.

The intake ports of a non-PI motor are tear drop shaped. They are more square shaped on the PI motor.

Are you using the Ford gaskets or not? The Dorman unit comes with it's own gaskets and does not use the Ford.

Where is the main coolant leak exactly? Is it from the t-stat housing? It can be hard to get the O-ring to fully seal the T-stat as the Dorman supplied O-ring likes to roll under. I went so far as to reuse the old t-stat O-ring.

Just wondering. HOW did you clean the metal mating surfaces? Are the any scratches in the metal of the heads. Any pitting of the metal?

Yes the Dorman unit isn't as well constructed as the Ford unit. But I have been able to repair two Ford 4.6's using the Dorman unit.

Some pictures might help.

Thanks for getting back to me wmburns so quickly/ Yes I am sure it's the right Dorman intake I have had it on there for almost a year, Then it slowly
developed problems, I noticed that after I used the heater within the next few days I would get a misfire, and then the check engine light would come on
when I would pull the code PO304 nine times outta ten. always on the passenger side. The coolant is leaking right out from under the intake down the back of
the motor, and tonight after work I pulled everything off and noticed that the tear drop intake ports are completely filled with antifreeze? So I started to clean that out, Well That hurt my engine? I never tried starting it this last time.I have another intake coming this Monday.

mogs01gt · Mar 30, 2018

It sounds like your intake is cracked. The gasket maker material is worse than the plastic gaskets that Ford uses.

1996 Mustang GT 4.6

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1996 Mustang GT 4.6

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