Felpro 1250 Intake Gaskets Are Trash!!

I use 1250's on another car with AFR heads/Edelbrock intake, and they tear around the water ports on average about once a year or year and a half. They are great gaskets, but their longevity in my experience hasn't been so great. I do not use any additional sealer on the gaskets , but I do toss the cork end rail gaskets and just use Permatex Blue RTV for that.

jtfairlane said:

I use 1250's on another car with AFR heads/Edelbrock intake, and they tear around the water ports on average about once a year or year and a half. They are great gaskets, but their longevity in my experience hasn't been so great. I do not use any additional sealer on the gaskets , but I do toss the cork end rail gaskets and just use Permatex Blue RTV for that.

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Strange to hear that. I have run them for more than 5 years and never had a problem.

04sleeper said:

Strange to hear that. I have run them for more than 5 years and never had a problem.

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Yeah, I don't know what the deal is, the gaskets are what both AFR and Edelbrock recommend for both the heads and intake, and I make sure the mating surfaces are clean and dry, torque the intake bolts in proper sequence and to spec, and everything is perfect for about 1 to 1-1/2 years and they always eventually tear around the water port and then comes the white smoke lol. Since my other car is a '65, I run a carbureted intake so it literally takes me less than an hour to pull the intake/carb, replace the gaskets, and fire her back up.

One brand of intake gaskets which aren't as well known as Fel-Pro is Victor Reinz, and I used a set of their intake gaskets before and they lasted quite a long time.

1250`s suck.

I`ve retorqued the lower 4 times already to stop coolant seepage at the front.
Other`s have had to retorque numerous times as well.

Might try Mr.Gasket ultra seal 2`s next time unless there`s something better.

have either of you guys had your heads machined? If you get the bottom of the heads shaved, it lowers them and wont let the intake sit flush. Also they could be warped?

alludethis said:

have either of you guys had your heads machined? If you get the bottom of the heads shaved, it lowers them and wont let the intake sit flush. Also they could be warped?

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No.Stock heads and intake.
The lower never leaked prior to installing 1250`s.

Even used Hylomar gasket sealer around the ports and used guide pins to set it down.
Tightened it down evenly in 4 steps going over the bolts again and again in each stage until they all tightened down evenly.

Then 4 retorque sessions after this over time to stop coolant seepage at the front.
Each time the bolts move a little more to the final 25lb-ft spec.

Nothing wrong with 1250's, used em for countless builds. Operator error

alludethis said:

have either of you guys had your heads machined? If you get the bottom of the heads shaved, it lowers them and wont let the intake sit flush. Also they could be warped?

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Nope, out of the box AFR 165's with nothing taken off the deck of the heads or block and nothing taken off the intake. All mint mating surfaces.

woodsy said:

Operator error

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I am 100% certain that there is no operator error in my intake installs, and just because you haven't experienced any problems doesn't mean they haven't occurred for other people who didn't make any mistakes during the install.

If it were as simple as operator error, why do my 1250s last for a full year year and a half or longer before they let go? Operator error shows it's humbling face a lot sooner than that in any install on a regularly driven car.

hmm.

I just bought a cobra intake and some 1250 gaskets...
I planned on ditching the cork and running some RTV...

Hopefully I dont have any problems.

I have not had one fail in 20+ years. They can be a pain to install. I don't put any sealer on except the short bead a the corner of the heads and the block.

They work on both my current engines, one with a decked block and one with milled heads. (Have not had the two together yet) One was a 68 block with milled 78 heads and a used Holley Street Dominator. Sealed fine for 95k miles. Had it off and on 3-4 times.

My Bronco had the rear water passage corrode out of the Edelbrock manifold and leak, but the gaskets were fine.

Proper positioning with some studs in place to hold them when you install the intake seems to help.

I have Victors one one engine at the moment and they work fine also.

I went back to the cork end seals, and install them with HiTack to hold them in place. That way you dont knock the silicone bead down too low to seal.

Exactly how are they tearing? Is they any evidence of movement between the intake and the head? There has to be a reason.

I also haven't had any problem with the 1250, but I haven't had them on for more than a couple of years. I guess time will tell.

I've noticed that if the mating surfaces are not properly cleaned that often, problems will be run into. You might want to take a step back and look at your chosen installation method as well as the true-ness of the mating surfaces for both the intake and heads that you're installing these gaskets on.

I use the black RTV in the cheese wiz can and apply a THIN coating to the back of the gasket and allow it to dry tacky. Studs are put into place along with the gasket and pressed down by hand. From there it sits for 15 minutes or so at 70* ambient. Intake is then installed and torqued to spec in the proper sequence. I use the same sealant at the front and rear of the intake and also allow some drying time before installation. No sealant is applied to the blue lined faces of the gaskets.

No leaks and lasts long time.

I have used Fel pro gaskets on many builds and really like them. I did have one isolated weird experience with them though. Pretty quickly after I bought my 88LX the seal in-between the miming cover and block went out and put my SBF into self destruct mode (I really hate that about SBF’s). So anyway I tore it apart and replaced everything with new felpro gaskets, and when I put it back together and fired her up it was dumping water out again. I was pretty mad at this point, took it apart again and one of the gaskets had partially dissolved. I had only used Brake clean, no weird solvents or anything. I got another set of gaskets put it together and it has been fine ever since.

Weird.

8950HO said:

1250`s suck.

I`ve retorqued the lower 4 times already to stop coolant seepage at the front.
Other`s have had to retorque numerous times as well.

Might try Mr.Gasket ultra seal 2`s next time unless there`s something better.

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Going over and over the torqueing sequence is normal after an intake install. I did mine 7 times at first, over and over. Then after I drove it for about 50-100 miles and a few heat cycles, I took off the upper and retorqued them.

No problems with the two installs I have did with FEL-1250's.

Make sure the proper order is followed.