I need help with the plastic manifold on my sons friends 97 GT. It cracked and he has purchased a new one we have put it on using silicone, it still leaks. I am an old cast manifold man, I cannot understand plastic. I put a straight edge on the new one and it is not straight. It seems to have a twist to it. Is this common do I increase torque? The lawsuit does not apply here (of course) and I need help to get this out of my shop. Is this a defective manifold should I just send it back or is this a common problem? Please help.
Plastic manifold Help
- Thread starter VetteEater
- Start date
Twista
Active Member
VetteEater said:
YOu only used RTV silicone? Did you have the paper gasket sheet thingie if you did the PI swap.
Im not sure if you need gaskets, but the one non pi manifold i have came with gaskets installed already. You might want to find and buy them.
1 more thought: Did you wait 24 hours to let the RTV fully cure? If not theres your problem.
VetteEater said:
If you're replacing the stock non-PI manifold with a new non-PI manifold you don't need to use RTV. There are plastic (lower) gaskets that you can buy from Ford that are intended to be used for it. They run about $22 for both of them. You can reuse the old upper plastic gasket that is between the manifold and upper plenum. These plastic gaskets have a bead of sealant on them.
Also, follow the Haynes manual of tightening sequence and torque specs for the manifold bolts.
