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WardenJ
Dodge Dakota
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9/06/2002
05:00:12
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 Subject: Intake plenum gasket leak (long-ish)
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I think I may have the all too common plenum gasket leak. I got the truck a week ago and peeked down the throttle body and thought I saw an oily film down there. It's my understanding that this pretty much means plenum gasket time. I had some questions about this before I proceed, and I hope I can get some help here. First,please forgive my ignorance, but is this the gasket between the "beer keg" manifold and the pan bolted to the bottom of it? Is it something a novice shadetree mechanic can repair? If it is such a common problem, how can I prevent it from coming back? I have heard of the M1 2bbl intake, but I have no mods to the engine and none planned, so it seems like a high performance intake wouldn't be such a good idea. Last question: I read that if the manifold isnt re-installed perfectly straight, then the plenum gasket can be knocked out of place and will leak again. How is this so if the gasket is between the manifold and a part that is bolted to the manifold? Sorry for the long post, as you can tell, the deluge of information on this subject from past threads has done nothing but confuse the heck out of me. Please help!
WardenJ--1999 SLT 4X4 5.2L Auto. Black with chrome side steps and chrome grill guard, otherwise stock!
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nathaniel
Dodge Dakota
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9/06/2002
12:56:03
|  RE: Intake plenum gasket leak (long-ish)
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1. yes it is the gasket between the manifold and the pan.
2. it is not really hard to repair, it just takes 4-5 hours to do it.
3. if you want to upgrade the belly pan gasket, get the renforcement kit from speedtweaks or hughes. the hughes kit is not on the site anymore, but you may want to call them to see if it is avalible.
www.speedtweaks.net $93 look under the "new products"
www.hughesengines.com i believe it was $40 or something.
both kits should make the gasket last much much longer.
i believe mancini racing had something similar. www.manciniracing.com
look at some previous posts, there was a way to check if the gasket is blown but i forget how it is done. I thought mine was and i was wrong, i did get the m1 out of the deal though!!
good luck
nathaniel
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WardenJ
Dodge Dakota
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9/06/2002
19:54:19
|  RE: Intake plenum gasket leak (long-ish)
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Is it possible to just scrap the gasket all together, have the pan welded onto the manifold and call it done? I don't see any reason to need to be able to get inside there anyways, so I guess it wouldnt matter if it was welded shut. I read some posts on this but nothing either way of whether or not it could actually be done. Any thoughts???
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NotSure
Dodge Dakota
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9/08/2002
19:00:27
| RE: Intake plenum gasket leak (long-ish)
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I don't think you could weld it since the thin pan is steel and the intake is aluminum isnt it?
They won't weld up together.
I never had mine apart yet but guess I will have too sooner or later.
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HSKR
Dodge Dakota
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9/08/2002
19:37:47
| RE: Intake plenum gasket leak (long-ish)
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The 2bbl M1 is worth it even without any other mods.
1. It will keep the gasket from going out again since it doesn't have one.
2. It makes changing cap and rotor 100X easier
3. You WILL see performance gains from it even with no other mods.
4. It makes the engine look a lot cleaner and should have came from the factory with one.
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Deep Purple
Gen III
9/08/2002
20:11:06
| RE: Intake plenum gasket leak (long-ish)
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If you have oil and poor performance, it's sounds like the plenum. There are better pans like the one from Speedtweaks, but if I could I would go the M1 manifold route. You gain in performance and have a spot for a better throttle body should you like to mod it a bit more. The manifold will do away with the problem and clear up the top of the engine. Any work will be easier to do.
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WardenJ
Dodge Dakota
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9/08/2002
22:22:11
| RE: Intake plenum gasket leak (long-ish)
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Thanks for the help thus far. Well I have no future plans to mod the engine at all, but if the M1 will be fine even with no mods, I'll consider going that route. Couple questions on it though if you guys dont mind. Is it 50 state legal? I live in CA and have to deal with smog stuff and what not. Second, I have heard it gives good high end performance at the expense of low end torque. If this is the case I'm not sure I want it because I do some towing and light hauling, mostly boats and stuff. Can anyone advise?? Thanks!
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jack
Dodge Dakota
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9/10/2002
21:09:20
| RE: Intake plenum gasket leak (long-ish)
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there is a post all the way back on 4/22/2002 detailing how to check the gasket. The haynes book has some pretty good directions on how to go about pulling the intake. It's not real difficult just go slow and follow the directions in the book. The 2 things I did different when I changed mine were I permatexed the gasket in place before CAREFULY torqueing the bolts back and I passed a tap through every set of threads I saw. Parts cost me about 60 or 70 dollars at the dealer and I installed a new plate just in case the old one was warped. Good luck.
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Mr. B
Dodge Dakota
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9/11/2002
23:09:49
|  RE: Intake plenum gasket leak (long-ish)
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Don't go the M1 route!
There's a new "direct replacement" manifold for the 318 and 360. It's a nice single plane unit that uses your existing TB.
You'll need the optional installation kit and new manifold and thermo gaskets. The total cost is about $400.00...but beleive me it's worth every penny.
You can replace your leaking manifold gasket with a Felpro piece from an auto parts store. It's just the quality of the OEM gasket that's the problem. A Felpro or NAPA gasket will last as long as you own the truck. You'll still need new thermo and manifold gaskets and a gallon of antifreeze to replace what you drain out.
This is not a difficult project but don't even start it without a good manual.
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