Intake Manifold sealing / gaskets.

[deadeye]

Howdy,
I thought i'd ask here to see peoples thoughts on intake manifold gaskets.
I have a set of FelPro "print o seal" gaskets that have the blue rtv lines around the ports. However, there seems to be some debate around about if these should be installed completely dry. Or with a smear of silicone around the water ports, or even the entire mating face. And what about the liquid loctite gasket cement?
Anyone got any thoughts before i button up the motor.

Cheers.

[Acj-428]

This maybe too late for you? Just logged on to the site?
I would still recommend sealing all the exhaust and especially the water jackets with a High quality RTV blue sealer on both sides of the gaskets. This stuff is designed to resist fuel and exhaust (where as Silicon will go soft and fall apart) so is ideal for this job. Do yourself a favour and don't use the cork gaskets at either end of the intake, just put down a LARGE bead of the RTV. When putting the manifold on make sure you have two people and lower it down level and square as too not distrurb the gaskets or move the two beads on either end of the intake? If the engine is on a stand I'd also recommend you make sure the two lARGE beads I mentioned at each end of the intake valley have a good seal between the intake manifold and the engine valley, if necessary add more sealer ti make sure it is well sealed, this is a well know area where oil leaks out.

http://www.permatex.com/products/Automo ... _Maker.htm

[BLKPNY]

I'm with you Peter, in fact, on most of our big power motors, we don't run gaskets at all, only RTV.