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Luke
Dodge Dakota
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11/07/2004
01:56:15

Subject: Intake gasket musings
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I finally took the initiative and removed my intake to replace the gaskets at about 138,000 miles. I had for thousands of miles had a vacuum leak when pulling up hills or driving against a heavy wind. For about 10-15,000 miles prior to doing the gaskets, I had noticed a puff of steam upon startup from the exhaust as well as a very slow loss of coolant. After removing the intake manifold, I found that the belly pan gasket was not visually broken. I'm sure it had small leaks but nothing major.

The worst gasket I noticed was the drivers side gasket between the manifold and head. It seemed to be saturated with coolant at one end and coolant was obviously going right into one of the cylinders.

All in all, the truck seems to run better with the new gaskets. Still a bit rough due to a stretched timing chain but better none the less.

While I had the manifold off, I cleaned it so thoroughly that the inside was a shiny silver. While I had the manifold off, I went ahead and replaced the valve cover gaskets. It was easier without all the hoses making it harder to get them off.

Another significant thing I have noticed.... before doing the gasket job, the oil always got tar black soon after a change. Now, it seems to stay very clean looking most of the time. The engine never burned any oil though and still doesn't.

It sure is nice to drive on the highway now with the air conditioning coming from the AC vents rather than the defrost vents.

Anyone have any intelligent/constructive comments?



N56629
Dodge Dakota
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11/07/2004
08:45:21

RE: Intake gasket musings
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"After removing the intake manifold, I found that the belly pan gasket was not visually broken. I'm sure it had small leaks but nothing major."

Please don't say that you didn't replace this gasket while you had the manifold off.



Luke
Dodge Dakota
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11/07/2004
11:05:20

RE: Intake gasket musings
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Of course I replaced it. I even replaced the cover with the new thick aluminum one that Hughes offers.



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