Intake manifold gasket | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Intake manifold gasket

cthudak

Member
Joined
February 10, 2008
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
City, State
seattle wa
Year, Model & Trim Level
97 XLT
Hi, I believe my mysterious coolant loss may be a lower intake manifold gasket. My question is....NAPA sells a complete gasket kit part # ms9081pt1, or just the lower gasket p/n ms90728. The full kit pictures the lower gasket as 2 seperate pieces, but the picture of the individual lower gasket shows it as 1 piece. Which is correct for my 97 ranger 4.0???

Thanks for the help
 






The one piece or the two piece set will work on your ranger if it has the 4.0 OHV engine.
The one piece has the front and rear gaskets that sit on the engine block built in to it. The 2 piece has just the side intake gaskets and you have to use silicone to help make the gaskets for the front and rear parts of the engine block.
The one piece is okay if your heads have not been machined.There have been problems because machining the heads changes the tolerance on how the intake will sit and align with the ports.
Felpro has both types.
Hope this info helps.
 






Thanks for the help. My heads have never been removed, so I guess I'll use the 1 piece.
 






The one piece is the only way to go. My 1995 4.0 had 8 bolts attaching the the lower intake manifold. Most manuals indicate a combination of bolts and studs with nuts. The studs are in the engine block and are used to align the gasket and the manifold. I made studs from threaded stock with the same thread. I cut them so they would stick up just enough to take them out after i put the other bolts in to hold everything in place. remove the home made studs and put the regular bolts in. Hopefully you have the studs already. the gasket fits snugly over the studs for perfect aligment. You will have to manipulate the front and rear of the gasket around the water ports. dry fit the manifold before you do the final install with rtv sealant. There should be two aligment studs, 1 front and 1 rear, opposite sides. I used the ford gasket and it fit perfect,(made in Germany for Ford). In my opinion the two piece would be an alignment nightmare.
 






Back
Top