Please Help! Replacing lower intake gasket

[93TwotoneXLT]

I have most of the upper end of the engine apart now, and am going to replace the lower and upper intake gaskets, fuel injector o-rings, and valve cover gaskets tomorrow. My haynes manual says to put new sealant along the front and rear of where the intake meets the block and heads as well as on the four corners. I tried to get a Ford lower intake gasket but unfortunately none of the local dealers had them and I am on vacation here in In so I went to autozone and bought the Felpro gaskets.
My concern is that I have been seeing conflicting info on where to put sealant with these "new" style gaskets. Some have said that they have talked to ford techs and they say that the new style gaskets only need sealant at the four corners. Anyone know if the felpro gaskets are the "new" style, or if they require as much sealant as the haynes manual says? From what I have read all the extra sealant with a "new" style gasket can actually cause the lower intake to leak oil. I would really appreciate any help anyone can give me as I am about 6 hours into this project and I have to drive the X back to SC next monday. Happy New Year! Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Darrman]

Boy are you in luck, I just finished doing the exact same thing to mine 2 days ago.
You need to apply sealer to the four corners of the block/head, then lay the gasket down. You then need to run a solid bead of seal across the block from the same corners, but the gasket does not cover this bead like the corners, when you drop the lower manifold back down it will seal the metal to metal contact.
Hopefully you bought the rubber type valve cover gaskets, and not the cork ones. If you did, I would suggest taking them back and getting the others, they were the same price, but special order for me. Anyways you will need to apply sealant at the four spots where the head and manifold come together, then lay down the valve cover gaskets.
And also I would definitly pre-assemble the lower manifold-injector-fuel rail before you drop it back in, this saves a lot of headache of trying to pop the injectors back in and get em lined up right.

 

[shamaal]

Same thing that I did when I did mine in March. There should be something about this in the Felpro kit instructions. Get the newer valve cover gaskets like Darrman says.
When changing the injector orings, lube them with oil; they'll slip right in and seat properly when pressurized.

 

[93TwotoneXLT]

Thanks for the help guys. When you say apply the silicone to the four corners, you mean where the block meets the head, then install the gasket and put a solid bead all the way across at the back and front of the gasket. After the gasket has been installed, do you put the sealer around the front and rear water ports and all the way across to the other side of the gasket, or just from side to side and let the gasket material seal up the water ports? Sorry if you have already answered the question, I am just wanting to make sure that I don't have to tear into this thing again. BTW Darrman, I tried to get the special order gaskets but the ford dealers nor autozone had them, so I think that I may be stuck with the cork ones for the valve covers. I know that the others are better, but are the cork ones going to leak right after I install them, even if done correctly, or is it just that the rubber ones are better and will seal that much better/longer? Thanks again for all of the help, very appreciated

 

[Darrman]

Yes, the corners where the top edge of the block and the head come together, you need to apply silicone. The factory gasket covers the entire block, the Felpro ones do not cover the edges of the block, so you have to lay down the silicone across the top edge of the block, from corner to corner.
You should probably just do all the silicone first and then put the gasket down, so there is no chance of a gap, then drop the manifold back in. You will have to work quick, so the silicone does not set up before you get it all together. In the pic above, you can see where exactly you need to apply the silicone, but it shows the factory gasket covering the block edges, again the felpro will not.
They cant get the valve cover gaskets? That sucks, do you have a O'Reilly auto near you, that where I got mine. The cork ones will work, but from what I have heard they will not last as long as the newer ones.

 

[93TwotoneXLT]

Thanks for the help darrman. Turns out that the autozone clerk I spoke to when I bought my gaskets didn't know what he was talking about. I remember pointing them out on the computer and he said that the permadry gaskets were special order and that they did not stock them. Well, yesterday after cleaning up all of the gasket surfaces really good(tedious work) I went to a different autozone to pick up some latex gloves and coolant. I decided to ask the sales rep at the parts counter about the better vc gaskets and sure enough she came back in two minutes with the metal/rubber gaskets. I feel better about it now because when I was cleaning up the valve covers the old gaskets actually came off with a scraper in one piece, and were definately better quality than the cork ones, which made me want them even more. Today I finish up the project. Thanks again for all of your help.