What's the best updated lower intake gasket??

[tombstone]

Have a 94 Ford Explorer 4.0l (pushrod) and the trouble that I'm experiencing is that the engine ran smooth prior to removing upper and lower intakes(front manifold coolant leak). I replaced the one-piece lower gasket (FelPro) with a one-piece OEM F5TZ-9439-A (first version),plus everything was cleaned properly and Permatex Ultra-Black RTV was used around water jackets (front/rear) and joints wear block and heads meet , both sides of "new"gasket. Upon start up, engine ran rough and after warm-up there was still no improvement, so I tested radiator for presence of exhaust gas in radiator (block tester) 4-times and test fluid never changed color;which would indicate cracked head or bad head gasket ? Do you think that I should try the OEM F7TZ-9439-AA (updated version )1997-2000 ? I work on all types of cars without problems and this ones got me thinking ??? P.S. : No CEL , fuel pressure , coil , sparkplugs ,plug wires ,EGR solenoid, replaced ...

 

[shran]

I've used FEL-PRO MS94682 1 piece lowers with good success. I have not tried the updated rubber and metal ones although I do have one on the shelf to play with. I'm just wondering if somehow the gasket is not aligned correctly, leading to a vacuum leak or perhaps there is another issue - injector not plugged in, wiring issue, ?? hard to say. I accidentally pulled an injector plug off one time and it took me quite a while to find that since I was not working in that area... but it had an obvious dead miss that just came out of nowhere.

 

[tombstone]

Thanks for your input on the gasket , I had used the FEL-PRO MS94682 (one-piece) about 10-years ago without issue and then decided to use the factory metal/rubber one and followed all the steps to a tee. Leaks came back over time making me go with the OEM gasket...

 

[shran]

The 4.0's I've worked on with factory installed lower intake gaskets were all fiber/paper style, very similar to the 94682. I haven't seen a 91-94 with a metal/rubber one. I'm curious to see if they work better - the weird thing to me is that the box says it fits 97-01. I know there were changes made to the intake over the years but there is conflicting information out there about what they fit - RockAuto says they fit any OHV 4.0, Fel-pro and some of the parts stores indicate 97-01 only. It's weird.

 

[tombstone]

I actually spoke with a FEL-PRO specialist and he said to use the FEL-PRO MS94682 instead of the metal one-piece OEM F5TZ-9439-A (90-96)? The OEM OEM F7TZ-9439-AA (97-2000 metal one-piece) is an updated version but, when you input (90-96) Explorer 4.0 engine ,it usually says will not fit on E-Bay ? The only difference that I see is both water-jackets in the rear of the lower intake are completely plugged off on the OEM gasket.