My intake/exhaust manifold gasket solution

[gregthespy]

Well, after I looked inside the intake end of the intake manifold on my LD28 and seeing about 1/2" of sludge built up in there, I decided I needed to take it off and clean it. Although, as i know with these engines it's best to locate all parts before tearing into it! So my search high and low yielded no results for any surplus gaskets in any brand and after reading all the searched topics on these gaskets, I decided to try something new...

What I ended up doing was removing the manifolds and salvaging the gasket off of it. From there, I carefully traced and documented all the measurements and created a CAD file off of it. After a few full scale printouts of it I think I perfected the replication, and then it was time to take this file to work, program it for our laser, and burn out a "gasket" shim of sorts out of 3003 series aluminum .040" thick. It seems to match perfectly. Luckly the mating surfaces of my block and manifolds are still the factory mill finish and are flawless (thanks to only having 80K mi. on it!) so I do believe with just a thin coat of super high temp sealant, and the soft aluminum working in my favor, it should seal suficciently.

We will see how this holds up, I figured even if it fails, I will have a nice CAD file to possibly send an outside/aftermarket custom gasket maker to punch out a batch for people seeking these.

Here's a couple pics of it in comparison to the origional.

[83_maxima]

Nice work around of the NLA part...

Looks great. Good idea.

[rlaggren]

Would you consider uploading the CAD file(s) to Al and letting him host them for other LD28 owners? I don't think many people have access to a laser cutter, but if we have a file it should be possible to get a local shop to do the cutting.

Rufus

[asavage]

I don't know if even 3003 alum is going to be soft enough, but the RTV will work, so it's probably moot.

If there was sufficient clamp points, no gasket would be needed at all, but there really aren't.

It's fun to find the resources other people have access to, and how those resources get perverted to our own ends!

[Carimbo]

Impressive! We might eventually have to do something similar for the NLA headgasket.

[gregthespy]

Thanks for the comments on this guys. I'd be more than happy to provide the file in a dxf format for others to use, we've all got to help eachother in such a small community where parts are quickly becoming NLA!

I was thinking about how when I once worked at a parts house how we used to have a listing for exhaust gasket material in sheets and it got me thinking.... I have found some of this material available on Jegs and summit sold in a 6" X 24" sheet for $9.99
I am unsure of how well that stuff would punch on the shops 2020 automated punch or what it is made up of. I may do some investigating come Monday and see if I can't get permission to try it out if I buy a blank of it. I know the factory gasket is a perferated sheet of alum laminated between 2 pcs of a soft metal to fill imperfections and withstand the heat, which would probably be no problem to punch. But I recall the aftermarket high temp gasket sheeting to have had some ceramic in it which may be harsh on the punch tooling.
I'll do some investigating...

[davehoos]

i just used a product sold commonly for extractor gaskets.
and flanged pipe gaskets.

have no idea of name or material as it changes each time i purchase it.
making one off wouldnt destroy a wad punch but cant say its eash cutting.