I am trying to get a half bridge port motor running this week. It was built by a reputable shop, and has like 100 miles on it. The motor is installed in the car now, and we were about to install the intake manifold/carb setup. One of my buddies stuck his finger into the intake ports and felt something out of place.

It looks like there's a little piece of gasket material hanging into the intake port. When we felt inside the other ports, they also had some material. I assume it is one of the water seals, that no longer has a place to seat because of the porting. I don't want to rip it out for fear that the whole seal will come with it. I don't want to leave it because it seems like an obstruction to flow.

I don't know enough about the porting procedures to know if this is bad or not. Any tips/advice/information would be greatly appreciate it. I'll call the builder this afternoon to get his opinion on it.

 

Hmm, typically on a big bridge where it runs into the coolant seal, they will run a bead of silicone around the outside of the port and connect the "broken" coolant seal. That usually holds for about a year before leaking. A reputable shop would have tapped a little hole and stuck a pin in the coolant seal near the port to keep it from popping out. I would definitely give the builder a call on this.

 

houston, we have a problem.

my j-bridge that cut thru the water seal most certainly does not have seals hanging out. that will get sucked into the motor eventually.

 

that's kind of funky dude in time that chunk of seal is going to be ingested and probably cause some other damage

 

This looks like a job for... XACTO MAN!


(I would be asking the builder "Is it supposed to do that," though)