I dont know about everybody els but im damn tired of replacing intake manifold gaskets and/or rtv sealants for the intake manifold seal. So me and my buddy were talking and what if a small groove for an o-ring was machined around each of the 4 intake runners in the mating surface, and the other just sat on top, pretty much the same way the the o-rings work as cooland seals, Groove on one side to seat on and flat suface with pressure to create a great seal. I will draw it up on auto-CAD so you may better understand.

bottom line is anybody interested in an intake manifold seal that is 100% re-usable? I know i am, i am constantly removing the UIM to change injectors, and stuff, just thought it sounds reasonably cheap and easy.

 

I'm guessing they don't have that because the rubber would get squashed/ + or brittle + break. Like any other Mazda rubber/plastic after several years, it sucks.

 

New intake gaskets with hylomar works for me. Reusable everytime.

Although the o-ring does some like a good idea, but you would have to seal off each intake runner as well.

 

ever consider viton, or teflon... i work in the sheet metal union and i see these types of gaskets all the time, they are called sanitary fittings, the use a teflon gasket. industrial food processing uses them in beer factories, dairy, and photato plants. they run milk and steam through these seals at upto 450 f and 200psi for many years. most plants i work in the gaskets are removed and reused, longest ive seen is 12 years, same seal, whatta ya think now, and also yes i have access to both of these material and machinery...

 

I saw that in a pic a while back. I dont remember what it was on though. It might have been one of the aftermarket intakes. I dont remember

 

How often do you remove your upper intake and why?

Seen it, works well.

 

There are poly gaskets available on ebay and at other stores. These are S5 N/A. I think I have seen some for S4 N/a and S5/S4 T2 Intakes as well.


BTW, if I need to remove my intake, I remove the LIM, UIM, DC and TB as one whole unit. I have a metal gasket at the engine from Mazdatrix.

 

I've used those white Teflon gaskets before. They leak.

 

dude a UIM gasket is like $18 or $20 at the dealer. not a big deal

 

buy a 20" wide roll of gasket materail from napa for $12 iirc, ive made atleast 4 UIM gaskets, a few LIM, water pumps and waterpump housing gaskets, and various other gaskets for friends AND I STILL HAVE SOME LEFT

 

no, making them/buying them everytime is not the anwser.
i know what the OP is saying, as i too have to take off my UIM several times a month. i see what your saying, and i dont see a downside right off the bat. it acutally sounds like a win/win idea. the big thing would be deciding the new oring material. viton? teflon? rubber? something else im not aware of?

 

What basically like the newer car manifolds? I work on dogdes and they do that with there manifolds even though we usually replace the o-rings after a while anyways. I've never actually had the stock gasket break anyway though.

 

dont p-port engines use o-rings?

 

I just bought stock gaskets from Mazda for $5 each.

 

so lets recap, o-ring seals uim-lim good idea or bad, and is anybody interested in me possibly staring some kind of trial thread, like i could have it done, maybe leakdown/pressure test it, try a few different o-ring materials, see what works best. Anybody?...

 

Well I know that with the caddy catera(sp) they use a rubber o-ring as an pp intake maniold, and you are supposed to change them every time the intake is off of the car, and there have been cases that a misshapened recess can cause an intake leak. The cost of these o-rings was a 1.85 a piece(not through the dealer just matching to advanced auto oring section), not to mention the cost of machining, you could have bought a stock pile of OEM intake gaskets.

 

That's what I was thinking. Put the effort into fixing whatever problem requires regular UIM removal instead...

I've had my UIM off maybe six or seven times in six years, and I'm only on my second replacement gasket. I don't use any goo and I'm careful when separating the manifolds, so the gasket is usually fine to be reused. And they're so cheap anyway you might as well buy a few and hang them on the garage wall for when you need them. Way easier than experimenting with o-rings...

 

Gonna yank this thread back from the dead. Is anyone aware of if someone makes a metal gasket usable between the UIM and LIM on a TurboII? It appears there was one stock on FDs? Basically the 2 or 3 layer metal type that seal really good regardless of heat like lots of OEMs use on intake to engine and exhaust to engine manifold connections.

I also have to fully clean the mating surfaces every time i take off the UIM...big waste of time...

 

already been asked- but why do you have to take the UIM off so much that its an issue?

 

I don't that much but cleaning remnants of the stupid paper gasket off, once is one too many.

I realize it was asked, years ago. I am curious if something new is available.