Head Pitting/intake

corky · October 4, 2007

Hi, I have a 98 5.7 vortech I am putting in a van, I bought it used with 70000 miles on it. decided to replace all the gaskets before install. It looks like the intake gaskets have been changed before but I decided I better do it again while it is easy to get to. I took the manifold off and could tell it was starting to leak again. I cleaned up the heads and there is some pitting from corossion around the coolant ports. Should I do anything a bout the pitting or just leave it? I have heard of mechanics using jb weld or epoxy to fill in the pitting but didn't know if it was a good idea or not? It is a decent amount of pitting so I am not sure what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

corky · October 5, 2007

Someone has had to of run into this situation before? please help.

Draenor · October 5, 2007

If it is bad enough to cause coolant leaks, I would replace it. If you add JB weld, you take the chance of it braking off and could cause a blockage or worse.

corky · October 6, 2007

If it is bad enough to cause coolant leaks, I would replace it. If you add JB weld, you take the chance of it braking off and could cause a blockage or worse.

It didn't cause the leak, the bad design of GM caused it. The pitting isn't terrible but thought I would give this website a shot for other opinions. I see on a lot of classic car forums that people are using JB weld for this purpose.

Thanks for your insight.

Draenor · October 7, 2007

If it is bad enough to cause coolant leaks, I would replace it. If you add JB weld, you take the chance of it braking off and could cause a blockage or worse.

It didn't cause the leak, the bad design of GM caused it. The pitting isn't terrible but thought I would give this website a shot for other opinions. I see on a lot of classic car forums that people are using JB weld for this purpose.

Thanks for your insight.

If other have done this with success, I guess you could give it a try.

Zembonez · October 7, 2007

Someone has had to of run into this situation before? please help.

Not EXACTLY the same thing here but I have run into similar corrosion on Toyota V6 engines. Our fix was high temp silicone along with a quality gasket. Never had one come back for any kind of leak. The silicone conforms to the irregular surface and seals the corroded face preventing any more coolant contact. It's used in many factory engine cover installations that last forever or until the cover is removed. In many cases it is used instead of a gasket. Pretty tough stuff and it is impervious to gas, oil, coolant, etc.

luminaapv3 · October 8, 2007

Someone has had to of run into this situation before? please help.

I just finished changing my intake manifold today and found a lot of pitting around the coolant ports as well. Don't have the loot to replace it, so i did what the directions told me to do, which is to put RTV sealant around the ports (on the gasket). I'm hoping this will do the job and seal up any irregularities, I'll find out tomorrow!

corky · October 9, 2007

Someone has had to of run into this situation before? please help.

I just finished changing my intake manifold today and found a lot of pitting around the coolant ports as well. Don't have the loot to replace it, so i did what the directions told me to do, which is to put RTV sealant around the ports (on the gasket). I'm hoping this will do the job and seal up any irregularities, I'll find out tomorrow!

So how did this work out for you? also what brand of gasket did you use?

luminaapv3 · October 11, 2007

Someone has had to of run into this situation before? please help.

I just finished changing my intake manifold today and found a lot of pitting around the coolant ports as well. Don't have the loot to replace it, so i did what the directions told me to do, which is to put RTV sealant around the ports (on the gasket). I'm hoping this will do the job and seal up any irregularities, I'll find out tomorrow!

So how did this work out for you? also what brand of gasket did you use?

I finally found the box, I used a Fel-Pro gasket. It comes with it's own Fel-Pro black RTV silicone and distributor gasket. So far it's been working great, not a single leak. My truck has also been running extremely hot for some reason, probably bad water pump, and it still is holding on good. I also used this RTV around my thermostat gasket too, because of heavy pitting, no leaks there either .

So I would say it works.

luminaapv3 · October 11, 2007

Crap, the engine is leaking everywhere!!!, JUST KIDDING .

Still holding strong .

corky · October 12, 2007

I have the felpro gaskets also but it specifically says don't use silicone around the coolant ports, and also says if there is pitting get everything resurfaced. and goes on to say some mechanics use jb weld to fill the pitts but fel-pro doesn't rcomend it. So the jb weld must work and fel-pro just wanted to cover there ass. I did the jb weld repair and put it together, it did come with a tube of black silicone but that is for the end seals of the intake as the directions say. Maybe you got a different type of gaskets than me? Mine are the fel-pro perma dry, I think that was the name. Probably wont get it running for a few days still got to hook everything else up and haven't had much time to work on it. hope my truck holds up like your.

Thanks for the replys

luminaapv3 · October 12, 2007

The directions I was refering to came out of the Haynes repair manual. The pitting was bad enough that I figured it would leak if I didn't put something on it.

The felpro directions says what yours says, except for the jb weld part, there was no mention of resurfacing either. I don't think it said perma dry either, i'll check the box later.

I also used a bead of silicone on the ends of the block. There was a black rubber seal there, but I couldn't get that type of gasket without ordering it, so i went with what was in stock.

So far everything looks good.