Do intake manifold bolts need thread sealant

[Steve83]

Mahle bought FelPro. FelPro was the OEM for Ford gaskets, so now Mahle can call itself the OEM. But AFAIK, Mahle gaskets are cut from the same dies as FelPros.

Threadlocker is also an effective thread sealer & anti-seize, and I use it on the IM bolt heads, to seal them to the IM. But there are NO bolts on the engine that are supposed to be in coolant. If everything else is sealed as-designed, you can drill weep holes into the 4 IM corner bolt journals, and nothing will come out until a gasket fails. Same for the 4 long bolts that pass through the WP & TC journals into the block. I usually don't even seal those journals so that they CAN weep.

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On TC gaskets, I only put extra sealant around the coolant journals - I specifically avoid the long bolt journals so that, if coolant ever get into them, it can get out even easier.

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[lbuch40]

Well, as the saying goes, “if it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.”

Apparently when I pulled the HEI distributor out, the oil pump drive shafted lifted with it and disengaged from the pump. It must have fallen down in the pan. So….now I have to drop the pan.

 

[ba123]

From memory, and it isn't as good as it used to be, the 1250's look to match the 351W C9OE heads that I have around here somewhere. With those heads if you cut that inner section out of the coolant ports and made the opening roughly rectangular you would have coolant leaking into the lifter galley and bubbling up out from under that bolt head.

I think one of the problems with the 1250 is that it's customizable, if I remember correctly. It comes with pieces you put for the middle port and I think those are often left out and then it blows there cause the piece wasn't put in.