Replacing the intake manifold gasket is a relatively easy job for a home mechanic if you’ve got a good set of tools and a torque wrench in the correct range. This 2010 Jeep Wrangler has a 3.8 pushrod style motor so it’s a relatively easy job. On this motor, there is an upper and lower intake manifold so you have to remove both of them to get to the gasket we are trying to replace.
Coolant often flows through intake manifolds in a few different places. On pushrod style motors coolant usually flows through the intake manifold as a crossover between the cylinder heads. On many vehicles, a little bit of coolant is run near the throttle body to help preheat intake air on extremely cold days and lastly, come cooling systems have the thermostat installed into the intake manifold which means there is obviously coolant running through it.
Intake manifold coolant leaks can often look like blown head gaskets, as you can see in this video as the coolant leaks out right near where the head bolts to the block. Cylinder head gaskets rarely leak externally and a pressure test and careful eye can often find the exact leak location.
While being a relatively easy job, there are a few quick tips that can help:
Replacing an Intake Manifold Gasket Quick Tips:
- when you’re depressurizing the fuel system be careful to catch the fuel and properly dispose of it so you don’t end up in a dangerous situation.
- If you have an upper and lower intake manifold, replace the gaskets between them as well as the gasket from the lower manifold to the head.
- If your intake manifold covers the spark plug tubes, consider changing the spark plugs while you’ve got everything off.
- If you’ve got the drain the coolant, consider doing a coolant flush while you’re in there to save time and money and keep your cooling system working right.
- When reassembling things, it’s important to torque the intake manifold bolts to the factory specification in the correct order to make sure you get a good seal on the gasket.
- If you’ve got a lot of hoses going to your intake make sure you take lots of pictures and label everything extremely well to make sure it all gets back together the right way.
If the hard part repair doesn’t make sense for your car, consider using BlueDevil Coolant Stop Leak to seal a coolant leak coming from your intake manifold gasket to keep your car on the road.
Pictures Provided By:
Photo by Carlos Freire on Unsplash
BlueDevil Products can be found on Amazon.com or at AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts, O’Reilly Auto Parts, NAPA, and other major auto parts retailers.
4 responses to "Ho to Install an Intake Manifold Gasket"
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Will blue devil repair intake as well as exhaust gasket, white smoke steam, water in oil, water bubbling back up thru raidiator fill opening?
Dwight-
Based on your description, it is also possible that you are getting combustion/exhaust gases pumping back into the cooling system. You can use a “Block Dye Tester” to confirm whether or not that is the case. BlueDevil Head Gasket Sealer will still work if your vehicle is getting combustion/exhaust gases blowing into the cooling system and creating pressure. To give yourself the best overall chance of BlueDevil working successfully, in addition to the directions, you should remove the spark plug from the cylinder with the leak; this will be the spark plug from the cylinder with the low compression reading. If you are not sure which one that is, you may pull all of the spark plugs and will notice one will have a white-crystal-like substance on it and/or may look dirty; this is the plug you should pull. Leave that plug out for the 50 minute idle in order to relieve the pressure from building up and thus allowing the product to seal properly. Be sure to follow the guidelines for the proper amount to use based on the size of your cooling system.
Also, you would want to change the oil before and after the BlueDevil procedure. Feel free to contact our technical support line at 888-863-0426 with any other questions.
Thank you!
-BDP
I have an intake manifold gasket leaking coolant in to one of my cylinders as well as coolant leaking outside of the engine. I have used blue devil on a couple vehicles with great success. Both of the previous vehicles had compression getting in to the coolant system I hadn’t read anything on removing the spark plug to help with repair but regardless I still had great success with Blue Devil. But any additional instructions on my current intake issues would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Thomas-
How quickly is the vehicle losing coolant? Would the vehicle be able to maintain idle for the full 50 minutes, without overheating or stalling out? If so, you would be a good candidate for the BlueDevil Head Gasket Sealer. Feel free to contact our technical support line at 888-863-0426 with any other questions.
Thank you!
-BDP