Sean2857

okay i have posted a thread on this a few times and this will be the last one hopefully haha. about 2 years ago i changed my intake gasket because it was leaking near the front of the engine. right after i changed the gasket, the car began to smoke pretty heavily. thinking i screwed up the gasket, i changed it again without any luck. after several more attempts at changing the gasket, i parked the formula and purchased a new car. After seeing the car sit for awhile i started to get bummed out and i want to figure out whats wrong with it. when the weather started getting warmer earlier this spring, i went out and charged the battery and it started right up. no idleing problems, no odd noises, but the smoke was still there (which i expected). Now here comes my reasoning why it could be smoking. posted below are two pictures. one of the intake gasket that is listed for my formula (fel pro #ms93317) and one that is listed for an earlier model 305 (felpro #ms903142).


MS903142



MS93317

Does it make any sense to assume someone swaped the engine to a later model, put the TBI intake on it, and used the older model gaskets? If my memory serves me right, the rear ports on the heads and intake are both open. so why would the intake gasket that is listed for my car have them blocked off?? it doesnt make any sense to me why this car would start smoking so bad right after i changed the gasket. any help/information would be greatly appriciated.

Sean2857

anyone??

steve87ta

iTrader: (4)

Well the gasket port that is blocked off is just a coolant hole that end at the intake I believe.(I have a bunch of chev's but I know Pontiac v8 much better) At least on a TPI it is a coolant passage that does not go through' it is just capped there. When does it smoke? Guides usually do after a hot restart or decelleration, rings will smoke all the time or heavy under full throttle. I suppose you could put intake gaskets in so poorly that they will suck oil in through the lifter valley but probably not twice if at all. I would do a compression test to see if you have a weak cylinder or two or all- a leak down would be better. Or when you take it apart do you have a darker port or cylinder? I am assuming the smoke is blue not white(coolant).HTH

Sean2857

i cant really tell what color the smoke is. it seems to be white/grey if anything. it smokes under load and it has a strong smell of fuel. on start up theres no trace of smoke at all. if you let the car idle and warm up, then you step on the gas a little bit, a huge puff will come out like it was building up inside the engine.then it will seem to clear out a bit. i have a feeling if it were rings, the car would be running like crap and the plugs would be getting fouled up. It idles and runs perfectly. theres no hesitation under load. the only thing i can imagine that happed is the intake gasket. i just cant seem to get my heard around why this thing would smoke so bad as soon as i changed the gasket. i purchased the MS903142 gasket and i'm going to rip it apart again saturday. if the ports on the head are open like they are on the intake, then i'm going to throw the gasket on and see what happens.

9014josh

iTrader: (1)

yeah bro just throw on the ones with the ports blocked off...i have done intake gaskets on my 85 and 87 trans ams both 305's...my 87 gasket was bad and water was dumping down in the cylinder and makin it smoke bad....when you take the intake off shine a light down in there to see if there is any water in the heads at all cuz that could def do it...if that is the case it will take a lil bit of runnin to clear it up after the new one is on. good luck.

9014josh

iTrader: (1)

make sure there is no water in the exhaust ports on the heads of course*

ShiftyCapone

iTrader: (7)

Make sure all your mating srufaces are super clean and free of any debris before you lay the new gaskets in place. Are you using RTV on the china walls?

MitchellDeMoor

+1 on the compression test. You can get a compression tester for nothing I got mine at Princes Auto for like $15. Let us have a video to that would help us out.

fiveoformula

I just re-sealed the intake on my '88 TBI car, those coolant ports were orginally blocked on mine, I assume they're supposed to be blocked off.
Use the second set of gaskets you pictured.