look ma... no gaskets!

[Obin Robinson]

this past weekend, with the rain, and lots of neat racing shows on TV.. i decided to stay in and do lots of stupid stuff on the 924 in preparation for the new engine.

one of the things i overhear on TV, and then thought about, was how high performance engines (F1, CART, etc) don't have gaskets. knowing that i don't possess the equipment to do this to the cylinder head or valve cover... i at least thought it was worth a shot to shine up the intake manifold and the throttle body mating surfaces. in any case, if i wanted to put a gasket there later, it at least would be nice and clean.

well, i sanded and shone the heck out of the surfaces and then put them together. the throttle body and intake manifold are PERFECTLY flat with each other. once i crunched down the parts a bit.. i found that there is no leak at all. the seal is just as tight as if there was a gasket there. pretty cool huh? also, any leak there would be is going to be super micro scopic. the intake manifold/throttle body interface isn't exactly a zone of super high pressures so i don't worry about having to blast it out.

once my computer gets fixed, i'll throw up some pics of the whole operation. my manifold right now looks like it's ready to be dropped into a Porsche motorsports prototype. i can't wait to get it all shined up

obin

[1.2gees]

Are you putting a 924 engine in?

Well, aluminum intake manifold, and iron heads aren't going to expand/contract at the same rate, as the engine goes through temp changes. Then you may have leaks forming. I'd use the stock gaskets, but if not that, at least some type of sealent. Loctite would be what I'd personally use. (Red or blue).
Ahmet

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It's all the driver...
My page
Porsche owners Gallery.../My 944

[Obin Robinson]

if i find that any leakage has occurred, i have the loctite blue stuff i'll throw down.

the reason for no gaskets is multifold. one thing is that those engines are so precisely machined that they don't need them. no head gasket means you can't blow a head gasket. take a look at the Pikes Peak hillclimb SAAB (if you can call that thing that) from 2000. that engine even had head bolts that went all the way through it because they were squeezing so much HP out of it.

also, remember that whatever you make the gasket out of is probably not going to be as tough as the engine metal is. not to mention, the mating surfaces are flawlessly finished. i guess you can at least expect that in something you just threw down $200,000+ for.

there's a few bike engines that have no gaskets even on the cylinder head. i believe there was a Ducati like that.

ahh, what the heck, i was REALLY bored and my computer at home will be down for a while .

as for the cylinder head.. yeah, i'm going to use either one of those metal gaskets, or the silicone ones (if i can find one).

obin

[1.2gees]

Yeah, they just blow the whole engine now! Have you seen an F1 race lately? Damn those McLarens...
Ahmet

------------------
It's all the driver...
My page over1g@hotmail.com
Porsche owners Gallery.../My 944

[Blackfoot]

Originally posted by 1.2gees:
Well, aluminum intake manifold, and iron heads aren't going to expand/contract at the same rate...

yeah, true. remember the 911S? hehe.

is anyone other than me tired of seeing schumacher win all the time? a little more parity would be nice.

hey ahmet, you must have the most images in the gallery!

[1.2gees]

There wasn't a limit to the # of images I can post so why not (I really need to make a nice web site, I think I'll start working on one soon).

You know Schumacher is a good driver, and he's German, so I'll go with it, but some variety would be nice! You know Montoya seemed to be a good driver, but in the usual soapopera fashion, he pushed too much. Mika Hakkinen messed with Schuey a bit too, but nowhere near how Montoya scared him at the Austrian Grand Prix. Did you realize that Schumi started waving at the crowd before the race was over? Very uncharacteristic. But I think he has his confidence back now...

I wish Montoya's shining lasted a bit longer! We'd at least have BMW in the podium a few times, but it wasn't meant to be...

Not only that, but first two finishers are both Ferraris!

Well, hey at least Jaguar is finally up there huh.
Ahmet

------------------
It's all the driver...
My page over1g@hotmail.com
Porsche owners Gallery.../My 944