I'm changing the intake manifold on my car, and there's a water channel in the cylinder head that's going to end up being slightly exposed. That is, the flange of the stock manifold covers it up, but the flange of the new manifold covers about 3/4 of the hole only.
What is a good way to seal a water channel? I thought of putting a rubber bung in it and relying on the new manifold's flange holding it in to seal it...
IMHO, this is a little unusual. If this is a water channel, is it not needed in the new application?
I have seen holes drilled and tapped, and fitted with plugs, and I have seen them welded shut and machined, but this is normally when the hole is not needed.
I admit that I am having trouble visualizing this, and am troubled by the concept.
me too, sounds to me like you have the wrong replacement manifold.
No, it's the right one. Just from a different version of the same engine.
Maybe I shouldn't call it a water 'channel' as really it's just a place for the coolant to meet the surface of the intake manifold flange. It doesn't circulate round the manifold and come back via another hole, or anything like that.
On a situation like this, if you are totally sure it is what you want to do, I would block it permanently with a plug, a plate, or a weld. I just wouldnt put my faith in epoxy putties , as good as some of them are.
That really sounds like a heated intake for a carb engine. It will run like a bag of dirt when cold without it....
That said, there are a bunch of folks that swap heads on Jeep engines and that requires filling a few water jacket holes. They use JB Weld to fill them.
While I would like the higher flowing head, there is just no freaking way am I going to trust epoxy to hold forever in the extreme hot cold that an engine head sees. I would want a permanent fix like welding and machining flat again or if it is a round hole, tapping and plugging it with a steel plug and loctite on it's threads.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail >
Uhhh...this doesn't sound right. Are you sure you have the correct manifold?
On my V6, to make the heads the same there is a water passage at each end of the head, but when the intake manifiold is bolted on, the passages on the front go through the manifold, and the passages at the rear get blocked by the manifold.
If this is the case, you'd still think they'd extend the manifold enough to block the passages.
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