Leaking boots at head

[greatnw]

I'm reading threads and thinking I've already completed those items and I'm still having a problem.

Knocking out problems one at a time, next was the popping. I was pretty sure it was vacuum related. Did the propane probe tonight and sure enough, three, and probably all four boots were leaking where boot meets head.

When I first took it apart it had o rings, no gasket. O rings were pretty beat up so I cleaned everything up and used yamabond. Didn't work. Then I went to overkill with new o rings and a gasket that I nicely fitted to the boot.

I was surprised to find it leaking. HOWEVER, in my opinion, the boot has always looked way to big for mating surface on the head. Even now as I looked closer, my gasket, which was nicely fit the metal surface of the boot had actually pulled away from the boot and wasn't making contact with the head.

How possible is it that the boots are not the correct ones? When I only had the Yamabond and no o-ring I swear that I saw a blue backfire come out around the #1 or 2 boot.

Now what I have is a minor leak when cold, but as soon as it is warmed up idle jumps to 2500 and stays there until cool. I can turn the adjuster and dial it down but obviously that is not the solution. Plus I have some popping that I'm expecting to go away when I get this sealed right.

Any ideas?

[BossMaverick]

What work for me is using the thermostat gasket trick (I read it somewhere on here so I can't take credit for it). I kept getting leaks at the same place. Go to an auto parts store and get 4 t-stat gaskets off of an 80's Ford four cylinder. I used an 82 mustang and got the right ones. They will take a little trimming but the bolt holes and opening is the correct size.

[Guest]

vac leak

GNW i have been chasing the same problem where is the o ring i don't have that on mine or am i missing some thing , i did put mine on with pinto 2.3 gaskets and yamabond worked well but still doing the same as yours now back to the carbs thinking throttle bar seals it will be awhile been busy lol

[Ivan]

According to the parts fiche the original configuration did not have any gaskets or orings, just the rubber squished up to the head.

I used formagasket type A on mine and have had no troubles for 20k miles.

[Dragon Tamer]

What I did with mine was to clean everything up and apply a carefully smoothed bead of Super Blue RTV silicone to the boots. About 1/8" thick, allowed that to set up almost all the way (not tacky anymore but not completely stiff yet. Sprayed a thin coat of Pam cooking lube on the heads and bolted it together snuggly. Let it set overnight and then retightened it.
That was 30,000 miles ago and have not had a problem since.

[greatnw]

Tamer,
That sounds like a plan. I'm doing something to it tonight and I think that will be it. How tight did you go? I didn't see any torque specs in the manual.

[Dragon Tamer]

Didn't actually use a specific torque. When I first tightened it down on the head I went just a little more than finger tight, that lets the RTV slide on the PAM and make itself smooth with the head. The next morning I just tightened them down very snug. I am aware that that is not a good description but you just go until you feel that you are getting tight and leave it at that. You do not have to put a lot of pressure on this type of gasket system. As I recall, after I did it I had one that leaked a little bit when I tested it with the propane and I had to turn the bolts about another 1/2 turn or so. That may have been more a lack of smoothing the RTV than how tight I had them. Incidently, more recently I have been smoothing the RTV with a piece of wet plastic and it seems to work better than a dry fingertip.

[John]

The torque should be the same as the engine case covers, about 7-8 ft.lbs.