To Edelbrock or not to Edelbrock?

[92RAGTOP]

I believe my 92 LT1 may have a defective intake manifold gasket. Reason I think this is because about a quart of coolant disappears about every 300 miles or so. It's not overheating however it idles a little rough, which is something new.
I understand that these gaskets go bad often, as a matter of fact I hear it's not a gasket at all but silicone sealant.
I've got 3 questions:

1. How can I be 100% certain the gasket is bad?

2. How difficult is it to remove/install and adjust? It seems pretty simple.

3. If I'm going through the trouble of removing the manifold would it significantly increase performance by replacing the stock manifold with a Edelbrock Perfomance Intake Manifold?

Don Terranova

[Rick and Arleen Ball]

Don,
Check in the C-4 section of the CF. I'm sure that someone there has changed intakes.
As far as performance gains vs cost, and the type of driving you do I would say that you wouldn't feel that big of a difference with just the manifold.
If you plan on adding headers, throttle body, larger injectors or some other mods in the future. Go for it !
Just my $.02
Rick

[carboman]

Don,

Check for a milky look to the oil. That will indicate it's contaminated with coolant. If coolant is getting into the cylinders through leaking intake gaskets you may smell it in the exhaust.

Changing the gaskets is not that hard a job. As for switching to an aftermarket intake I'd suggest saving your money. To get your bang for the buck out of the intake you'd need to upgrade other related items.

I'll be around all day Sunday if you want to stop by I'd be happy to take a look.

Best regards
Mark

[92RAGTOP]

The oil looks good but I wouldn't expect to get oil into the crankcase thru the intake. If the head gasket was shot or a head/block i$$ue I think i'd see vanilla ice cream on the oil cap. If it's leaking thru the intake I believe it would blow out of the motor imediately. The exhaust seems odorless OK, however everytime I go to sniff the exhaust with the motor running my wife comes running outside with my insurance policy in her hands yelling KEEP CHECKING IT, I THINK I SMELL SOMETHING!
I try to run over Sunday, i'll call first. thx

[carboman]

The oil looks good but I wouldn't expect to get oil into the crankcase thru the intake. If the head gasket was shot or a head/block i$$ue I think i'd see vanilla ice cream on the oil cap. If it's leaking thru the intake I believe it would blow out of the motor imediately. The exhaust seems odorless OK, however everytime I go to sniff the exhaust with the motor running my wife comes running outside with my insurance policy in her hands yelling KEEP CHECKING IT, I THINK I SMELL SOMETHING!
I try to run over Sunday, i'll call first. thx

Sometime the coolant can leak down into the lifter galley and mix with the oil.

[JSPERFORMANCE]

The Edelbrock manifold looks nice but your stock manifold can be ported to flow as good as or even better than the Edelbrock piece. You can always have the stocker powder coated and it would look just as nice..