Removing the thermostat for a relatively simple coolant flush at the local carwash turned into a much larger project than anticipated. One of the two 12mm bolts broke off in the lower manifold, which I ended up cracking during the subsequent extraction attempt.

Therefore the lower manifold needs repair, and I decided the highest chance of success would involve replacement. With a few days passed, I have the old manifold out and the replacement in hand. The most difficult part of the disassembly may be untangling and unclipping the harness traced down the transmission / exhaust.

Of course this all depends on getting everything back in proper order: the subject of this post. I also need to look at replacing the various seals / gaskets while they are exposed. Many of these parts are likely factory stock, and I would like to pinpoint those that are approaching end of life. One such example is the o-ring shown here:



The replacement part appears in good shape, possibly unused, but needs some high spots knocked down as the result of minor dings. The idea is to find a scrap of stone countertop and glue couple sheets of 800/1000 then 1500 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper to slide the part against with wd-40. I believe the head is in good shape and any effort beyond cleaning would only make it worse.

I picked up a felpro gasket kit but strangely the EGR gasket does not match and am considering whether an oem set may be superior. This EGR gasket and two others look identical in shape to the o2 sensor gaskets. In case I am missing anything so far, I would like to glean any relevant advice. Does it seem adequate to install the felpro gaskets dry?

 

i used a teflon gasket set there, not sure what i did about that o-ring, but there are threads addressing it.

 

What grit sandpaper would work well for prepping the gasket surface on the new lower intake manifold? I found a nice piece of marble for free locally and plan on using that to plane the gasket surfaces on the new part.