You are looking at an open area between my heads and my manifold. Apparently, the intake manifold gasket I had before covered the area the arrow is pointing to. The new gasket is cut along the lines of the manifold, and now I have a hole for all kinds of debris, nuts, and water to get where it shouldn't be. From what I have been able to figure out, this area was for EGR warm air circulation to help warm up the manifold and assist in cold starts and idling when used with a stock manifold. Not sure if that's entirely accurate, since these are gen VI heads, and I think GM had gone to fuel injection by then.
It would appear from the rust on the top portion of the open area, and the oily, carbon-like on the lower portion, that this passagewaydoesn't lead into the interior of the head. Additionally, the gasket that covered the hole before wouldn't have been air or watertight, it was just laying across the top of the head. What's the quick and easy fix for this, and what's the correct way to fix it? I've been told the manifold is the wrong one, I need a new manifold that covers that area. I've been told just to find the gaskets that have the additional flap that covers the hole., I've been told to take a thin piece of stainless and RTV it down over the space. The gaskets with the extra "flap" don't have the proper shape to the exhaust ports, at least the ones I have been able to find. Plus, I just put this all back together, I'm not real excited to buy new gaskets and have to redo the whole job. The stainless seems like a good fix, but is it going to build up pressure if that hole is sealed up?
I'm sure someone else has had this issue, just looking for any ideas or warnings about how to deal with it. And if someone has a part number for the gasket that covers this hole and fits the Peanut Port heads, please let me know what you found.
Final question, I don't see an issue with starting it up with these open just to move it out of the garage and into the driveway, correct? This doesn't seem like it would have any impact on the ability to start or run, right?
