I'm eventually gonna replace my intake gasket with one of the phenolic ones like hondata makes here: http://www.hondata.com/heatshieldgasket.html

There are knockoffs on ebay, such as this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/89-93-Mazda-Miat...em280239471756

and this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/89-93-Mazda-mx5-...QQcmdZViewItem

Anybody had experience with the Chinaman's specials?

 

Save your money!
Did you see the hole between the runners 1 and two?

thats where HOT COOLANT!!! is flowing through...


The ebay guys make an extreme one, which blocks this passage, this one might actually work as advertised.

But you'd have to recirculate this line somehow.

 

do something actually usefull, like a coolant re-route

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_Car-...3756.m20.l1116

There's the coolant blockoff one. As far as I know, you don't need to reroute it since it blocks both the ingress and egress from the manifold, and I'm quite certain there is an alternate coolant pathway to the motor.

I don't think Hondata makes one that blocks the coolant. Looks like my mind is made up.

 

Do they work, depends on the material they are made of. The imports are usually made of plastic, no real heat resistant properties, hence why it is so much cheaper.
What I have found to work is those made from phenolic material. Hold a flame to one side and your hand on the other and no heat transfer.
No this is not me making a plug for someone, I was R&D for a guy locally that made them for Miatas and B18C/B16A Integra heads. Not only did the intake manifold not hold as much heat, it also cooled down quicker. The ones I tested still allowed coolant flow through the port in the head and intake manifold.
If anyone has interest, I will see if he still has any of the gaskets left.

 

interested

 

I have to ask - why is coolant routed through the intake manny? is it to cool the coolant or warm the air? neither seems necessary.

 

To prevent frost build up. Frozen throttle plate and such.

OEM's have to consider almost every scenario, that we gladly ignore for the benefits of not preventing that scenario.

 

I put a Hondata gasket on my supercharged 1.8 track car earlier this spring when I did a motor swap. Ever since then, my boost has been way too low, even with a bigger crank pulley. There's no boost controller or blow off valve to fail.

All my boost coupling joints feel/seem good. I've reassembled them at least once to double check.

I just checked/retorqued all the intake studs to the head. They were quite a bit off of 19 ft-lbs. I haven't experienced any coolant loss. I did a reroute when I did the motor swap and coolant temps haven't been an issue.

I'm wondering if the whole Hondata gasket thing isn't just something to be a problem all the time. I have a week to get ready for the track and I'm wondering if I shouldn't just yank it out and be done with it.

Has anyone had similar experiences?