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C6 Corvette ZR1 & Z06General info about GM’s Corvette Supercar, LS9 Corvette Technical Info, Performance Upgrades, Suspension Setup for Street or Track
I received one of the first production MSD LS7 manifolds earlier this year.
Large amounts of molding flash and miss match where the runners meet the ports and in the bosses for the injectors.
Before
After
What are your mods? I noticed you're spraying meth.
LS7 block (4.130 bore), 1st design LS7 crank, Improved Racing Crank Scraper, LS7 Ti rods, Mahle forged pistons and rings, Katech Torquer cam 110 +2, Morel link bar lifters, custom push rods, Yella Terra roller rockers, Advanced Induction 2008 LS7 heads, Ti intake valves, Ferrera oversized valve guides, Ferrera hollow SS exhaust valves.
All machine work was done by Grimes Racing in Georgia.
Engine was built by Performance Products including ARE stage 3 drysump.
Compression ratio is slightly over 12 to 1.
Water methanol injection is for street use on 93 octane.
100 octane unleaded race fuel for track use.
If you have orange gaskets that seal the MSD manifold to the heads they will leak over time. There is a problem with the silicone gasket material when exposed to fuel it softens and expands. Call MSD and have them send you the upgraded black gaskets at no charge. Also blue Loctite all the bolts including the bolts that secure the upper manifold cover to the lower. Torque them to the specs in the instructions. I thought is was to much for the size bolts but that's what it takes to seal the manifold to the head. Let them cure for 24 hours before you run the engine.
Installed my manifold with orange gaskets and no Loctite on the upper shell bolts. Tuned the engine on the dyno. Did a 100 mile test drive. Car sat for two days. Started and had a vacuum leak, would not idle. Also if your gaskets were leaking during tuning your MAF calibration is off. Turns out the bolts had loosened and the orange gaskets were leaking.
Mine has the orange gaskets in place, blue Loctite throughout. Trouble free for 5k miles. I'll call MSD for replacement gaskets. I'm not particularly looking forward to removing mine. Oh well, might as well clean off the oil residue while the manifold is off.
If the bolts did not loosen then the gaskets are OK.
If you remove the manifold or the bolts loosen the orange gaskets will expand and not stay in the groves in the manifold and cause a vacuum leak. If all is well I would wait until you need to remove the manifold or the gaskets start leaking. Because the injectors are in the intake ports some fuel is seeping into the gaskets. The fuel is causing the problems with the silicone gasket material.
Similar to the problems with the OEM LS valve cover gaskets. Once removed form the valve cover they expand and can not be reinstalled.
Cometic black LS valve cover gaskets do not have the problem and can be reused.
Good luck
08-22-2015, 05:03 PM
MSD manifold install
what a beauty!