el torro
OBS Enthusiast
I first want to say thank you to everyone that has bought a gasket in the past or told someone about them. Without the encouragement from the members here I don't think I would have actually sold them. The old gasket and the new gasket are both confirmed to fit the 4.3 engines as well.
So I went back to the drawing board (literally in Fusion 360) after I managed to source an almost new OEM gasket out of a GM van in my favorite boneyard last fall. With a near perfect example I was able to get much better measurements and see details I didn't realize/know were part of the OEM part. It might be common knowledge, I had no idea it was a directional gasket. It has a taper from top to bottom on the outside of a few degrees that was not part of my original design. The examples I had to work from were 20+ years old and so deformed I was lucky to be able to tell they were supposed to be a circle. LOL
I wasn’t able to replicate the double square rib design on the inside wall because my printer just can’t reliably print the size of the two ribs out of TPU. It can do it out of a hard filament because I tried that just to see if it was a printer, filament, or combination of both issue. I just can't get it with the tools I have.....right now.
So I went with a single half circle rib that covers almost the same area as the double square rib, but will still fit over the TB. The outside wall now has a taper that matches the OEM gasket, a rib on the outside wall that matches the groove in the hat (the OEM design does not have that), and the base of the gasket has a lip so it’s easy to tell the top from the bottom so it gets installed in the right direction. I put new pics up on the ETSY page if you want to get a look at it.
To be clear, if the old design is working for you don't buy the new one, there isn't any need. If you do buy the new one use the link at the bottom of this post. And again, thank all of you!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1794959919/intake-hat-gasket-for-gm-sbc-43-vortec
So I went back to the drawing board (literally in Fusion 360) after I managed to source an almost new OEM gasket out of a GM van in my favorite boneyard last fall. With a near perfect example I was able to get much better measurements and see details I didn't realize/know were part of the OEM part. It might be common knowledge, I had no idea it was a directional gasket. It has a taper from top to bottom on the outside of a few degrees that was not part of my original design. The examples I had to work from were 20+ years old and so deformed I was lucky to be able to tell they were supposed to be a circle. LOL
I wasn’t able to replicate the double square rib design on the inside wall because my printer just can’t reliably print the size of the two ribs out of TPU. It can do it out of a hard filament because I tried that just to see if it was a printer, filament, or combination of both issue. I just can't get it with the tools I have.....right now.
So I went with a single half circle rib that covers almost the same area as the double square rib, but will still fit over the TB. The outside wall now has a taper that matches the OEM gasket, a rib on the outside wall that matches the groove in the hat (the OEM design does not have that), and the base of the gasket has a lip so it’s easy to tell the top from the bottom so it gets installed in the right direction. I put new pics up on the ETSY page if you want to get a look at it.
To be clear, if the old design is working for you don't buy the new one, there isn't any need. If you do buy the new one use the link at the bottom of this post. And again, thank all of you!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1794959919/intake-hat-gasket-for-gm-sbc-43-vortec
