Power Factor Manifold Sealing

[JKMike]

Hey yaw,

I just picked up my first Power Factor Pipe recently and I noticed that the sealing surface for the lower portion of the water jacket, for the aft cylinder is pretty thin in places. Only 0.105" verses the Fwd cylinder which is at 0.150". I saw a similar post where the gasket started leaking under a pressure test because the sealing surface was so small. Should I be concerned about this?

Since the manifold is brand new, now is the best time to fix the issue. I was considering having one of my welding buddies fill in some of the water jacket oppening and build up the surface some, where the gasket already is blocking flow and then just clean up the port and then just machining the face flat again. I have access to mills and CNC machines at work, so the machining aspect isn't an issue.

 

[JKMike]

 

[Sparkplug]

Ya. When you line a gasket up on it, it's insane how off it is. And they are aware of it. I called about it after dropping 1600 on a pipe.

Alas. Jet ski stuff is the highest priced of all the powers ports, and the stuff is the lowest quality with the least r and d. Serious bummer.

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[Half flip95]

Ya. When you line a gasket up on it, it's insane how off it is. And they are aware of it. I called about it after dropping 1600 on a pipe.

Alas. Jet ski stuff is the highest priced of all the powers ports, and the stuff is the lowest quality with the least r and d. Serious bummer.

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go price out a set of water jacketed headers for a boat

 

[JKMike]

Ya. When you line a gasket up on it, it's insane how off it is. And they are aware of it. I called about it after dropping 1600 on a pipe.

Alas. Jet ski stuff is the highest priced of all the powers ports, and the stuff is the lowest quality with the least r and d. Serious bummer.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

So have you had any issues with it leaking?

 

[Harbor]

So when I got my billet engine, the supplier had me send in my pf manifold for port match… the area is thin, like .100 or less all the way across… and I think the bottom is now that thin as well.. would be difficult to port match a gasket that thin, they seal it with the Right stuff silicone… works perfect… I’ve since done repair work and have redid it with right stuff silicone as well..

On other engines I use a chisel and hammer to port match the gasket, due to the wire inside the gasket, works good…..

This go around I just put a gasket in without heavy cutting on the gasket, hangs down some on the roof of the port…. Not ideal but I cannot tell when ride it…

Never has leaked, even on other engines with thin water jacket and port matched gasket and tiny cooling restricters making high cooling system pressure….

 

[Storbeck]

So when I got my billet engine, the supplier had me send in my pf manifold for port match… the area is thin, like .100 or less all the way across… and I think the bottom is now that thin as well.. would be difficult to port match a gasket that thin, they seal it with the Right stuff silicone… works perfect… I’ve since done repair work and have redid it with right stuff silicone as well..

On other engines I use a chisel and hammer to port match the gasket, due to the wire inside the gasket, works good…..

This go around I just put a gasket in without heavy cutting on the gasket, hangs down some on the roof of the port…. Not ideal but I cannot tell when ride it…

Never has leaked, even on other engines with thin water jacket and port matched gasket and tiny cooling restricters making high cooling system pressure….

Are you saying you used right stuff an no gasket at all, or that you used right stuff on the gasket?

I've been tempted to use some sort of shmoo and no gasket because trimming the gasket is kind of a pain (plus you have to have a gasket), but have never actually tried it.

 

[Harbor]

Are you saying you used right stuff an no gasket at all, or that you used right stuff on the gasket?

I've been tempted to use some sort of shmoo and no gasket because trimming the gasket is kind of a pain (plus you have to have a gasket), but have never actually tried it.

Hi Storbeck, yeah that didn’t come that clear,
No gasket…. Just the right stuff brand silicon

 

[97superjet]

Funny, my buddy who builds race cars was looking over my superfreak and checking out the exhaust before I installed it and he said that too....I didnt think much of it as many people use them...hopefully I dont have issues lol

 

[Harbor]

I used black, right stuff engine RTV. That red will too, just the black was more inconspicuous and The manifold and cylinder don’t get that hot… 150 if your lucky

This is what I use, One minute gasket by right stuff 450F continuous, not to be used as a head gasket lol

 

[Sparkplug]

I haven't had leaking outside the manifold. I had one leak internally that I trimmed to fit right. After that I ran a normal non trimmed gasket. I'm suspect if it is leaking water in while riding. I have had some instances where I feel as though I'm burning water. My piston wash looks good tho so I've been running it.

Right stuff is the black pressurized can. It works well. It's like 25 bucks a can or something crazy now. I have recently got this stuff from Kimball midwest. Very similar but this stuff actually displaces oil. Like you squirt it onto oil and it actively pushes it away. I'd use that. Same price basically.

I asked a few guys on this site about the gasket. They said just run it as is and don't trim it. Thats what I did. Seems ghetto for a pipe that they say winds championships and costs so much money. It's the same manifold rrp uses too.

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[JKMike]

So when I got my billet engine, the supplier had me send in my pf manifold for port match… the area is thin, like .100 or less all the way across… and I think the bottom is now that thin as well.. would be difficult to port match a gasket that thin, they seal it with the Right stuff silicone… works perfect… I’ve since done repair work and have redid it with right stuff silicone as well..

On other engines I use a chisel and hammer to port match the gasket, due to the wire inside the gasket, works good…..

This go around I just put a gasket in without heavy cutting on the gasket, hangs down some on the roof of the port…. Not ideal but I cannot tell when ride it…

Never has leaked, even on other engines with thin water jacket and port matched gasket and tiny cooling restricters making high cooling system pressure….

Very interesting. So I have almost no gasket hanging over into either of the exhaust ports. My motor is a XS 1060, which I got at the same time as the PFP. I can see where they went around the manifold with a 45deg chamfer mill, so the ports match up pretty well. Now I will probably smooth out the transition at some point. It seems to only be the cooling channels that are poorly aligning for me.

It's good to know that leaks arent guaranteed even with such a small sealing area.

As for trimming the gaskets, I was messing around with a 61x gasket I didn't need anymore and I found I was able to trim it pretty nicely with a dremmel and the 80 grit sanding drums.

 

[JKMike]

I haven't had leaking outside the manifold. I had one leak internally that I trimmed to fit right. After that I ran a normal non trimmed gasket. I'm suspect if it is leaking water in while riding. I have had some instances where I feel as though I'm burning water. My piston wash looks good tho so I've been running it.

Right stuff is the black pressurized can. It works well. It's like 25 bucks a can or something crazy now. I have recently got this stuff from Kimball midwest. Very similar but this stuff actually displaces oil. Like you squirt it onto oil and it actively pushes it away. I'd use that. Same price basically.

I asked a few guys on this site about the gasket. They said just run it as is and don't trim it. Thats what I did. Seems ghetto for a pipe that they say winds championships and costs so much money. It's the same manifold rrp uses too.

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Yea it dosent look like leaking outside the manifold should be an issue. There is plenty of gasket material outside the water jacket. It's that internal leak that your suspect of that concerns me, and that's the whole reason I started this thread.

I don't plan or see a need to trim the gasket, at least for my setup as it doesent hang over into the exhaust port. But I am leaning more and more towards welding and reshaping some of the cooling channels so they line up better and I have more surface area to seal on. At this point it kind of depends on when my carbs arrive. If I have the extra time I will probably go ahead and correct the issues now, while everything is clean and easier to weld.

It's deffinately a shame that this is an issue at all given the price. At least from my limited experience I have only ran into issues like this on cast parts. I don't know if everyone uses the same crappy shop to make there castings or what. Lol

 

[sicksxr07]

Agreed castings are junk. Mine is horrible too. Haven’t gone the welding route just use a thin thin layer of 1211 . Let it tack up a bit then send it home . I also make my own gasket . Why they couldn’t design the ports at least the same size are beyond me........

 

[JKMike]

Agreed castings are junk. Mine is horrible too. Haven’t gone the welding route just use a thin thin layer of 1211 . Let it tack up a bit then send it home . I also make my own gasket . Why they couldn’t design the ports at least the same size are beyond me........

Do you put 1211 on both the manifold and the cylinder and then sandwich the gasket?

 

[bkspeedwerks]

every pfp manifold i have seen is like that. pretty pathetic. but i have not had any issues with them leaking even after porting them

 

[Yami-Rider]

Ive tried every silicone on the pfp mani, mega black works the best, usually that'll hold/work, but on my 900 I couldn't get it to seal, so I welded up the ports and machined back flat

 

[Yami-Rider]

The manifold works best with the 62t gaskets, so ive found you can split the difference with 62t gasket on 61x cylinder porting and mega black, and usually it'll work.

Before I welded it, how nicely the 61x gasket lined up...

 

[DylanS]

Glad to see my manifold wasn’t the only one that looked terrible, I bought it new but was convinced the guy before me (who said it was new) ground on the thing because of how terrible the casting was. Good info in this thread.

 

[Flash-FX]

Looks like I'm in the same boat. Good thing I have a machine shop & welding equipment to fix this brand new manifold. Sure wish that they DIDN'T POWDERCOAT it! Welcome to the Jet Ski World...