Intake seals.

[Bruno-Katz Fokkerpilot]

Ok guys, what are peoples experience with first the blue James intake gaskets and, secondly the old rubber compliance seals ?

[motorhogman]

On my TC88 the OEM seals lasted about 18 years, Replaced with OEM.

[xlfan]

The OEM seals didn't last more than 18 years? 🤣

[motorhogman]

The OEM seals didn't last more than 18 years? 🤣

LOL  Yep.. Unreal huh...That was the first time the manifold was ever removed.  knock on wood..The heads have never been off.. 113.000 mi.

Guess nobody has any experience with the James gaskets the OP asked about ?

[xlfan]

I haven't used the blue James, just stock and stock replacement black James and Cometic.

I did stop recommending the old rubber compliance seals about 25 years ago though.

[jsachs1]

IIRC, the blue seals were made to seal the flat area of the intake manifold to the heads. If so I had to replace them on a few customer bikes. They didn't seem to last, as they cracked and tore. Use a later intake manifold with the factory 0-rings, and you should have no headaches.
John

[PJultra]

IIRC, the blue seals were made to seal the flat area of the intake manifold to the heads. If so I had to replace them on a few customer bikes. They didn't seem to last, as they cracked and tore. Use a later intake manifold with the factory 0-rings, and you should have no headaches.
John

I'm using the blue ones on my intake at this time. I was having intake leak problems.
When did they start making the intake manifolds with O rings??

[Bruno-Katz Fokkerpilot]

So, i fitted the James blue intake seals. Bike has never run so well so i guess i did have an intake leak that i never did find but, these lil guys seems to have done the trick.
Thanks for everyones input !! 

[Burnout]

Quick and easy test for leaky intake seals.....

With bike idling dribble some spray cleaner on the joints, if the motor speed changes you have a leak.
Spray from the carb side so you are not spraying into the air filter, and cause a false positive.
Don't spray too much because FIRE!

[mkd]

those that installed the gaskets did you install them dry or with some kind of lubricant? we use to put hugh power transformers together that had 1200 lb radiators hanging on them for cooling the oil. the top and bottom of the radiators had flanges that mated with the  tank and were bolted in place . orings were used to seal these flanges and they always were installed with a liberal coating of silicone grease. the grease would hold the orings in place during assembly and allow the orings to expand and flatten out to make a proper seal to the surfaces as the flanges were bolted to the transformer tank. i have used this grease a couple times for seals on two bikes i had . the closest thing to this grease i have found anywhere is the silicone grease they use for lubing break caliper pins.

[PJultra]

They need some kind of lube on the face where the seal meets the head so that the manifold "slides" into place.