You can buy various types of gasket material as sheets and then make your own with a compass and some razor blades/scissors.


George

 

It's not like a "normal" gasket. It's more like an o-ring that has a rigid OD so it snaps in place. I'd be surprised if one you made yourself would seal effectively. To me, it was worth the cost of a new elbow not to get dust in my new engine.

 

I tried to find it on E bay and couldn't locate anything close to a TB to intake gasket. I tried Rock Auto Parts, no luck. Monday I went to my local Chevy dealer and was reminded that a car manuf. only has to stock parts for their cars for ten years--IIRC. The parts counter guy did a lot of checking and couldn't locate the individual gasket by itself. We couldn't even find a diagram of the desired gasket in the parts PC. I did go to NAPA and the counter man there had a 2nd Gen. S-10 pick up he had converted to a Cold air A.M.S. intake. But he did understand what gasket I was looking for. Many think it is the TB to the intake manifold. He thought like I do, this gasket is a flat gasket, not a 'O' ring style gasket. So right now I am back to you have to buy an entire kit just to get the TB to intake snorkel gasket.

 

GM doesn't even list it as a separate part, so it's going to be tough to find it by itself. Seems kind of silly to have to buy the whole elbow.

 

This is a follow up to the OP's --Thnos--post. I have heard nothing back from Dorman Products. I am going to try one more time to get Dorman's attention by using the GM part no.---which I don't have. The black plastic part that Thnos called a 'snorkel' is called an 'adaptor' by GM. There is a part number for the 'adaptor', but not for the flat gasket that fits between the adaptor and the Throttle Body. I need the actual GM gasket part no. so when I go to Dorman Products, Parts Geek, or E Bay and other companies. There is a lot of confusion that I am trying to find a gasket that fits between the TB and the intake manifold. No, I am looking for the gasket that goes on top of the TB and seals to the adaptor aka snorkel. This number should help me locate the elusive part. I need that for my search in the various parts companies. ALSO if I were to make one, I need the part to carve one out of a sheet of gasket material.....as a last resort.

Here is a pdf file from Tom A---see above his post no. 14. It has a diagram of the black plastic piece that comes from the intake hose and air filter. Then this snorkel/ adaptor makes a right angle turn into the Throttle Body. You will see that no gasket is shown and no part number is listed. NO mention at all. It is hard to tract down something that is invisible. I will post what I find so you can seal out all that dust being sucked into the 4.3 L V6 engine and slowly destroying it. Thanks for you help. Jim

Attached Files
File Type: pdf

Air Intake.pdf (239.0 KB, 3 views)

 

I found a piece of gasket material that looks like it will work for my replacement gasket for the 'Intake snorkel to the Throttle Body top'. It is a flat rubber sheet about 3/16" thick. Now all I have to do is figure out how to make a pattern to cut the new gasket. I wish I had the old gasket even if it was cracked or split. I am going to try to use the black snorkel adaptor and draw a pattern with a sharpie. Now I see why the 3D machines are so much in demand.

 

Are you going to try to fit the gasket inside the plastic elbow like the original, or under it, like an old-style air cleaner? It's too bad the "lip" on the throttle body isn't a little taller. You could use a rubber clamp-on elbow. As it is, though, I wouldn't trust it not to slip off.

 

Many 'Unsolved Mysteries' now are solved. Let me say up front--Tom A. was right. Here is what I was mistakenly thinking..... Every time I removed the GM adaptor aka 'snorkel' , I would look at the shiny flange on top of the Throttle Body/TB and would think---there is a missing gasket and it is causing a major leak into the TB ! That is Not Good. It bothered me and that's why I began the search for the 'missing' flat gasket and when I couldn't find one, I decided to make one. Then I took off the black adaptor /snorkel and finally saw what Tom A was talking about all along. He was right. There is a red gasket embedded in the lip of the adaptor/snorkel that is hard to see. It is 'empoxyed' inside the lip so that explains why there is no separate part number for this gasket. This is not a routine replaceable gasket ! It is included in the adaptor/snorkel as GM diagram properly shows. I was trying to 'make a flat gasket' to fit on top of the TB flange. This idea won't work and here is why. That TB flange has the lock down cam design so when you tighten the tall thumb screw on the back of the TB, it tightens against this cam device on the front. The lock down device on the front of the TB would prevent a flat gasket from laying down and sealing as I was hoping. So scratch my idea of a flat gasket sealing the snorkel to the TB. It won't fit and that is why there is not a separate GM part number. If somehow that embedded gasket is cracked or pinched, then you will have to replace the entire adaptor aka snorkel. But that is not very likely. Hope I explained what happened and why you are okay as GM designed it.

 

I was actually able to snap the red o-ring in and out of the elbow (it has a rigid circumference) so it should theoretically be replaceable, but that doesn't change the fact that the part is not available separately.

 

All manner, shapes and sizes of round and square O rings are available online.


George