The RTV goes around the front and rear of the manifold, so not creating a good enough bead with the sealant may cause a leak. Especially as I also mentioned if you didn't position the manifold correctly and somehow slid it around slightly as you were placing it. When using RTV on the rear and front you can go up the gasket a 1/4 of an inch or so to ensure a good seal. When you placed the manifold down, if sliding it at all you could've moved the gaskets or smeared the sealant. I had a manifold leak where it was contributing to my idle issues with constant revs and such. Fixed the manifold and it went away. You WILL have to do it all over again if you messed up, yes removing the manifold again.

 

I know a lot of guy that use to do this and I never understood why they used stuff that was so dangerous. Use a can a carburator cleaner and spray it around heck even WD 40 will work. Listen closely for a change in RPM. Motor will speed up a as you get closer to the leak. I'll bet even gunk engine cleaner would work. Look for leaks and clean the motor at the same time

 

Yes, that could cause an oil leak, but we were talking about looking for a vacuum leak. A vacuum leak would originate from between the manifold and heads.

 

Which is why I also mentioned in the first post that he may have slid the manifold while installing and could've moved the gaskets.

 

If the gaskets slid, he wouldn't have gotten the intake bolts in. When the holes line up, so do the ports.

 

Good point

Could there be a chance the manifold or heads are warped? If they somehow came to that, the mating surfaces would be off. Different scenario I know, but a good question.

 

That's a good thought, crossed my mind too. Another one that did is, have the heads ever been milled down? If you go beyond a certain point, you want to have the intake manifold angle matched (shaved) to match up with the heads again.

 

Well guys. It looks like it may be fixed. When I was sleeping this morning my dad was nice enough to go outside and mess with it. He said the lid was a little off and the filter inside all bent up. He said he fixed that and it stopped. Hopefully that's what it was.

 

Glad to hear the good news, bet it felt nice waking up to some good news

 

It felt very nice. I was getting up to get ready for work to. So it made me feel a little better. I hope that was the problem. If not I shall be back