If I take my intake manifold off, do i need to replace the gasket or should the stock one still be re-usable?

You really should replace it. If you reuse it, it can be a good source for a leak. I think Lucas spent a better part of a weekend trying to find a leak on his car and it was from the intake man gasket. They are not all that expensive and you will have assurance you dont have a leak there

Will do. Thanks

get the new south performance intake gasket its very nice and notable gains when very hot outside

I'm still waiting on temperature readings from someone who installed that.

My questions are whether you're only trapping heat in your cylinder head with that (cooler manifold isn't gonna help if you have hot spots in the cylinder), OR is the cooling of the intake charge really enough that it produces a cooler burn, reducing temps overall.

I'm leaning more toward my first thought of a hot head.

I think i see what you mean, is it trapping all the heat in the head instead of dispersing it between the head and intake manifold. Having the heat not transfer should result in lower iat's and the coolent passages should be bringing the temp of the head to basically the same temp w/ or w/o the spacer. I cant see this being a bad thing, but not a very worth while thing either. It would have to produce consistantly lower iat's to make worth the $$. Shaving off a few *F isnt going to net you much if any real gain

ya i forgot to take readings with my infrared thermo but i do notice that the car doesnt feel as heat soaked...the gasket and high temp paint could be a great combo. and for those who are skeptical hightemp paint all these items...charge pipe(gets pretty hot) valve cover(very hot) and intake manifold(gets pretty hot) then you will notice after painting how much cooler they are...stuff makes a difference combine that with the powergasket FMIC, water injection and WOW you can def see a difference

You paint it black?

Definately splitting hairs again, but painting something that gets hot (from the inside) is adding a thin layer of insulation. BUT black releases heat easier than white/polished materials.

In 99.99% of applications IMO, it won't matter. Exceptions are ceramic coating headers/piston crowns (yeah, you can do pistons too), and not painting.. but anodizing a intercooler black.

I've always thought it was strange that most intercoolers are bare aluminum. Reflective like that.. not the best for exchanging heat. Radiators and AC condensers are black, its not just for looks.


Anyway, theres probably better things to be spending money on than anodizing. Just some food for thought.