Exhaust manifold gasket?

[drag68bird]

1992 ranger 2.9........long story short.....Doing a clutch last weekend, I broke 1 exhaust bolt on each manifold......today I pulled both manifold so I can drill and tap for new bolts....when I got the manifold off I noticed their is no gasket between the head and manifold. Is this normal? And should I install the manifolds with a gasket?

 

[michowski]

Yes you should have a gasket there. Your manifolds have probly never been off and what was there deteriorated and is now gone. Get a gasket for each side and call it a day.

 

[drag68bird]

I think they have been off before....as none of the bolts broke, and they came out very easy....as far as old gaskets....the manifold were tight, and had no exhaust leak....but there is not even a trace of any type of gaskets.

 

[Duane867]

<STRIKE>The fact that the bolts were easy to remove point to either prior removal or they have simply backed off allowing slight pressure to gradually pass by as they got looser burning the gasket away more and more.
You definitely need a gasket on each side. They have a machined gasket surface that if perfectly flat. So they will fit together fairly tight and straight with no gasket.
But you need the gasket set.</STRIKE>

 

[Fordnutjake]

no gasket

the exhaust manifolds on 89 and up 2.8, 2.9, 4.0 are all machined manifolds and DO NOT require gaskets, if you use gaskets on them they will not last long. they were machined after 88 to fix problems with the gaskets always blowing. in short, no gasket required.

 

[Duane867]

Thats weird. alldata pro says there should be one there ?

EDIT: Well shit.. I looked up the wrong year the 1st time around. FordnutJake is correct.