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All,
Rebuilding my intake manifold to eliminate the "too lean" problem created by the POS intake manifold design, I had purchased a set of supposed new OE gasktes to rebuild the entire intake manifold from a Land Rover / Range Rover parts house in Salt Lake City, British Parts Utah.
Well Caveat Emptor on Ebay everyone, the eight intake manifold gaskets, part number 4526549 that supplier is selling are 1) inconsistent thickness, 2) inconsistent plyability of the rubber 3) inconsistent quality of the molding, and 4) some I received as "new" were by my inspection only somewhat cleaned used ones but many still having sealant and grease on them even after being cleaned and the rubber being pretty hard. The "set" included the 8 upper to lower gaskets, the lower intake to cylinder heads gaskets, the rear plate to intake O Ring, and the Front Throttle body to intake O ring as a kit for $95 shipped free.
It appears the vendor British Parts Utah (bputah) is either not checking the parts, or is mixing cleaned used parts rebagged and being sold as new, so selling used parts repackaged as new, sure, they can ship for free!! Yes, restitution is in process ..
So beware, there are scamsters out there selling all sorts of garbage, even ones bagged in apparent OEM replacements or OEM Land Rover bags. Also beware, the OE gaskets were light blue/green color, and the Land Rover replacements appear to be green color, but also beware the overall thickness of the aftermarket replacements may vary as much as a millimeter which will create sealing problems due to variances in rubber plyability. My OE gaskets only vary in thickness about 0.05mm, where the set I received varied over 1mm across all eight and were very different rubber plyability which would have created even more leaks.
BTW, I need to give a good lashing to the idiot who designed that intake manifold sealing surface between the upper plastic manifold the the lower aluminum manifold to have such complex gaskets which in the long run, the whole manifold could have been one piece aluminum, and they are saving what, 16 ounces from plastic to aluminum on an all aluminum body car !?!
Caveat Emptor ya'll!
My OE used gasket I removed ... Original Equipment Jaguar "blue/green" gasket USED from my intake, Land Rover Part Number 4526549