valley pan replacement

[GOLDMYN]

Question: 1968 Polara 3834bl. changing valley pan and the topside is coated with a gold finish, either paint or some type of coating, is that something the factory ever did? or old machine shop trick? I guarantee it's gold something, also the runners on the intake look and feel like some type of ceramic coating, at first I thought it was oil it was so shinny. any comments

 

[CBODY67]

Not factory. Factory was "bare metal" covered with some overspray from when the engine is painted. With the intake manifold installed, I suspect.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67

 

[413]

Looks like rust.

Some use copper coat gasket spray product.

 

[MONC440]

I have seen this many times before on engines that have never been apart. The factory put some kind of insulation in-between the intake manifold and valley pan. The ones I have seen had some kind of tin foil holding it together and they are always sticky. That looks like the remnants of that to me. So you can assume your intake has not been removed before.

 

[The_Eagles’_Nest]

The insulation was meant to reduce noise from the cam and lifters. Performance Car Graphics makes them or you can make your own.

 

[CBODY67]

If you can find some industrial-thickness aluminum foil, you can bend and crimp your own "insulator" around a square normal yellow insulation.

When I found my first one, all aged and groody looking, then seeing what it actually was, my thought was "Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil".

I suspect the Chry engineers had to make a decision, use an insulator under the manifold to attenuate lifter valley noise or harmonics thereof, which could allegedly crack the valley pan portion of the gasket, or leave that air space open to help quell "hot soak" heat conditions related to the carburetor.

Perhaps a small piece of DynaMat (or similar) on the valley pan area of the gasket could now do similar in modern times? Leaving the bulk of the air space under the manifold to let manifold heat better dissipate, aka "Air Flow" under there?

Enjoy!
CBODY67