Hi all,

I am replacing my heater hoses on my '87 240. New hoses are in and I am about to put a new intake manifold gasket in. The new gasket looks slightly different from the old one. The new one has an extra section of gasket material at the rear end, closest to the firewall. It has the eight bolt holes surrounding each intake, plus two larger apparently unused holes near the water pump. And the mysterious larger hole at the rear. The cylinder head has a big 19mm bolt where the hole is that I have been unable to remove. Does this bolt have to come out or can the gasket be trimmed?

Ah, thanks much. I'll trim away and put things back together.

By the way, the heater hoses were original. 22 years and 388,000 miles. Can't argue with that. They seemed fine except for some slight chaffing where one of the hoses passed by the oil dipstick tube. I went with the Volvo hoses at 20 and 17 bucks a piece. Aftermarket hoses here simply make no sense.

Good choice. Fact is, I know of one aftermarket hose that would have frustrated you because it doesn't even have the correct shape. My knuckles hurt just thinking about that job.


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Art Benstein near Baltimore

Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine.

Any takers? I hope my post made sense.

Sorry, I read your post and then jumped on a phone call.

Just trim the gasket. The two (three) extra holes are for carb manifolds with coolant, not yours. Also, probably no one saw your post because you didn't select a forum (car model) and no year was selected. Otherwise I know plenty of 240 owners would have by now advised you to trim the gasket.


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Art Benstein near Baltimore

"I was worried that my mechanic might try to rip me off, I was relieved when he told me all I needed was turn-signal fluid."