Took the intake off to replace the rear plugs and coils. I see someone slathered RTV on there the last time it was off. You don't need it as it uses a thick silicone gasket which was still on the manifold, unless that is damaged and they were too cheap to replace it. Way to go Penndot. Would this have anything to do with the misfires it's been having?
Somebody's been in here before. '15 Explorer 3.7L
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Yuck! 
Odd that a government fleet vehicle would need a new manifold gasket. How many miles on the car? What other work would it need where you have to get to the manifold? Is it old enough to have needed new spark plugs?
Someone's been exploring
Odd that a government fleet vehicle would need a new manifold gasket. How many miles on the car? What other work would it need where you have to get to the manifold? Is it old enough to have needed new spark plugs?
Someone's been exploring
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The service manual says that anytime that upper plenum is removed, you are supposed to change the gasket. That particular number, AT4Z-9H486-A was on backorder on and off all last year. So either they re-used it by being lazy, or couldn't get an OE one, didn't want to use aftermarket, and decided to RTV it.
This isn't a flat gasket that gets a set but 1/4 inch thick cushiony soft silicone. It's still plenty soft.
I know the part well, I have sold hundreds. Ford calls it a gasket. Per the shop manual it is not supposed to be reused.
The gasket is so cheap, and the job so difficult, you might as well replace it if you have to pull the intake for any reason. It's $6 from Rock Auto.
Any time I have to pull the intake on a transverse V6, it gets new valve cover gaskets and a new intake gasket.
Yes, it could have had a vacuum leak. Was the other gasket there too? Do you know which cylinders and or bank was misfiring most? Not that I have the answer, but if someone more informed has these details it might help for a insightful post as misfires could be more issues and more specific to your 3.7 engine.
i agree with above, i think they reused it with silicone as an insurance bandaid. Poor job.
But it’s really not difficult on this platform…there are instances and certain engines I would ABSOLUTELY change it, but this isn’t one of them. Once you’ve had the intake off several dozen of these engines, you’ll see what I mean…
that a junkyard number on the valve cover?
15 minutes, 20 tops. I should have ordered it when I ordered the plugs, but too late now. And when it's $15 locally, I'll skip it and take the chance.
That question sounds familiar...
Ya they are really easy on these. We do them because it is by the book, same with any one time use hardware on applications that call for them.
I have had a few of the upper intake manifolds warp and leak. Manifolds were on backorder at one point last year (like everything else) so its possible they rtv'd it to seal it
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