Jotul F55 Secondary Air Manifold Gasket?

At the end of last season my secondary flames in the front were a little less than usual. Upon close examination, I noticed that I could see some white, woven gasket material through some of the forward-most holes (closest to the door).

Being a good procrastinator, I waited until now (brrrrr) to fix it. I took the six bolts out and lifted the top of the manifold for a look. Sure enough, there's the gasket flopping around in there.

Before going any further, I looked at the parts diagram. They only show one gasket, and refer to it as "Gasket, Rear Secondary Air Manifold". Is this the rear gasket and it migrated forward?

If so, how the heck am I gonna get it to the rear again?

Any help would be appreciated….

Bumped for the Sunday F55 owners...

OK - good suggestion.

The pic from the manual shows the manifold (number 15 with the top plate closed on the lower plate with the holes in it). Number 16 is the only gasket they show and they refer to it as the rear gasket.

I have the top plate propped upon the second pic and you can see the gasket on top of the manifold (I don't think that's where it belongs). I fished it out of the manifold. The second hole from the left shows what I was seeing at the end of last season.

Thanks for the input. You are probably right. It's funny that everything else in the stove is shown at the component level except that manifold assembly.

Wow! That is some incredible timing. I just found some time this morning to finish this.

I would guess that fish is right, this is the gasket that goes in front. It is a bit difficult to work with since it's the heavy, top cast iron plate that goes up when you undo the bolts. The baffle with the holes in it stays in place. So, you're working through the door, in the "ceiling" of the stove, and at a certain point you have to switch hands to get the gasket sitting on the lip all the way across before you drop the top. It's not positively located, it just lays on the lip until the weight of the plate drops on to it. The gasket also continues around the sides, but I have no idea how you get that back in place without taking the top off the stove.

One thing I noted was that the bolts on one side were a lot looser than the other. Maybe this happened during assembly, transport, or initial break-in, but I'm going to check them from time to time.

I've been impressed with the engineering on this stove so far, but this gasket arrangement leaves something to be desired.

I had my first fire, which is burning right now, and the secondaries work nice.

Yep - it's all there:

http://jotul.com/us/products/wood-stoves/jotul-f-55-carrabassett#technical-area

Mine has that hole. I think that's the primary combustion air feed. Some primary air splits off before that and washes the glass. Then there's the secondaries that feed off the opening in the bottom of the back and runs up the back of the inside of the stove.

That may well be the reason. Here's what the manual says:

Primary Air is drawn into a front inlet in the stove bottom and directed through a regulator shutter under the front door before entering the lower fire chamber. Additional primary air is directed to the top of the load door to act as an air wash to help prevent extreme soot build-up on the glass panel. The amount of primary air available to the fire determines the intensity of heat output and rate of fuel combustion; the greater the amount of air, the greater the heat output, the faster the wood burns. The primary air setting also determines the effectiveness of the air wash over the glass; the higher the setting, the cleaner the glass.