Exhaust Manifolds Suck
The truck’s exhaust manifold gaskets have been leaking for the past fifteen years (common issue with a Ford FE), it was about time I took care of this issue so I set in last week and, of course, ran into trouble.
Read more below.Since it was raining when I started the project I cleared part of my garage out so I could pull the nose of the truck in. While I was able to keep dry man it was a tight fit!
Tight fit, click to enlarge.
I made quick work removing the drivers’ side manifold and seven of the bolts on the passenger side manifold, of course when working on an old engine something always has to go wrong, in this case the last bolt I was removing, the top rear, snapped.
Manifold off, click to enlarge.
Snapped bolt, click to enlarge.
I started out by drilling the old bolt out. Because I didn’t have a lot of room to work with I got a right angle drill and cut drill bits down to size.
I used a brass tube to cover the fluted areas of the bit so I could chuck it straight. Click to enlarge.
Drilling, click to enlarge.
The bolt ended up giving me a lot of trouble so I had to leave the truck apart for a week while I worked. I got back into it this weekend and got it freed up by cutting down and re-shaping a couple of other bits. Then I used a Heli-Coil to repair the hole.
Putting a point on a cut down drill bit. Click to enlarge.
Ready for action. Click to enlarge.
The remains of the bolt finally out. Click to enlarge.
Since the new repaired hole wasn't perfectly straight I had to slightly ream the hole in the manifold, to make assembly easier I used a stud instead of a bolt. Click to enlarge.
Passenger side manifold, I used a liberal amount of high heat RTV because, well, it is an FE. Click to enlarge.
Drivers' side manifold. I used the heat shield style gaskets to keep a bit of heat off the plugs. Click to enlarge.
Now the truck is a lot quieter, quiet enough that I can hear the tap tap tap of a bad lifter around cylinder one. I was pretty sure I’d been hearing that recently but the manifold leaked so much I couldn’t hear it clearly.
Sequoia
