Manifold Gasketing

O.K. , InLine question here :

This poor battered 292 Thinwall I-6 was driven for (I'd guess) about 10 years with progressively worse leaking gaskets , I have a nw exhaust manifold inbound but the underside of the intake manifold looks a bit sketchy to me ~ after scraping off the old gasket remains and cleaning & re-painting it , I'm still fretting about the sealing surface so I broke out my BIG Bastard file and began dressing it down , after 30 minutes this is what I've got :

It's kinda hard to tell from the picture as to how pitted it may be. If it is still bad off, could you use two gaskets to make sure the voids stand a better chance of getting filled?

Nice color, BTW.

Gasket

I think you may get away with that, a little gasket sealant should fill those pits

Sealing & Colors

THANX for the input ! .

I try to make everything ' Just So ' but this old manifold is pretty beat up , I figure to assemble it , maybe use some Permatex Copper Ultra glue (in the tube) and let it stink for a bit until it's fully cured .

I *was* thinking of painting it GMC Red as it'd be right purty but , it is a Chevrolet engine so what to do ? .

I don't want to get ragged to death by some GMC guy when I'm checking my oil .

I *think* I posted pix of this thing , it should look really sharp when I get it buttoned up as I'm re-painting the brackets and assembling harness bits & bobs to make a clean job of it .

Keep the comments coming ! the '73 ~ '87 guys are really reticent .

I had to double up and copper rtv the intake/exhaust gaskets on the 53. Damn thing still has a small leak.

WHICH One ?

The manifold to head gasket or the intake to exhaust manifold gasket ? .

Patience

Ive found with exhaust gaskets you gotta walk away after using sealant and let it dry overnight. Too easy to fire it up an blow the sealant out.

Nate, first let me state that I definitely don't believe in all the additives, booster, and performance enhancement gimmicks on the market but the red high heat RTV sealer has made a believer out of me. When salesmen come by and say, "it will do this or that" I always tell them to show me where Honda uses it on their Indy engines since they are an absolutely no budget piece and anything that increased power or mileage they would use. Haven't had any takers yet. That said, a close friend ran a 340 Mopar engine in his circle track car and header gaskets couldn't be picked up without usually ordering them. He tried the red RTV and never bought gaskets again. I milled the l-o-n-g manifolds on my straight eight Buick three times till finally the locator rings in for the intake ports were too wide to let the manifolds seat. I then super cleaned the head and manifolds and used the high heat RTV with no locater rings, then let set for a week. Absolutely no sign of a leak three years now and used to get about a year without it starting to "click" on one exhaust port. It's got to be clean because it works by adhesion not compression.

Thanx !

I didn't think the red Permatex is for exhaust applications ? .

I've used the copper stuff to very good effect .

I too , have a fundamental dislike of gluing engines to-gether .

Sometimes though , you gotta do it and I'm pretty sure this is one of those times .

For those who are not aware , Permatex now has this KILLER sealant called " The Right Stuff " and it really is ! it comes in tubes and aerosol cans , simply FANTASTIC stuff , trust me on this (and you know I never ask you alls to trust me) , if you buy and use it , you'll be hooked .

I picked up the new exhaust manifold this morning @ 05:00 , of course I have to leave on vacation before I can assemble it , more's the pity as then it'd have more time to dry .

Stay tuned .

Minor Progress

It's been over 100° every day so work has been slow .

I got the new exhaust manifold @ 04:30 the day we left on a short vacation , I discoverd the old bolts were beat up & rusty so I brought them into the shop to-day and ran them on the wire wheel , got some new ones but since I no longer run that part of the shop , only grade 8 bolts and I always like to use grade 10 on exhaust manfiolds and flanges .

I got a tube of Permatex Ultra Copper gasket maker , that's the good stuff for exhaust sealing .

Then I realized the flange studs were worthless , I was able to find a DORMAN ' HELP ! ' exhaust flange stud kit ( P/N 03147) , it contains 3 3/8"-16 (USS) X 2-1/2" studs , 3 3/8"-16 X 3-1/6" USS studs and 6 long exhaust nuts , I don't know how to describe an exhaust nut , it's brass and 1/2" tall .

For $6 I felt this was a good deal for the nuts alone .

IIRC , original Chevy I-6 exhaust flange studs had 3/8" - 24 (fine , SAE) threads on the nut ends but who the heck knows where to find those anymore I have a very good parts person in my local GMC dealer (a grubby , hands on fix it kinda dealer) who says NOTHING is available for this old nail so I guess I'll make do with my low tension bolts , nuts and studs .

I'da thought I could just dig around in the hwe. bins but no .

If I can , I'll install the manifold to-night .

Nate, I didn't know the red would work on exhaust either till my friend run it on header flanges with complete success. Here is my Buick about three years after applying and being driven HARD. You can see the exhaust manifold has definitely been hot yet the RTV on it is just as red and pliable as that on the intake runners. They say the cobblers kids go barefoot so having a complete shop the poor old Buick's speedo has never been re-calibrated after installing the 2.73 gears. On long trips I just drop in behind whoever is going the fastest (let them find the radar) and tag along. Definitely a left lane car.

Cool Beans ! (Your Buick)

Well ;

It was HOT & I'm getting old but I got that flusherginner manifold on , It's prolly a lot easier in an AD or with the engine out
as it's a long reach in but I persevered .

I'm pretty sure the threads on the new exhaust manifold are bad , as I was tightening up the intake to exhaust bolts , the two upper ones didn't feel right to I stopped torquing them , let's see if it holds or begins puffing at that joint .

I still have a bunch of re assembly to do yet but that's (I hope) the heaviest bit .

Progress Report

I hope I'm not boring you guys to death here....

Here's the new exhaust manifold ready to be bolted to the old intake ......

Tailgate Fun

...In the sun !

This is the old hardware after I'd cleaned it up on the wire wheel (and removed my fingerprints) , I only used the old stud that has a male threaded end on it as I *think* it's supposed to support the engine harness , not sure , maybe only the PCV tube .

A Lucky Find

Was this DORMAN stud kit , it included more studs and special exhaust flange nuts than I needed


I'm not sure why the pix are showing up as thumbnails , they're full size here .

I Also Found

A set of good hinges , these trucks suffer greatly from worn hood hinge pivots , failure to keep them properly lubricated means the hood will bend...

Perfect Timing... almost!!

Talk about good timing. My mechanic was over last night. We were setting the timing on my '51 (216) and he thought I had a leak around the intake manifold. He suggested ... ready?... the Red RTV.

I went out this morning, bought some, took out both manifolds (I just happened to have a second set of gaskets), applied the Hi-Heat Red RTV, reinstalled and followed Brit's advice to walk away.

[Getting the torque wrench to that last end bolt toward the firewall is fun]

I will try to start it up in the morning and see if the Red RTV is as advertised.


Greg

Sorry, Nate

vwnate1 said:

A set of good hinges , these trucks suffer greatly from worn hood hinge pivots , failure to keep them properly lubricated means the hood will bend...

Click to expand...

I had a hard time finding the hinges in that picture. My eye was drawn to the flamed fender! What's that about?

My Junkyard

Zig said:

I had a hard time finding the hinges in that picture. My eye was drawn to the flamed fender! What's that about?

Click to expand...

OOps ! .

Yankee Farm habits are darn hard to break , I hate throwing out anything that might be useful someday or if it makes me smile ~ that is the right front fender from a 1967 MGB GT I bought a few years back when I had a 1967 MGB GT and wanted an original engine to rebuild ~ this thing had weird painted bits & bobs and zero interior but the engine was *choice* , perfect Std. bore & crankshaft .

The fender came off yet another MK I MGB GT that some hippie had hand painted , I think it looks neat , it's for sale cheap (and rust free too !) but no one wants it .

Also , the Mexican " Mantenga Su Derecha " (keep right) sign that somehow fell off it's pole as I was driving by it in an old VW Beetle , about 25 years ago.... it <magically> flew right into the Beetle's trunk , go figure

I have sort of a penchant for old signs and other vehicular things , my back gate is fully covered with them .

There's quite a bit of automotive history back there , most is rusty junk but also has fun memories and stories behind each piece .

Cheap Trucks

....There's always a reason why they're for sale affordably , this one's electrical system is buggered beyond belief ~

This morning I more or less buttoned up the engine accessories and etc. , then set about rebuilding the mangled underhood engine harness ~ of course I had to energize the system and test it before fixing the chopped up wires , it seems there's no power to the throttle kicker , I decided to look up under the dashboard at the fusebox , ! OH , NO they just threw a chainsaw up under there and then taped up the wires willy-nilly .

So now , I have to attack that before touching the underhood harness repairs...

Maybe I can just run a single wire from the (now installed) 15 A fuse to the bulkhead connector.....

SIGH .

Oh well .