The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Re-installing manifolds....what are these ring things?

I found troymckaskle's post on how to install the intake/exhaust manifolds. (Funny that the guy at the shop made sure to tell me same thing when I called earlier.)

I had not planned to do a resurface, just get the bolts drilled out and new ones put in.

But after reading up on a couple of posts I keep hearing about alignment rings. I didn't see any such thing on the engine when I pulled the intakes. (C30 - 292) and troymckaskle mentions dowls...don't got nun o' those neither.

What am I missing?
Dave

On the 235 their are three rings that fit half way into the intake passages for the purpose of alignment. Same thing with the dowls, they sit on the two ends of the head. I have never seen a 292, but I googled it and it looks like a horse of a different color.

The 250-292 series engines don,t use them. There are dowels on the end of the head that fit in the end holes of the exhaust manifold. If those manifolds don,t fit back on very good don,t be completly surprized. They run very hot on 292's & sometimes are warped.

FYI - yes I do have those dowl things. The 292 has them.

Unfortunatly one of the bolts on that I took off seems too short...it's like it only goes into the block by a couple of threads...and those are stripped.

Guess what, this is where it seems the last gasket failed and there is rust damage...hmmm.

Anyway, went to get another bolt that measures like the opposing one on the block. Will continue from here tomorrow.

After looking more closely at the exhaust when I picked it up...Wrenchbender has it right...there is some warping in this thing...there is actually a bulge in one area and a small crack in another.

Hopefully I can make this thing run for a bit and after a check or two I can get a new exhaust header.

Ok...first attempt in the dark last night and I ended up with two leaks I could find...

One at the manifold, at that second exhaust port where the screw was loose.

Second was on the gasket between intake/exhaust.

So this leads me to two questions....

When I line up the exhaust and intake manifolds (yes, loosely bolted together) to the block...do I let it rest on the dowls or push it up? (Last night I ended up with the whole thing pushed up so that not resting on the dowels at each end. What is the proper alignment against the block?

Second question...for the heat riser gasket...can I just loosen up the exhaust/intake bolts again and slide that around to seat so that there is a bit of silver showing all around? Is that my answer?

Gonna try again tonight...starting from middle bolts and working out...then tightening the intake/exhaust bolts.

If that doesn't work, then I will pull out the RTV copper gasket stuff and to that next.

(If all that fails...I am switching to tube headers for now and going on with life.)

Does all that sound ok? Am I doing anything dumb?

Dave

Ok...went ahead and used the RTV tonight. So now the truck is going to have to sit till prolly Sun before it's set up...cold out tonight.

This is a jury-rigged answer at the moment. I already ordered a new header. When I looked a bit closer at everything...the last gaskets rusted out completely...so took a bunch of the manifold (and bottom of intake) with them. All the surfaces are uneven and pitted.

I got out my dremel with a small sanding disk to get off the highspots which were rusted on gasket. Then cleaned up all the surfaces.

Tonight I re-attached everything, torqued right, with a bit of high temp copper RTV sealant. It's on both sides of the gasket around all the exhaust ports. (Now I sit here and think that maybe I should have done intake ports too...but at the time it didn't seem like right idea...well I guess I'll see on Sunday.)

The new headers won't be here till middle of next week and I need to get this truck moving so I can get it inspected and tags on it. I also need to reassure myself that this thing is a runner.

Now some beer and pizza

SHE LIVES!!!

Or something...Started her up this morning and no leaks. (Used starte fluid around intake to make sure.)

Drove her down to the auto parts store as a road test. She made it fine...

There was a 'little' backfire when I downshifted into 3rd.

I have looked at the timing...it is set at the first pointy part...looks to be about 8 degrees...still a bit of hesitation on a flat run.

So now to move onto new fluids in axle, trany, and radiator.

Dave