So I pulled my 460 to replace the oil pan gasket and rear main seal. I also wanted to install a new set of manifold gaskets to take care of an exhaust leak. As soon as I removed the heat collector covering the manifold I knew I had a bigger problem. Plain as day crack on the head were the manifold mates up to the engine. When I removed the manifold fold...shouldn't have saved this stud to last, but I did..two chunks of the head came with it.

There remains slightly over an inch and a half of thread in the head. The biggest issue is a chunk of the manifold sealing surface is gone.




I know welding cast is possible, just not sure if this is feasible here. Any thoughts or experiences with something like this?

Subject 460 has about 41000 miles in a 1975 F250 Camper Special.

Thanks,

OTR

 

If the engine is out of the vehicle,you might be better off to just swap the damaged head.If you want to get it welded,it will still have to come off the block as I'm pretty sure the cast head needs to be heated in an oven in order to weld/repair it.You might want to weigh the costs of welding vs replacing the head.Maybe others will chime in who have had to have this done.

 

Hard to tell by the picture. You can try to find a good welder, spend money and time trying to fix it but in the end it rarely ever works for long if even at all. Best thing to do is just replace the head.

 

Replacing the head is the direction I am leaning. I didn't want to exclude the repair option if it was viable. So please respond with any experence with this type of repair.

If I go with a replacement head, I can say with confidence a new aftermarket head is out. So left with used. I would assume any used head should be rebuilt?

I've rebuilt the head on an overhead cam 4 cyl motor. It was straight forward. Is a push rod rebuild comparable? My thought is it would be more difficult.

Thanks for the responses!