First off? My apologies for not being around for quite a while. Some may know I had a full blown heart attack back in January that sidelined me badly. So I'm back to work and trying to get some of my projects rolling.

Back on topic: Our old 1975 F-250. It's been off the road for about a year now. We've been starting it on/off about once a month just to keep the engine 'free'. We started it today and noted it was down a gallon of coolant and didn't see anything leaking. As a sidebar note, when we got the truck years ago--it had a blown fuel pump and about two gallons in the oil. It actually runs decent despite this fact.

At any rate. The ol' girl leaks oil badly. I nicknamed it the Exxon Valdiez (or whatever that tanker boat was called). It also has some badly cobbled up exhaust manifold work on the passenger side that make it leak badly from the rear of the head (where the manifold meets the head. Someone knocked out the bolts and such and tried to cobble it together, and it has a small gap where the bolt can't draw it tight to seal)

Here's the plan, and I'm looking for feedback to see if this makes any sense.

First off, pick up a gasket kit for the upper half of the engine and timing cover. The only way I can figure on getting the passenger side exhaust sealed would be to pull the head. Once done remove the manifold (it's a given--all the bolts/nuts will break once removed). Anyrate...pull it apart and drill/tap out the crap bolts. If the manifold is in decent shape, probably use the drill press to slightly oversize the bolt holes in order to make the new 'threads' work with slightly oversized bolts. There's no real way to do this with the head installed on the engine.

Second would be to clean the engine and install new gaskets. Most of the leaks appear to be from the upper half/front seal area. Finally get everything back together and see how it works out.

Now if the exhaust manifold is truly trashed on the passenger side from the extended leak...Would it make sense to pull both heads, and try to get perhaps a set of headers for it? We already have it running with dual exhaust. (It was a camper special with the 2nd fuel tank...it's been removed in favor of the exhaust--and the 2nd fuel tank looked like Swiss cheese)

I'll pull the spark plugs as well to see if they have any signs of coolant. Oil is black, but no sign of internal coolant leakage. Just wondering how to get this figured out within budget....and to have it back on the road for a backup truck.

Thanks again!!

S-

 

IMO without any of MY money or sweat in it of course, is to buy some GOOD headers. FE manifolds are terrible, and headers are the answer.

Also, track down leaks including pan and rear main before you do a bunch of work and find out it still leaks.

 

Valve cover & intake gaskets are the big culprits for leaking on these engines.

To my knowledge rear mains rarely leak on FEs.

I agree if you are pulling the exhaust go back with headers.



John

 

Well, if I follow the trail of sludge on the front of the engine. The intake gasket is first on the list. The valve covers got done last year, and it still seeps and leaks badly, so I know there's more problems.

Intake manifold gasket seems the likely issue. Getting the disty out will be a full blown pain. (it's seized in place...thankfully it's hung up where the engine is in 'time') Most likely the rubber seal there is also shot.

Any ideas on getting the passenger side manifold off? I do not have a torch, so heating it is not an option. Judging by the cobble job someone already did, I think the best option would be to drill and tap out the exhaust manifold bolts...cause what is left in place? One big rusted hulk.

S-

 

You need to block the valve covers (whack em straight on a piece o wood to get all the dents & dings out) and only tighten them barely snug, I'm talking inch pounds, although I forgot how many.

Intake: I would use RTV and let it sit 30-45 minutes to skin over before sitting it down with a lift a lift so to not move it at all. Straight down on the holes.

Some of the engine builds here may have a better suggestion.




John

 

I put the manifold on a hoist and lower it to about one inch above the engine. I then put a four inch stud in the front left and rear right holes. When you lower the manifold it's perfectly alligned with no problems.

 

I like the idea of using the studs to guide that heavy beast down. We removed the hood this afternoon so I can have full access to everything. We do not have an hoist, so we will be using a come-a-long to lift and lower the intake. (we are working in an outdoors 'lean two' woodshed....just hang a come-a-long from a rafter and go for it LOL)

I hosed the batcrap out of the front of the engine with brake cleaner and water to rinse. The front seal appears to be fine, along with the timing cover. The cork gasket with the intake? Soaked in oil badly. Give the edge a slight squeeze and oil drips off of it. So that's a given of one leak. The other major leak? The back of the intake. The back of the engine and bell housing? About 1/4" of gunk/oil build up from the top down.

The intake gasket will be at Napa tomorrow. And I'll start the tear down on Sunday morning.

Any ideas regarding the exhaust manifold for the right side? It's gotta come off and be redone. Just not sure how to deal with the rusty nuts/bolts.....

I have a feeling it would be just better to remove that cylinder head and bust off the old bolts---retap---drill out...etc... Trying to do that on the engine would be a huge pain.

S-

 

Quote: "I have a feeling it would be just better to remove that cylinder head and bust off the old bolts---retap---drill out...etc... Trying to do that on the engine would be a huge pain."


Probably.



John

 

Well, from a $$ standpoint. (best case) It's only a handful of money to go with a head gasket for that side and an exhaust manifold gasket.

I'm already pulling off the intake...Cast Iron cylinder head..Heavy, but most likely not warped or needing repair (except the exhaust bolts)

What's the old saying? In for a penny---in for a pound?

S-

 

Since you are going that far why don't you pull the whole thing and refresh it? I put a lot of work into the heads, cam, intake on my stock short block, but in the long run I was polishing a turd.

If you don't want to remove the heads to drill and tap the exhaust threads, what I have done in the past is cut out a section of the inner fenderwell in order to use a drill from the wheel well to drill through the broken off bolts in the head (the top ones) and run a new bolt all the way through the head and header flange with a nut on the backside. Worked well (but I didn't have any problem removing the lower head bolts). I then replaced the chunk of cut out inner fender with a rubber flap.

 

Well, we did the tear down yesterday. I only have to drill and tap out 3 of the exhaust bolts that snapped. The rest of them will have a thread chaser used to clean up the threads. I'll be using most likely stainless bolts with anti-sieze to prevent this from happening again. The exhaust manifold also has a hairline crack at #2 that is a concern--but it's only 1/4" long. I'll price a replacement.

Intake was a beast, but it's off-and looks like that was the bulk of the oil leaks from the back. I'll have to do a shop vac trick with the disty mount area, as a huge chunk of crud just 'had' to fall 1/4 down the hole where the oil pump engages....I've used the shop vac trick in the past with a fair success. Just need to dislodge the booger and have the nozzle of the vac close to suck it up.

And that disty? What a huge pain to remove. I'll be hitting the entire body with a wire brush. We wound up using a prybar/hammer/pb blaster and an oil filter wrench to get that thing to budge--it was seized in there TIGHT!

S-

 

Two reasons for not pulling: 1: Only have a few weeks to finish this before the family moves to a new home (I've been using their garage--which won't be available after they relocate) 2: Money is uber-tight. Can barely afford to do any of this and still pay off the hospital and doctors bills. (had a full blown heart attack in Jan--and they put a CDI implant 5 weeks ago----my insurance covers everything but 20%...and that 20%? Is a lot more then people expect--about 15 grand I think will be the final tally)

S-

 

I'll second the RTV, my intake used to leak oil badly, but new gaskets and lot's of RTV solved it. And like jowilker said, if you have a hoist it helps a lot, especially with the cork seals at the front and back. Those are a real pain to keep lined up when you have to lug that intake in there by hand.

Let us know how it goes!

Sam