My heat riser has lost the small plug that keeps the shaft for the valve centered(and exhaust is pouring out). How important are these? I am trying to decide on removing it, and making another plug and jamming it in and see if it holds up, but I don't want to screw anything else up by doing so. The heat riser is not cheap its over 100 bucks,and I dont want to buy it if I don't have to.

Also the 2 bolts coming out of the manifold are shot that go through the heat riser and tube clamp, One is already gone. I dont want to buy another manifold, another 100 bucks! I want to drill and tap the manifold, and use bolts to mount the tube and heat riser, anyone ever try this?

thanks,

stan

 

as for the broken manifold studs, i have just drilled them out completly and instead of threading them, i used just a nut and bolt with some lock washers on it. never had any more problems with it

as to the heat riser, i do know that if you remove it, your exhaust pipe will not meet up to the manifold, as the riser is about 2"-3" thick. make sure you put a new donut in it if it uses one.

hope that this helps some.

Rob

 

The heat riser blocks the exhaust when it's cold, so the exhaust runs up under the carb passage to make the engine warm up quicker. I have noticed the choke system, and the aircleaner heat system very important to the dirveability in cold weather. I have not noticed much difference if the heat riser is disconnected. I would take it off, fix the studs, and gut the heatriser, and get somebody to braze the holes shut.

 

thanks for the info. I was hoping to be able to driil and tap the manifold while it was attached but their is not enough room for the drill. I tried to take off the manifold last night but it seems that I can't get a wrench that fits the bolt heads very well. I was able to loosen one with a 9/16, but all the others it is to loose and wont grab. I tried metric and it is the same thing 14mm to big 13mm to small. I wonder if 20 years of rusting could be the culprit? I honestly was not expecting it to be easy.

 

they have SAE threads into the manifold. I think they are 9/16. use some 6-point sockets. I think it is the rust.

btw, the studs that hold the exhaust heat riser on are 11mm. with you won't be able to find anywhere. I tapped mine out to 7/16 with a bottom tap. 11mm is pretty closer to 7/16, just a little smaller. I also got mine studs out with a torch and vise grips. becareful to heat only the manifold, not the stud, or you'll twist the stud off.

 

i had a frozzen/stripped head, exhaust manifold bolt on my sons truck. i tried everything i could find on it to no avail.

i ended up going to sears and getting those new bolt head easy outs. there like sockets, but on the inside of the are reverse flutes that grab on to it and it worked!! you just pound them on if you have to. you can use a wrench or a socket on them

i was very surprised that it worked because when i was grinding on it with my last disk i accidently went into the bolt shaft and took off about half of it. i thought that the bolt was going to break, but it didnt.

the set that i bought cost $20.00. there are 2 different sets that they have, one is sae and the other is metric. but denfinitly buy both of them. they are alot better than vise grips.

my 2 cents.

rob

 

Thanks for the input,
I am a dork!
I spent the night driving around with my kids (Things you do with your 3 sons to make sure they grow up right) to find a spacer that i could use in my heat riser. I found 2 at lowes. a 1/8 OD, and a 1/2 OD. i hammered them together(it was beautifull) and drilled out the ID to fit the heat riser shaft. I cut it in half and started to hammer it into the heat riser, it worked! It was sticking out a bit, I had a decision, cut it or take another shot with the hammer. Hammer.
CRACK!!!!!!!
Cracks are bad, I did not even get mad, I kinda expected it.
I am a dork II
I tried to take off my bolts at 6:00 in the morning while waiting for one of my sons to get ready for high school while the engine was cold using a flashlight(dedicated f150 guy, can't waste any unusable time not working on truck).
I tried again after work to get the manifold out, after having a beer (and running the engine to heat it up) and found that a slightly modifed 13mm socket wrench in a 2 foot cast tube(torque)
did the trick, even in a blackout. had the flashlight out again, but this time I won. thanks for the help!, I never heard of those easy outs before, but I am going to pick them up.