need to get an exhaust manifold ground, milled, etc... because i have a leak on the passenger side in patty's X. machine shop in my town says they can do some , some they cannot. they also said they charge about $100 to do it. i thought that was ridiculous as i had one done about a year ago at my brother in laws for $30, but thats now 6 hours away.

SO........a friend of mine owns a plant and they have a full machine shop with cnc's manual mills etc... can i just get him to make a "clean-up cut across the surface of the exhaust manifold with a milling machine at a very minimal depth (.010) or something? any suggestions from anyone? A

Also, when i fixed my last one, i did not use a gasket as ford did not reccomend doing so. however there is allegedly a kevlar or graphite gasket available from napa that some have used, whats the opinion on this as well? gasket or no gasket?

i do know to get new bolts though. any opinions anyone could give would be great!! thanks!

 

Are you sure it is not the Exhaust Pressure sensor tube that is leaking?

 

i tried to get mine planed when we put my motor in, machine shop said they were to far out to do it wouldnt work. and it too was 100 bucks, i bought new ones on ebay for 116 shipped. then could be painted to look pretty and not leak for 16$ more

 

BTW I used felpro gaskets on Kenny's engine, it was $30 for the kit of two, fiber gaskets with a steel ring. Torqued them down to 45 or so, it felt right.

 

If you feel comfortable with the shop and the price, then sure you can mill off 10 or 20 thou. The key is fixturing it to mill it. That's where the time comes in. Most exhaust manifolds don't have a good surface to clamp it down when the flat surface is straight up. Just last year my dad was making the final pass on his 1932 Model B manifold when it spit it on the floor and into two pieces!

Pricing can be all over the place. I know our two man shop would not touch it for less than $100/ea !!! But we get people to pay $100/hr all day long...

Your best bet is probably new ones. If you have the cash, there are some nice SST header style manifolds on the market now for about a grand.

 

i'm thinking about going the route of the felpro gasket instead of milling altogether. if those are cast iron it would seem that the problem or void is not so much coming from the "warping" of the manifolds due to heat cycling, but the relaxing of the torquing of the bolts over time. so, i might just try a gasket set for $30 and that will probably solve it all.

Kris, did you mill the surface(s) or just pull them off and install the gaskets?

 

No, like kenny stated, they were new ones..

Yeah... Headers...



DROOL

 

The Fel-Pro gaskets are $38 from Autozone. I reused my stock 207,000 mile manifolds (144,600 at the time ) and they are holding without issue.

 

mine were 28 or 30 from napa.

 

100 for a general machine shop to resurface a manifold would be a bargain. The catch is holding the manifold correctly without spending 4 hours to do it. while a surface grinder would be the flattest surface, milling would obtain acceptable results

 

That makes my sticker peck out.......

 

Just slap a gasket on it. That is even what the shop manual recommends.

Who has those headers on?

 

10-4, that is my weekend project, if i can get the new bolts. i may have to get my stealer to order them and wait for next weekend.