Technical 289 intake weirdness

Anyone ever encounter this? Putting together a 289 for a buddy who has had the parts stashed since the late 70s/ early 80s. Not really sure what the deal is and haven’t found any info online. Am I having a brain fart senior moment way too soon?

 

Yep, that's the way some heads were cast. For the guys that don't believe in torque wrenches, the leading cause of breaking off that corner of the intake...

 

Fords love 'em or hate 'em they were Fords.

 

Normal sbf Ford stuff. Good to go.

 

I did a Google and found several others like that. As Crazy said, use the correct torque specs. Looks like you could easily snap it off. But I don't know squat about Fords.

 

You’d think a wedged spacer would be made for that.

 

That would cost another $ 0.04, are you nuts?!

 

Cast iron intakes from the factory don't tend to break there. Even if the factory had made a spacer some gearhead would toss it during an intake change.

 

I get ya. But was thinking Mr Gasket, etc would have seen a way to make a buck.

 

It would be way to easy to make your own I wouldn't do it.

 

I was considering making a wedge spacer out of some tubing but didn’t want it to look hokey. I just won’t get he man on the intake bolts and check torque specs.
Little backstory, he disassembled his 65 comet in 1977 and it never went back together. All new now semi vintage speed parts going back together finally now that we are putting it back together. We meaning me, he’s in a home and can’t turn wrenches anymore.

 

Curious as to what casting number your heads are ? My 302 has 289 Hi-Po C5OE-B heads and no gap there maybe check here about casting numbers http://www.mre-books.com/interchange/interchange5.html

 

With a aluminum intake, you do want to lower the factory torque number and make sure you use the factory pattern. I'll sneak up on it, starting at 10 ft-lbs, going up in 2 lb increments until you hit 18 ft-lbs, repeat this twice then stop.

Using the cast-iron number and tightening in one operation is how you break these...

 

I'll bet I know what happened, you got the heads on backward.

 

Thought I had a pic of the casting, but nope. I’ll check next time I’m over there.

 

Ha! Of course!