So I was off to the liquer store in my 53 ford, went out to start it up and WHOA! It was cracklefest in my garage! Shut it down and noticed I had two cracks on both sides of my exhuast manifold. So I came in to see If my ford parts catalogs carried this and no Exhaust manifold! So is there someway to repair the cracks? Its a 215 inline 6 my daily driver. looks like Ill be walking to the liquer store!
Beyond those things you mix up, patches and such, I know that you can braze those manifolds. Not saying its easy. I had a 39 chevy that I had to cut the manifold to reposition the outlet to clear the steering. Late friend of mine was a steamfitter, and he brazed the two pcs together.
Same thing happened to my 52 two summers ago. I sent it out to be welded, the guy had it for about a month and a half and then it still leaked. I've got another one now that I'm going to be taking off in the next week or two to put on some headers. PM me if you're interested in it.
You can braze cast iron but i like to weld it. The way you weld it is to heat that sucker up with a torch 450 degrees check it with a temp stick that is to check how hot it is they sell those at the local weld shop. Then weld it up with cast iron rod. It will hold forever!!!!! Let it cool down by itself not with water it has to cool down slowly the best way is to reheat it and slowly heat it down. 450 400 350 and so on. But before you weld all up you must v cut so you have good penetration and clean it up good and well the most important part make sure it is all strait or lined up so it bolts back on to the head knuck from indiana.
I changed the manifolds on a beat up o/t '93 F-250 with a 351 windsor. 4 cracks on the passenger side and 3 on the driver's side. So I had an extra set of '88 stock stainless HO Mustang headers laying around and I half assed jerry rigged the Y-pipe to make it work. That truck had over 350,000 miles on it. The owner of that truck finally got rid of it some weeks later to a construction company.. New manfolds for that truck were like $200 a piece for it.
i've done modela30's method several times on bb chevy manifolds and ac tractors. works good but is very hot work as he stated. i save all mine that can wait until winter when the shop is cold and i need an excuse to start up the hot box.
My skills would be a first time to have a go at it! I am always up for a learning curve! jandlcars is that a website Eutectic.
Is there any indicators that I couldve burnt a valve. I dont have any smoke coming out the exhuast and it seemed to be running fine until I started it up to go to the liquer store. All my temp gauges seem to be fine. But it has sounded a little funny over the past week.
It's easy to weld. You just have to know how to do it. Have a torch and a hammer handy. Heat the area red hot. When it is cherry red weld it up. Mig or stick it doesn't matter. Make sure it stays red hot until the welding is finished. Once done ping it with the hammer lightly. this relieves the tension and helps it to not crack. Once cool grind it and done. An old timer showed that trick to me. Works great if done right. I've done a few and never had another crack come back up.
WOW! thanks guys! So drill my two small holes at the end of the cracks. Then should I dremel a small V groove? Or leave the cracks? get it red hot then use my mig to weld up the cracks while keeping it hot. once done ping it real lightly. then grind it with what grit of disc?
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