I have a 1968 302 in my 1953 Customline. I am converting it to 4 barrel as you read this. I have a Chiltons telling me what to do, but I have one question. First, I have zero car experience. So knowing that, once the old manifold is off what should I look for that would be good/bad besides checking for crack? Cleaning? I just bought the car so I'm not positive on the engine condition. I trust the previous owner what he said about it but...who knows. I want to clean it but I'm afraid of all the surrounding dirt falling into some place I can't get it out, or am I fine wiping it down? I'm eating lunch and then want this put back together today, so if I get any answers soon that would be a big help. Really appreciate it thank you!
shop vac..... Was the engine running? It's kind of odd having all that rusty looking deposits in the intake ports. Normally you'll just find them in the water ports (the smaller rectangular holes near the ends of the heads).
Wad up some paper towels, stuff small ones in the open ports; the larger open valley can be covered with paper towels also. Now scrape the gasket surfaces with something like a good 1.5" wide wood chisel. Be careful, scape in careful strokes: avoin strong-arming the strokes, as you can make 'nicks'. Assuming you have no compressed air, just clean it as much as you can 'dry', then wet a rag with solvemt (or paint thinner) and clean the mating surfaces. If you are going to paint/detail the manifold, make a suitable paper 'mask' for items that will get overspray. Install the intake manifold carefully, after sealing the corners of the gaskets with RTV (room temp vulcanizing) silicone. (black, O'Reilly's has it) Start all the bolts, barely snug them down; when tightening, start at the centers; Left, right, then skip back and forth (left and right) working evenly to the front and rear. Pretty simple, really...'common sense'. Cracked intake manifolds are rare on the Ford engines...cracks appear more often in the water pump/timing case area. Good hunting.....
Awesome thank you! All great stuff. I don't own air but I have to go to O'Reillys because I didn't get a gasket for the thermostat housing and I'll get a can. Otherwise I own everything else mentioned. Squirrel, the engine was running when I bought it. It had been sitting for five years so it wasn't really driveable beyond a test-drive although the guy put in a new fuel pump, changing the oil, flushed the tranny, new spark plugs/wires, radiator work, etc. Since then, all that is left for me to do is a new carb/manifold.
Those intake ports would concern me. I am used to seeing ports like that because I was in the marine business and when exhaust manifolds would rust out seawater would get into the engine, but this is on a car motor. My guess is that water got into the intake of this car somehow. My question is, are you putting a 4 barrel on it without having it running ? Have you had this motor running to see how sound it is before you start putting money into it ? I fear that if the ports look like that the valves and combustion chambers don't look much better. Don
It sounded fine, as in I was listening for trouble sounds I read about, as in I'm no expert. I didn't want to upgrade to a 4 barrel right now, long story why, and my fear is putting new parts on a POS. -never mind on the valve cover comment, deleted that part....
Just stuck my finger in there. The rust is dust that wipes off with a finger, so that's a good sign it's not rusted bad....or at least it's not rusted bad right there.
OK, now I'm worried about the rust-dust issue. Here's a pic of the intake and a valve, about 6 of 8 look this way. Dust trail comes from the old carb. Might be more than dust farther than I can put my finger in, but it just seems like dust, any way to clean it out easily? Any advice? Thank you.
Well, if it was running and you have the new intake and carb, you will only be out a set of intake gaskets to try it. Do what everyone suggested, stuff some rags down in every hole below the top slightly, and lay a blanket of lots of shop rags into the area where the lifters are. You really don't want to get a speck of old gasket or dirt into any open areas. Then use a putty knife and single edge razor blade to get off as much old gasket as you can, and maybe even finish up with a small wire wheel on an electric drill. Finally, wipe all the machined surfaces clean ( do the entire routine on the intake mating surfaces too) with some carb cleaner or lacquer thinner and shop vac everything clean of dust and debris. When you put the new gaskets down run a thin bead of aviation sealant around each port on both sides of the gasket. Toss out the front and rear seals that come with the set and instead use a nice big bead of The Right Stuff to make your own end seals. Both the aviation and Right Stuff are available at all auto parts stores. Torque the new intake in the sequence your manual says to the torque specs they give. I like to take them in 3 steps......if the final torque is 45 I first go to 15 pounds all around, then 30, and finally 45. You will know after running it for a while if it is going to be ok or not. Don Here are the two products I recommended: ll
If you google intake manifold replacement 302 Ford....I'm sure you can find some info that will really help you. But this is how you learn. Good luck! I've screwed up multiple sets of engine gaskets learning. Another piece of advice is to snatch up gasket sets at swap meets. I bought 2 sets of mr.gasket SBC kits for 30 a piece cause its always good to have back ups! It looks like your starting a project and trying to learn on your own and thats the kind of stuff you will need to do repeatedly! Oh and stock up on the RTV material like Don said!
also i learned the hard way to make shure the radiator is empty. run the motor with no water for a few mins with out overheating it, then retighten the bolts and fill the radiator back up. i changed a intake on a 390 with out doing the above mentioned and it caused instant milkshake in the oil. took 4 oil changes to finaly clear it out
They don't cover this stuff in Chiltons, thank you! So just ignore the dust I guess? I was guessing someone would say to take off the heads and clean it. Also surprised the gaskets are slightly bigger in the corners....easy to cut after the manifold is one with a razor, but maybe I'll check I got the right ones. Edit: pretty sure I have the wrong ones...will take the old and new back to oriellys and straighten it out.
That rust comes from moisture in the intake manifold. There's not supposed to be any moisture in there. (Fuel, air, crankcase vapors, thats it ) Generally those ports are black with a slightly oily film on them. What's the manifold look like, was it cracked, leaky at the water jacket?
What is the part number of the gasket set you bought ? We can tell you if it is the right one. IMO, don't buy the Printoseal versions, they are not all they are cracked up to be. I really prefer the softer, thicker gaskets as they squeesh down and fill voids better. Don
Its just like any education. Its not free and you're not going to learn any younger. The primary thang is don't screw up by hurrying and cleanliness is top priority. Your manual tells you how much and sequence to torque. If any of the gasket material is really stuck you can get remover that will soften it. You said you didn't want to spend money on a pos, but better go spend some and rhin a pos than spend it and ruin something good. Follow that manual step by step exactly. Most of us use rtv for the end seals totally instead of trying to get the seals in the gasket sets seal. Good luck.
31 vickey, the dust trail goes through the carb so that's the source. I coulda seen that by looking in the carb before all this (no air filter on it when I bought it)...oh well. Don, it's a Fel-Pro 90116-1? wildethang, yeah, I'm not getting any younger and I'm not running into anyone that does this stuff, so I just bought this car and hoped for the best...and trusted the previous owner was telling me everything he knew.
Maybe someone did the "water down the carb to clean off deposits " trick not too long before you tore it apart.
Surface rust in an intake that has been setting for 5 years is not abnormal. Humidity and heating and cooling does that. Here things rust setting on a shelf in my shop in way less than 5 yrs. Dew can form if it was setting out. You do need to get you a small air compressor at least to blow out the dust. You need to clean the new intake and run rags threw all runners to make sure there is no debris and run a tap through all the bolt holes and clean all the bolt threads and lube with light oil before torquing.
Well, I got a can of air and blew out what I could with the shop vac on at the same time. Seems like the stuff deep in there is all dust, which is good news. No visible chips or chunks of rust. I'm putting the thermo housing back on. The two old bolts for this housing don't thread into the new Edelbrock manifold. I cleaned them best I could and, sure they are still a little dirty, but they thread into the old manifold no problem. Is it possible for them to deform over heat and time? This makes no sense to me. Can I go to Home Depot to replace these, btw? Finally, what is this blue thing on the thermo housing for? It wasn't hooked up to anything for me to trace back and guess what it is for, and it is not in any pic in my Chiltons, which is confusing. The part number on it comes back as an engine block number. Has an 'E' and an 'S' near the nipples. Thank you!
The blue thing is a temperature operated vacuum valve, and since you don't have any emissions stuff on the motor any more (I'm making an assumption) you can just remove that thingy and put a pipe plug into the hole in the thermostat housing.
Yes that was the right gasket #, Personally I would NOT use the form a gasket around the ports, in fact i don't use ANYTHING around the ports. Gasoline, especially today's gas, has a tendency to soften most sealers over time. The gaskets are designed to be used dry there and I have had good luck with that for 40 years with quality Fel Pro gaskets. Just my opinion. I WOULD however use a little small bead of the silicone around the water jackets. It is not uncommon for the rust to create some porosity around them and this insures you won't have a water leak from that. The "Blue Thing" was a vacuum delay for emissions purposes. You can leave it with the hoses unattached or you can take it out and plug the hole with a pipe plug. Run the dist vac right to the new carb of your choice. As for the thermostat housing bolts, they might be a fine thread vs. coarse or they may just be too rusty on the threads. I would go to an automotive store or industrial hardware store for the bolts,not the Chinese stuff that you might get from Home Depot
Thanks Ebbspeed! Don, actually it was the wrong gasket. The engine came from a Galaxy 500 and from what I learned there is a high performance version and a regular version of this car with the 302. Mine is the plain ol' vanilla 302 and I got the gasket for the high performance one that comes with different heads. Thanks for the advice on bolts, the fine thread vs coarse might be the problem....didn't think of that! Roger on the gasket sealing, too.
I was not certain if the torque pattern was mentioned, but you've got several good opinions here. As to pattern most manifolds will begin on a centerline axis (across) and then extend along four (outward) lines, in an expanding "X" till you are out at the ends of the manifold. You might want to 'stage' the tightening torque amount, in a couple of steps, each time walking thru the pattern till it's at full torque. Then later check to see that no water is getting into the oil when running.
Someone is feeding you some BS on the motor. There was only one 302 offered in Galaxies in 1968, the 'F' code 210 HP 2 barrel. Even if the 'J' Code 4 barrel 230HP were available, the heads are the same except for the size of the combustion chamber which changes compression - nothing different in the intake gasket. Those gaskets will work fine.
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