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I am dealing with a small crack on the side of the coolant temperature sensor well. Has anyone else experienced this and is it a common problem. It is not leaking enough to drip; just pools a little below the thermostat housing. I and contemplating pulling the manifold and brazing the crack. It appears that new and reman intakes are not available for the 300. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks,
the 300ci was only in production for 4 years ... and the first year ( 1964 ) was aluminum heads and intake. so, yeah, there's not much aftermarket support for it.
a - the Intake doesn't do anything structural or get exposed to much heat. Epoxy fill? Brazing will probably also work.
i believe all of the 1966 300ci engines were 2 barrel, with any 4 barrel applications being deployed on the 340ci. this suggests a couple of options.
b - get a 4 barrel intake from either 64 ( aluminum ) or 65 ( cast iron ). patience may be required, but they do show up once in a while. the cast intake has significantly larger runners, so many 300 builders go with that in spite of the extra weight
c - install a 4 barrel intake ... that's sitting on top of a 340ci! the 340ci - 4v actually was an option on your car that year. on the down side, 340s are scarcer than hens teeth as they were only in production in 1966-67.
which brings us to options from the broader SBB family
d - the 1965-2004 ( yes, 40 years of production ) Land Rover v8 is a metric version ( 3.5L - 4.6L ) of the first engine SBB, the 215ci. thus, they use approx the same ( shorter ) deck height of the 215ci. therefore, you can use a Land Rover intake IF you put spacers under it.
e - the same applies for 60s era intakes for the 215ci
f - the Buick 1976-86 v6 / turbo is based on the 300 v8 block. if you're a good alum welder, you could hack two v6 aftermarket intakes together and fit it on your engine
g - the Buick 350ci is the last engine in the family, the 1970 'SP' code block was rated at 315hp. all the mounting points are the same and it's got the correct bell housing pattern for your car, although the deck is a bit higher ( same height as the 340 ). GM had this in production up until 1981.
Thanks for the great info. I think I will keep it simple and just pull the manifold, blast, braze, paint and call it good. As much as I would love to swap for a 350, the car only has 42k original miles so I will save the swap for when the motor gets tired.
alternatively, crate your current motor and trans for resto purposes and put whatever you want in it for hot dogging around.
yeah, i figured that was a bit of overkill. but you know what Deep Purple says ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPvadhQr44g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPvadhQr44g