I am changing the intake and exhaust gaskets on my straight eight and there are only 3 of the intake guide rings. Is it ok to put it back together that way?
Thanks in advance.
Cars has the intake rings, they are not that expensive. I just bought a set. I can't find the 3 old ones I took out, I will try again tomorrow in the daylight. If I find them you are welcome to them. Somebody on eBay is selling the ring for the heat riser if you need that as well.
I ordered a set from Bob's.
Thank you.
Glad you got them, I looked a gain but didn't find my old 3. The old gaskets were in the can but not the rings. I will probably find them hung somewhere on a nail someday.
Last edited by tjbian; 07-26-2016 at 12:23 PM. Reason: Spelling error
I got my manifolds, cleaned them up and installed them with the help of my son who is a Mechanical Engineer with a PhD. I had to purchase all three pieces in one unit, intake manifold, exhaust manifold and heat riser so I did not attempt to disassemble them as they were not leaking. I used CARS rings which are thicker than original and a bear to get in, CARS copper gasket set and I made the "compound" suggested with equal parts of graphite and 20W50 motor oil. I use three 3 Gm. tubes of graphite for locks and barely had enough, I would use four if I ever had to do it again. I used the Belleville washers from McMaster Carr, .75" od, 0.056" thick. Everything went together fine but I had a scary moment as there was a sharp snapping sound as a couple of the rings seated. I can highly recommend POR-15 manifold paint. It looks great and I think this is the 3rd or 4th job for a pint can and it is half full. The plastic fuel filter seen in the last picture has been replaced with a reproduction AC Bowl from Bob's. It the time the photo was taken the plastic one was filling in for the old bowl (Carter) that was leaking.
Last edited by tjbian; 08-08-2016 at 06:27 AM.
It looks like you took the belt and suspenders approach to your manifolds. Buick does NOT recommend using gaskets on the manifolds. Because of the softness of the copper gasket it will conform to the irregularities of the manifold mating surfaces.This will insure a leak free mating for about a week. But repeated heat/cool cycles will cause the copper to squish out and loosen, resulting in a leaking joint. Retightening the mounting bolts will cause warping stresses into the manifolds because the gasket hasn't thinned equally around every port. As the mounting bolts are repeatedly tightened to eliminate leaks, the iron manifolds will eventually develop cracks in their castings causing real expensive problems. The correct way to do this is to have the mating surfaces Blanchard milled for absolute flatness, loosen the bolts between intake and exhaust manifolds, Replace that gasket and loosely reattach (not fully torqued) manifolds together. Then with just intake locator rings and the graphite paste spooged on the mating surfaces tighten the manifolds to the head and retighten the intake to exhaust connection. Retighten mounting bolts after a couple of heat cycles and the setup will be good to go for years.
Best Regards and good luck with all your endeavors, KB.
Thanks for the input. I am aware of the scarcity of manifolds. I had wasted almost a month trying to have various people weld my old one before I finally found a set through the AACA Buick forum. Considering the state of the bolts holding the three pieces together I decided to leave the assembly alone, I had already ruined a heat riser housing attempting to remove a bad stud. Milling the mating surfaces was also not practical due to time constraints and knowing removing the head would most likely result in at least a valve job if not a complete overhaul. Therefore after much soul searching I decides to use the copper gasket. So far everything is holding and I had the car out on the PA Turnpike last evening. The old manifolds had the black gasket and they held up at least 50 years until the steel of the gasket rusted out. My mistake was trying to repair the old manifold as all the cracks were hairline and were not leaking. If I or my grandson after me does an overhaul then we will do it the right way.
Bookmarks