Howdy folks!

[yachtsmanbill]

BLIMEY GUB'NA... she's a beauty!!! Tinted glass with A.C.?? Hopefully the paint is just sun burned and not sand blasted from desert use... That would've scratched heck out of that nice glass! ws

[Kiwi Noel]

No AC in this one. Paint just sunburnt and glass is in good order. Need to replace diff pinion seal as torque tube is full of diff oil. Have just replaced the full exhaust system. Is it correct that the nailhead engine does not have exhaust manifold gaskets? This one has gaskets fitted. I have run a straight edge on the manifolds and there is 5 thou difference on the mating surface. What's the minimum recommendation?

[yachtsmanbill]

My opinion... In a perfect world, when the stuff was new, mating without gaskets was the norm. Any imperfections would be sealed by carbon. At .005" out of flat, depending on the bolt pattern, they may pull flat. I'm a 455 guy and with headers on mine that had leaking gaskets, I replaced mine with REMFLEX graphite gaskets. They are about 3/32" thick and very forgiving; squish wise as they are not re-enforced and will break if you bend them. I used them on the collector rings as well and ZERO leaks now. As always, wire wheel the bolts, run a bottom tap and blow out the threaded holes, and use never seize on the bolts. Thats a cruddy job and Id only want do it once LOL. ws



These are the old typical header gaskets that show the leakage areas...I took the easy approach and pulled the front clip of for a detail job

[telriv]

DON'T USE A REGULAR TAP. Use clean-out taps & dies ONLY. Using REGULAR taps & dies removes metal & makes the bolts loose in the threaded holes. Even using a wire brush rounds off the threads on bolts. For a proper cleaning you should ONLY use clean-out taps & dies. Bring your manifolds to a machinist & have them clean-up & true the manifolds on a broach/cylinder head re-surfacing machine. Using a belt sander is DEFINITELY A NO-N0. I don't care how big it may be. There's NO WAY the manifold can be held properly & it rounds off the edges. I'm sure others can attest to this who have had it done & their manifolds started leaking again!!!!

[bob k. mando]

I made the crossing in the air! Not a word of mention from Air New Zealand


as luck would have it, i'm kind of meandering through "God Is My Co-pilot" right now
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lee_Scott,_Jr.


Mr. Scott says that the proper ceremony, airborne, is an offering to Jupiter Rex as opposed to Neptune Rex for those on boats.