Iam having trouble posting this thread to your forum. I am registered I beleive. Iam asking what type of gasket would you recomment for my 62 thunderbird and the procedure involve in installing it. Larry
What little I know about the Ford FE series motors; the heads are narrow and the intake manifold is wide. This would make me think that any shaving of any of the sealing surfaces would cause problems sooner than on a motor with a narrower intake. My best advice would be to fit the heads to the block with gaskets, then put the intake on with only the gaskets that seal the ports, not the end gaskets. This way you can judge whether the end gaskets supplied are going to be too thick. Actually, these gaskets are usually omitted and replaced with RTV gasket maker on Chevies.
i alway had a tough time sealing the gasket on fords, i glue the gasket to the manifold before installing, and use non harding sealer on the head, ford gaskets seem to slide out of place as the manifold goes on, they seam a lot worse than other cars
It's not a fun job, intake weighs 80 pounds. get some help. you will be pulling the heads as well, so make sure you've got a good set of head gaskets Buy a shop manual, it's worth every cent
thanks Unclee. I dont no what my wifes cousin used as far as gaskets. All I no he wont stand behind his work. He lives about 200 miles away from me. I took the car to several places and had then look at it and all they came up with is that there oil down where the head meets the block. Unfortunly the drivers side spots about 6 to 8 drops the passenger side a few.. But everyone of these professionals indicated that the head gasket is leaking. Now I would say if that was the case wouldnt it be radiator fluid instead of oil. I had a new short block with the same casting number for this car. How luckly was I that I found one. Had to travel to wis. for it Thanks Larry
If you clean the engine off so that it is pretty well spotless then run it can you tell exactly where it starts to seep/leak? Is it leaking from where the head meets the block or where the intake meets the head and block? As Wolfman 1 said, those intakes are very heavy and it is real easy to get a gasket out of alignment or not get it fitted right. The last one we did, we used the chain hoist to set it in place so we didn't have to fight with it.
Hi there Larry. Are you talking about oil or water? Ive never had probs with water but Ive got two working Fe's,one in my street rod & one in my wifes 63 T/Bird & they both leak oil.When I put my triples on the roadster I made sure I used Fel-pro gaskets & a good dabling of rtv silastic on the mating surface between intake & block front & rear.The same happened with the 63 FE,so when I pulled the injun out for a tidy up I just painted it black so you dont notice it as much. lol.Just one of the joys of owning an FE. Deadbeat
This sounds like the exact problem I just ran into last week on my '62 Lincoln (with a 430 MEL). Yes, the intake (feels like it) weighs ~80lbs!! As I was filling the last of the fluids (coolant), I noticed a puddle under the car. Looking for the leak, it was pooling at the back of the valley pan, and dripping down. The intake freeze plugs were replaced, so that was immediately eliminated as a possible source, but still couldn't find the leak. I decided to pull the intake off. First thing I noticed was that the gasket around the rear water passages was wet, and leaked to valley pan. It had even leaked a little bit into #4 and #8 cylinders. Sure enough, drained the oil and confirmed a bit of coolant. When I installed the intake, I made sure to torque the bolts to the specified 25-28lbs required and followed the tightening pattern (from manual). I've already scraped the old gasket off the intake and heads, and checked to see if there any gaps in the intake surface. The intake was level/no gaps. However, the front and rear water passages of the heads looks to be .005" lower. The intake and heads are original with only 53K miles... I've ordered new gaskets and plan on using a little RTV sealant around each water passage, as well as torque the bolts and "clam shells" a little tighter.
BenderJ -I just had the same problem on a 430 mel . It was drivers side rear coolant passage. When I pulled the intake back off there was some minor pitting on the head at the rear water passage. I put a small amount of JB weld in the pits. Then I used hi-temp RTV on both sides of the gasket. There doesn't seem to be enough bolts on that manifold. It sucked pulling that thing apart again. It was a 62 Lincoln vert.
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