Hello Group. I posted this question before but the adminstrator took out my hits because I failrd to follow instructions. Iam sorry for that. I own a 1962 ford thunderbird convertible in which my mechanic replaced the orginal short block with another one with the same casting number and had my wifes cousin do the work. He is very experience and rebuildind street rods He drove several hundred miles to get my car and take it back to Toldo Ohio to install the engine. He used my old heads and had them milled and hot tank the intake. To make a long story shorter I have a leak. I took it to several places and they indicated that there is oil down where the heads meet the block. I thought it was coming from the valve covers but no.I can put my hand in under the drivers side head about two inches under. That side leaks about 7to to eight dropping after I put the car away the passenger side leaks in about the same area but not as much. There our so many incompetant workers out there. I found out later if the heads were leaking they would be leaking antifreeze is that statement correct and theres another web sight and those people indicated that it very uncommon for the heads our leaking. These gaskets are notorious for leaking. Any suggestion how to correct this problem and please be specific to me. Would you suggest a particular gasket and why to you RTV or not. Iam glad I joined this group guys and that so many of you for your welcome. Larry
Larry, It could be that by milling the heads the intake does not fit correctly. You may be able to use new gaskets and some very good RTV such as the permatex grey or Mopar RTV and get it to seal. But the correct fix will be to have a machinist correct the angle on the intake to match the heads and the top of the block. If that is a FE series engine the manifold is heavy, a helper will come in handy. Good Luck, B
Probably not leaking out of the heads but where the intake meets the block in the rear, real easy to have the cork gasket slip out when putting on that 100# intake.
Thanks oldb. Could the mechanic just lay dowh a quarter of a inch bead and not use a gasket. It appears that the back corner in the rear back near the firewall is leakings. The driver side a little bit more than the passenger side. These engines I was told were notorious for leaking around the back corners.Have you known anyone with the same experience that Iam going through. Thanks Larry
I concur with the rear of manifold theory. If the installation wasn't too long ago, you might get lucky (like I did) and be able to fix it without re-removing that monster of a manifold. Reach around the back of the manifold and see if you can touch the cork gasket. If you can, that means it's out of position. First, drain your coolant down at least halfway. Then, loosen the intake manifold bolts almost all the way. Then, lift and/or pry upwards the rear of the manifold. I removed the valve covers and stuck a prybar alongside a pushrod at the rear of the manifold. WHILE prying upwards, reach around and "tuck" the cork gasket back into position. Re torque everything and see what happens. Good Luck!
I never use the corks on the ends of an intake, or I should say I haven't used the corks in several years. I just lay a bead of RTV across the ends where the corks would fit and then set my intake. Depending on how much the heads were milled you may have a worse leak where the intake meets the head. Felpro and Victor both make an extra thick gasket for your application to over come the problem or you can get the intake cut as has been mentioned. The heads should have been faced and perhaps that is all they did. You only knock a couple of thousandths off when you face them as a rule. If they were warped then they would have had to have been milled. That could entail a bunch. I would ask how much was knocked off and go from there.
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