Help me avoid the pitfalls, stealth swap

-Be sure to drain the coolant before you remove your intake. A good time to put some fresh coolant in there after the swap.

- Don't use the cork end gaskets, a bead of high quality silicone will do the trick.

- torque the new intake in a x-cross pattern


you can also have your old intake fixed.

Make sure you don't drop your distributer drive shaft into the oil pan. It's a real pain in the ass! Ask me how I know.

Tim

Pbum5 said:

-Be sure to drain the coolant before you remove your intake. A good time to put some fresh coolant in there after the swap.

- Don't use the cork end gaskets, a bead of high quality silicone will do the trick.

- torque the new intake in a x-cross pattern


you can also have your old intake fixed.

Click to expand...

use a THIN
coat of black rtv(my preference) on both sides of the intake gasket around the coolant passages ONLY
.

when torqueing down the intake, start by torqueing the outer corner bolts first in a criss cross pattern, then use the factory ford pattern to torque all the bolts that hold the intake in place. factory spec is 25ft/lbs, but i often use 30ft/lbs(ford even allows this) to prevent any leaks.

[/QUOTE=65 fastback]Make sure you don't drop your distributer drive shaft into the oil pan. It's a real pain in the ass! Ask me how I know.

Tim[/QUOTE]

excellent advice!!!

scouttrooper said:

I am replacing my Edelbrock intake due to a crack in the thermostat mounting bolt hole. I have it "band-aided" onto the intake with a heli-coil, but can't get a tiny trickle to stop. I even had the old one jet-coated before the crack expressed itself. What a waste of money that was! Anyway, I've chosen the stealth as a replacement and would love to benefit from the mistakes you've made and can steer me away from, (A.K.A. EXPERIENCE!). Anyone care to share with me something I "shouldn't do" as I'm replacing this thing? ('65 289 built as 302, moderate roller cam, Edelbrock Thunder Series 650, modified heads with 1.7 rockers, 2.5" Magnaflows) I suspect I'll get this done with no trouble, but thought it might be a wise question to ask.

Click to expand...

Let me ask a question before you go further. Are you using a chrome plated thermostat cover? If you were that was your leak problem originally. If it leaked on the Edelbrock, it'lll leak on the Weiand. And whether it's got an O ring or gasket, they'll still leak. The chrome is too "slick" to let either seal. Either rough up the seal surface or get a stock aluminum cover to replace it. It sounds to me like you over tightened the bolts in an effort to fix the leak, then bottomed out the threads and cracked the intake. The intake can also be welded to fix the crack.

Use studs - you can make them by cutting off the heads off of 3" 5/16" bolts, and screw them into the four corners of the intake bolt holes (front left, front right, rear left, rear right). Use these to guide the manifold into place as you lower it onto the heads.

Dry fit the manifold with gasket in place and check how much gap you have between the manifold and the block end rails. The gap will be smaller after you torque the manifold in place, but this will give you an idea how tall your silicone bead will need to be in order to seal up the end rails. Yo also want to make sure there IS a gap. If the manifold rests on the endrails, it will have to be machined to allow the gap.

I always check port placement/matching of the manifold to the heads. If your head ports are not too oversized, then they will not be much larger than the ports on the Stealth and it will be important to get the manifold positioned properly. I place a straight edge along the edge of each port on the manifold and draw a vertical line up to the top of the manifold; then extend the lines a bit on the top so they can be seen from a top view of the manifold. Do the same on heads, extending the port walls up to near the valve cover surface. Now you have the lateral walls of each head and manifold port marked where you can see them when the manifold is placed on the motor and can (during your mock-up) make sure that the manifold can be positioned in a way that keeps your intake port walls INSIDE the head port walls.

If you want to go a step further you can also determine where the ports are vertically. This requires a dial caliper. Do yo have one?

I use Gaskacinch on the head surface side of the gasket around the intake ports and some silicone around the water ports. Silicone is contrindicated where it will come into contact with gas, so keep it away from the intake ports. I don't use anything on the manifold surface of a Felpro 1250 gasket, which you will probably be using.

Don't feel bad, you're not the first to have things like this happen. The last 67 coupe I bought was the same way. I ended up selling it, the farther I got into it, the more work it was going to need and I just didn't want or need that. What Edelbrock intake is it? Want to sell the intake?

how much you want for the intake?

Now that you said it's been coated, I think I'll pass. Not sure, but seems to me like that complicated repairing it. That and I like the "Nekkid" look. on my intakes.