| Re: [GMCnet] Broken exhaust manifold bolt - final verdict [message #149552] |
Sun, 13 November 2011 11:01  |
Richard Brown
Messages: 281
Registered: May 2009
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An exhaust manifold is hard enough to work with as it is, much less if it was all slimy covered with anti-seize like that...
When I was growing up there was a neighbor we carried things that needed to be repaired to who had a forge. He never let any metal go to waste. He made my mother a set of hand-forged kitchen knives I wish I had to this day, and gave my dad a wrecking bar made from an axle shaft. He would take manifolds & dip them in old waste oil he kept in a drum in his shop (He saved oil drained from gearboxes & used motor oil for oil quenching) & let it soak for a bit, then tossed it in the forge until the oil burned off. He'd do that several times until it was as black as a cast-iron skillet. I asked why & he said that he'd seen old cars with leaky valve cover gaskets get oil on the manifolds & he'd never seen one rust where the oil had been.
He also did something interesting on manifolds that bolt on the motor without gaskets. He'd make sure both the head & manifold were perfectly flat, then before bolting it on he'd coat the manifold face where it went on the head with heavy grease, then bolt it in place. He told me that when the grease got hot enough, it would turn to carbon & seal the gaps. Can't say it was scientific, but he did that to a truck of my dad's that was bad about leaking after a while & it sealed it off. It never leaked there again. Kinda makes you wonder if folks back then were actually ahead of the curve as far as figuring out solutions to problems. I wish he was still alive. He'd have my old GMC running smooth as silk in no time..
I asked him where he had learned all he knew & he said in Detroit. His first job was at the Ford factory as an apprentice sheetmetal worker making parts with an English Wheel & hand hammers & dollies. When I asked what an English Wheel was, he took me into his shop & showed me the one he'd trained on. He had bought it from Ford when they quit using it. I later watched him make a set of front fenders for a Model A for someone who was restoring one out of a couple of car hoods. What he did is now a lost art.
Richard & Carol Brown
1974 Eleganza SE
"DILLIGAF"
Lindale, Tx. 75771
903-881-0192
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Richard & Carol Brown
1974 Eleganza SE
1174 Hickory Hills Dr.
Murchison, TX. 75778
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