by Guest Mon Aug 03, 2009 5:59 amWhen I purchased my 64 Econoline the exhaust manifold was broken. I found that the mustang suppliers had a manifold for less money than the econoline folks. I made a call, the person at the mustang shop assured me that the exhaust manifolds were interchangable, so I ordered one.
I've had problems with exhaust leaks for almost 3 years now. Between the shops I use and myself I've tried everything, including two gaskets (manifold and flange) compounds, some worked better than others, some not at all.
Two weeks ago I took the van to an exhaust shop, he took one look at the van and said that the carb was leaking, and running too rich causing exhaust gasses to burn in the manifold and that was helping burn out the gaskets. "Rebuild the carb and bring it back to me"
I got a kit, rebuilt the carb, put it on and got it running well enough to get it to a shop for a full tune up with timing adjustments, etc. I decided to put another flange gasket on to drive it to town. Broke a dang flange stud off, so I had to pull the entire manifold off again. While cleaning it up on the tailgate of my pickup I noticed that it wasn't sitting level, so I placed it on a piece of glass and found that the head side wasn't flat at all, no wonder it's burning out gaskets.
I walked into a machine shop with the manifold this morning, the older gentleman behind the counter immediately said "you're working on a mustang", I told him that it was actually an Econoline. He said that he has machined so many mustang manifolds over the years because of the same problems. He also told me that if the head was flat and the manifold was flat, those motors don't require gaskets at all! From what he said, these motors came from the factory without manifold gaskets and that I only needed to run a gasket if my head isn't perfect, but that he would try it without a gasket first. He also told me that since I was running a mustang manifold on an econoline, I needed a donut gasket, not the flat flange gaskets that I had been getting for the Econoline. That means my exhaust pipe has to be replaced or modified to accept a donut instead of paper gaskets. (It would have been cheaper to get the econoline manifold) Maybe I'm finally going to get to ride in a quiet van without exhaust fumes choking me! LOL
He also mentioned that with the 170 with the single barrel carb on a stock manifold, that the #1 and #6 cylinders always run a little lean, to not be tempted to advance the timing for a little more low end power, since this would starver those cylinders even more.
Maybe this will save somebody else the hair-pulling I've been going through for so many months!
I've had problems with exhaust leaks for almost 3 years now. Between the shops I use and myself I've tried everything, including two gaskets (manifold and flange) compounds, some worked better than others, some not at all.
Two weeks ago I took the van to an exhaust shop, he took one look at the van and said that the carb was leaking, and running too rich causing exhaust gasses to burn in the manifold and that was helping burn out the gaskets. "Rebuild the carb and bring it back to me"
I got a kit, rebuilt the carb, put it on and got it running well enough to get it to a shop for a full tune up with timing adjustments, etc. I decided to put another flange gasket on to drive it to town. Broke a dang flange stud off, so I had to pull the entire manifold off again. While cleaning it up on the tailgate of my pickup I noticed that it wasn't sitting level, so I placed it on a piece of glass and found that the head side wasn't flat at all, no wonder it's burning out gaskets.
I walked into a machine shop with the manifold this morning, the older gentleman behind the counter immediately said "you're working on a mustang", I told him that it was actually an Econoline. He said that he has machined so many mustang manifolds over the years because of the same problems. He also told me that if the head was flat and the manifold was flat, those motors don't require gaskets at all! From what he said, these motors came from the factory without manifold gaskets and that I only needed to run a gasket if my head isn't perfect, but that he would try it without a gasket first. He also told me that since I was running a mustang manifold on an econoline, I needed a donut gasket, not the flat flange gaskets that I had been getting for the Econoline. That means my exhaust pipe has to be replaced or modified to accept a donut instead of paper gaskets. (It would have been cheaper to get the econoline manifold) Maybe I'm finally going to get to ride in a quiet van without exhaust fumes choking me! LOL
He also mentioned that with the 170 with the single barrel carb on a stock manifold, that the #1 and #6 cylinders always run a little lean, to not be tempted to advance the timing for a little more low end power, since this would starver those cylinders even more.
Maybe this will save somebody else the hair-pulling I've been going through for so many months!
