Quote:
Originally Posted by Flathead
The exhaust and intake need to be dead flat where they bolt to the block or the gasket will let go.
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That's fine if you can do it but on our last outback trip, the manifold on my car stated to leak. Chuff, Chuff, Chuff! After two attempts to fix it by making another gasket on the running board and both failing after a short distance, I gave up and drove on. It was about 3,000 miles later that I had the chance to fix it properly. When I removed the manifold, I found why my "running board" fixes failed. There was a piece of the original gasket that I couldn't get to. That caused the "new" gasket to fail and the manifold to warp so much it was OBVIOUS to the naked eye. There were no facilities within a thousand miles to have it machined flat so I filed it close. I used the edge draw bar on the camper as a straight edge and still settled for "close". After properly cleaning the side of the block, I fitted a new metal gasket, did everything up and drove the remaining 2,000 miles home. That engine is now in another car and still going just fine (and quietly).
IMO, we over think too much with these cars.