1968 Mustang Convertible Restoration: Engine Odds n Ends

At the end of my last blog entry I had just completed the major part of the rebuild of the engine. However, a few parts were still missing, including the exhaust manifolds, the fuel pump, and a couple of other bits. So my first problem was what to do with the manifolds. I could just put them on the engine but man, I just put all this work into the engine and I just couldn't do it. The next option was to paint them with high temperature paint. This is a very realistic option. I read quite a bit on the subject and found a paint called VHT that many people seemed to like. However, in order to apply it correctly, you need to heat it in an oven up to around 600 degrees. My wife was NOT agreeable to this option at all and I don't have room for a garage oven nor do I yet have a 220 outlet. The second option is to pay for a high temp powder-coat. From what I've read, this would have probably worked fine for cast iron manifolds (but supposedly not so great for headers). I found a guy that would do both for $100 but his shop is an hour away, one way. I called around some more and found a guy that agreed to do option #3, ceramic coat, for $50 more who's shop is only 30 minutes away so that's what I chose to do. He agreed to cut some of the cost down by me cleaning up the manifolds myself first and then he'd just give them a quick going-over in his blaster cabinet. I cleaned them up with wire wheel first and then a run through my cabinet. After they were cleaned up a bit, I noticed that some of the bolt flanges were cracked and/or broken. I tossed around the idea of buying a new pair of repro manifolds but then I'd be out about $150 for the manifolds and then another $150 for the ceramic coat that I'd have to do anyway. I decided to attempt to weld the cracks in the cast iron. Now cast iron is bit of a hassle to weld correctly and I did a fairly mediocre job but I think I managed to improve it a bit. I guess time will tell if an exhaust leak shows up and I wind up buying a new set of manifolds in the future. I took them to the powder-coater and while awaiting their return, I ordered a new set of exhaust manifold bolts and spent my time cleaning up the other parts such as fuel pump, thermostat housing, etc.

When we last left off...

The left side is "before" and the right side is "after" cleanup.

Ouch. Quite the crack there.

Welded up

About a week later, the manifolds were returned and they looked great. I knew I had missed a step before taking the manifolds to the coater in that the exhaust studs were in really bad, rusty shape. As in, the threads toward the ends of the studs were rusted away to nothing. I skipped this step because new studs were on order from NPD and the coater had cut some of my cost because he was already doing a job for a large client and I had to get the manifolds to him before I had a chance to put on new studs. The bottom line is that I had to replace the studs AFTER the coating was already done and I was seriously stressing about damaging the coating. I wrapped the manifolds in a clean rag and clamped it in my bench vice with some jaw covers. Now, how to get the old studs out without cracking the manifold? I read up on the subject and found that if the studs are in good shape, you can just thread two nuts against each other and unscrew them like a regular bolt with a socket wrench. These studs though... they didn't have much for nuts to grab onto. I opted for a pipe wrench and it worked great. The first manifold that had the most rusted studs, I soaked with penetrating oil and worked them out slowly. The other side didn't require that much finesse. I then coated the ends of the new studs with anti-seize and used the two-bolts-torqued-against-each-other trick to torque the studs to spec.

Worn out old studs (like Ron Jeremy)

New studs with a coat of anti-seize.

Not too shabby. Ready for service.

Finally, the manifolds could be bolted to the heads. These engines have a pair of studs that stick out on each side so I referenced my old pre-disassembly pics to see which holes these stud-bolts went into and duplicated it. You don't want to torque these bolts past spec because they may crack from heat expansion while being run.

All bolted on.

After I cleaned up the thermostat housing and installed it with the vacuum switch that sits on top and installed it with the thermostat, I cleaned up and painted the engine mounts, fuel pump, oil pressure sender, main pulley, and oil cap. The bolts were given the usual phosphate and oil treatment.

The miscellaneous parts were then bolted onto the engine with their specified torques.

Parts is parts

Motor mounts mounted.

Side view of newly installed parts

Front view of newly installed parts.

So then I noticed that huge empty space on top of the intake manifold so I figured I should find something to go there. I found a 4100 carb in need of some love on eBay for $125. I also bought a carb rebuilt kit from Mustangs Unlimited for an additional $26 that seemed to be as complete as the eBay kits that are selling for $50.