1500 Exhaust manifold and de-smogging

[dave99]

Hi all, the 79 Midget I purchased had a manifold from a 75-76 1500 engine with the EGR valve mounted down near the manifold/pipe flange. This is the only piece that was replaced by the original owner, because of a crack, which is not stock. My goal is to have all proper parts as originally installed, as the car is otherwise in excellent shape with zero rust (southern CA car).

I recently purchased the correct manifold with the EGR fitting at the top center of the manifold.

I am now removing all the smog equipment (CA smog equip)to get a bit more performance here in Denver.

I have not been successful in finding the correct bolts/plugs to plug the EGR hole at the top of the manifold and a 2nd pipe fitting about 1/2 way down the manifold. I tried measuring but I am not sure if they are standard or metric threads. The EGR fitting is a coarse thread and the other fitting is a fine thread. They are both 3/4" but I am not positive.

Has anyone removed the EGR and plugged these holes? If you can provide the bolt sizes used that would be great.

I know I can just leave the EGR valve installed and disconnect the vacuum line, but I would like to remove it (and store it) and clean up the engine compartment at the same time.

Thanks for any help.

Dave

 

[jlaird]

Wonders if soft brass plugs could be insereted with a bit of sealent on them.

 

[CK_1500]

There's a good possibility the fittings are BSP (British pipe thread). If not, they should be inch-type threads, although some of the fuel fittings I think were still Whitworth. In any case, you can buy BSP plugs online at McMaster-Carr (www.mcmaster.com). Other people I have heard used hardware store plugs with furnace cement and it has worked fine. The downside to that is if you ever need to put the smog stuff back on, it'll be a real pain to remove the cement.

I replaced my manifold (which was cracked) with a 4-2-1 header when I de-smogged, although that doesn't really help you. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[capitalcitycars]

I used a PaceSetter header and it works nicely.