• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Cold weather engine tuning

Share this page

Maybe this wasn't the greatest idea, but I went ahead and tore into it under the assumption that the gaskets could need replacement due to their age. The running spray test just didn't seem to tell me much one way or the other.

Well, one snapped stud and ruined exhaust/intake manifold gasket later, it's true.

In addition, the heat shield has almost no shielding material left on it. What little is there, is probably not doing much good. Looks like asbestos. Yay...

How do I get the steering stuff out of the way where I can move the exhaust enough to put the new gasket in?

Hopefully, Tony will be able to supply a good used heat shield, new gaskets, and a new stud to replace the snapped one.

Thank you,
 
[ QUOTE ]
In addition, the heat shield has almost no shielding material left on it. What little is there, is probably not doing much good. Looks like asbestos. Yay...

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't worry about that material..if your metal shield is good, just go down to NAPA & grab a sheet of the heat shield material & pop rivet it to your shield.


[ QUOTE ]
Hopefully, Tony will be able to supply a good used heat shield, new gaskets, and a new stud to replace the snapped one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, I'll have everything except a shield w/material (though I probably have a nude shield).
 
I like reading plugs....
Sometimes I'll just take one out and show it off.
I'm really proud of how nice they look. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

How are your plugs?

BTW...Go w/ 12-15 static or 20 at tickover & 30-32 full in.
(Sounds like a lot but, B series engines like it)
 
Agreed. "Plug cuts" can tell a great deal about what's goin' on in there... Neighbors may have some concerns, though. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
William,
You said,"Well, one snapped stud and ruined exhaust/intake manifold gasket later, it's true." By that did you mean that the manifold gasket was bad, or did you ruin it during your removal? I'm just wondering if you found the real problem...or was the cracked heat shield the only problem?

Dave
 
[ QUOTE ]
William,
You said,"Well, one snapped stud and ruined exhaust/intake manifold gasket later, it's true." By that did you mean that the manifold gasket was bad, or did you ruin it during your removal? I'm just wondering if you found the real problem...or was the cracked heat shield the only problem?

Dave

[/ QUOTE ]

Could have been either way. I noticed what could have been a small gap between the gasket and the head where it might have been squeezed and decided to investigate further. When I started peeling the gasket off, some of it stuck to the head.

It's not all the way off because it looks like I'm going to need to move a steering part out of the way to get the exhaust out of the way.

Cracked heat shield looks like a small part of the problem. The lack of shielding material might have caused some problems I experienced over the summer, like hard starts when the engine was already hot.
 
Rather than fuss with steering, if you loosen the exhaust mounting bolts at the trans and just ahead of the rear wheel arch (leaving the rear hanger on) you MAY get enough "swing" out of it to do the gasket R&R. Otherwise I'd say undo the downpipe-to-header joint rather than the steering column... Yours is a "later" car and I can't recall if this is a "sure thing" but someone else should chime in and let us know.
 
I recently made an attempt to move the steering column for the same reason during my engine dissassembly. You cannot move the steering column without moving the rack. That would involve some serious dissassembly of the front axle assembly or dropping it completely. The exhaust is much, much, easier to move, as I discovered.
 
With the early cars it works just fine. Not sure on a '74 tho. SInce it's been "retrofitted" to twin SU's and old exhaust manifold I'm *guessing* it'll be much the same as our early versions. Even if you have to separate header from downpipe it'll be better'n changing the front-end geometry, IMO.
 
I agree that it was too lean...running with the choke on until normal temp is reached should make it choke up too rich...I run my choke (and higher idle) for 10 or 15 seconds. And it gets a lot colder up here!

Bruce
 
I've never had to do anything to later cars to get the heads off other than loosening the manifolds & tieing them back...they all came off the studs with no problems...so, if everything is pulled towards the inner fender, there's room to R&R the gasket.
 
Back
Top