Heat riser bolts stripped, is this a bad idea?

[cjgoode]

Ok, had a major exhaust leak at the heat riser. I went to separate them and it basically fell apart with most of the aluminum still stuck the bolts. The aluminum in the intake manifold was totally trashed. This is a common problem when you put a steel bolt into aluminum with lots of heat and moisture.

Re tapping was not an option, and my budget is very low for the build. I am going to remove the heat riser valve plug the holes and make a plate to seal it off. I have drilled the two front holes all the way to the top so I can insert bolts all the way down. Is this a totally bad idea, I figure it should be fine for the pressure needed to hold them together with a plate, new gaskets and permatex.

 

[LSUfj]

I see that turning into more cracks. I'd find a used set of manifolds if you can.

 

[Living in the Past]

Curious is this out of your 62? They appear to be off of a later F engine. Is that a weld on exhaust manifold? I would just throw that into the scrap metal pile. You should be able to find a set pretty with a the V8 conversions. Shipping is goping to be the killer. Time to sell off some of the parts you got with the 62.

 

[My wife said no FJ!]

Curious is this out of your 62? They appear to be off of a later F engine. Is that a weld on exhaust manifold? I would just throw that into the s**** metal pile. You should be able to find a set pretty with a the V8 conversions. Shipping is goping to be the killer. Time to sell off some of the parts you got with the 62.

I think he wrote somewhere that the engine is out of a 1971

 

[cjgoode]

I am thinking about bolting them to the block not connected and see how flush the mount to the block and what the gap is between the riser, and maybe I will see if I make a plate out of 3/16 steel with 3 studs and bolt it to the exhaust riser to close it off and seal it and not have it bolted to the intake at all. What do you guys think of that approach.

Yeah, the engine is a 71 and its in the 1962. The parts I got with it need to be sold for tires, I will not drive with unsafe dry rotted tires, but I am ok with an exhaust leak if small, but I think I can work this out and use these for now. Wife, Kids in college through elementary school etc, etc, etc budget for this project is minimal and like you said shipping will kill me. I figure if I can hack this together now once I am done and have good tires and its drivable I can circle back for good exhaust. Its easy to replace the manifold down the road if a good one comes available when I have more money.

 

[bsevans]

All the threaded holes on both of my '78 intake manifolds that are used to bolt the factory intake and exhaust manifolds together have Heli-Coils installed. I ran it like that for a number of years until I decided to put the 4 Plus+ tuned headers on. When I took it apart to remove the factory exhaust manifold the bolts came out cleanly. I had the Heli-Coils installed at an automotive machine shop. I thought the cost was very reasonable.

 

[cjgoode]

I figured exhaust was cracked and welded, intake was totally trashed where the bolts went in. We are not talking stripped out, we are talking about the thickness of a quarter of aluminum was still on the bolts, wish i would have taken a picture of that. So proceeded with my fix, put make your own exhaust gasket material between them. Will be a while before I can run it, but we will see then if it holds or if I need to look for new manifolds.

 

[zags]

The manifold on my '70 came apart like that. I used a helicoil kit to fix it. The hole gets drilled and tapped plenty oversized to make up for the stripped aluminum.

 

[kylenine]

@cjgoode

Can you confirm if your bolts through the intake manifold withheld the test of time?