FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => FE Technical Forum => Topic started by: fryedaddy on October 11, 2023, 01:05:25 PM
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i have a friend who has been a bracket racer sense 1980.he is one of those guys who can take his trans out between rounds and go through it and put it back in and run the same time next round.true bracket racing professional.he has a ford truck he uses to haul his car to the track,390 powered.he blew a heads gasket on his truck at a race earlier this summer.i walked over and looked and he had taken one head off without taking the intake off and replaced the head gasket and put it back on and its fine.i did not know this was possible but not idea for sure.anyone ever try anything like this?
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Seems like one of those "You don't know what you can't do if no one ever told you that you can't do it" moments.
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I have done it several times myself on stock setups and FT's- IIRC it's in the factory Shop Manuals. Helped a friend do one on a '66 Comet 390, took the two of us about an hour to put it back together in the shock tower car. His dad was a mechanic for a local trucking company that had a fleet of C800's with 391's and had done it many times
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The trick is to remove both heads without taking off the intake.
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The trick is to remove both heads without taking off the intake.
LOL
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I have done it once... a long time ago. I think I needed it off after I twisted off some exhaust bolts when replacing some blown out exhaust manifold gaskets. Not ideal but I did it.
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I have done it a lot in the 60's and 70's.
At the Ford dealership I worked in back then it was a common procedure.
Saved a lot of time and you didn't have to use the chain hoist to pull the intake.
Greg
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The trick is to remove both heads without taking off the intake.
Now that's funny! Still, you need to keep your day job! LOL
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Back in the early-mid 80s, I worked at a high volume engine rebuilding shop, doing engine Re&Res (including pulling the old engine, strip it down to the long block, clean up all the stuff to be reused (oil pan, valve covers, intake and exhaust manifolds, rockers, pushrods, all the external stuff etc), and bring in the fresh long block, install the lifters, inspect and reuse /replace rockers, pushrods etc as required, set the lifter preload or valve lash, reassemble everything, paint the engine, and install it, break in the cam and set the timing and carb, and do a road test), and occasionally, there would be a problem, cracked head, stuck valve etc, so we would replace the bad head, without removing the intake. Probably did 1/2 dozen engines like that, only 1 FE as I recall, but never really liked the idea, and would never do it on anything again. But it did work, saved some time, and I never personally never had a "come back" from doing so. But back when I was working and getting paid per the job, not hourly or flat rate, you did some things that you didn`t really want to do.
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The trick is to remove both heads without taking off the intake.
That time you got the China walls sealed perfectly and didn't want to disturb it...
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Done that in my Fairlane several times. Intake gasket stays on the manifold, tip the head outward, get it over the dowels then tip it upright.
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Back when my '64 Custom/427 was only a few months old, I let the pump jockey at the local Sunoco station (our regular stop/hang-out) put in a tank of gas. When I left the station I put my foot in it and 'let it eat.' When the 260+ in the carbs ran out, the gas in the tank started to flow and the new load (oops) of 190 didn't like the compression. The result was quite savage sudden detonation. Ring lands on one piston collapsed and seized the rings therein. I immediately began laying an oil fog behind the car from the passenger side.
I was past the 90 day warrantee, but Bill Brown Ford was relatively easy to get along with. They gave me a piston and a set of rings and a head gasket. I managed to get the head off without disturbing the intake. I disconnected the iron header at the 'H' pipe and left it attached to the head also. Everything came off and went back together, although it was somewhat of a struggle working all by myself, bundled up in the unheated garage in the cool of the springtime. It probably worked because I didn't realize I shouldn't have done things that way. :)
KS
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I've done it many times.
Surprisingly easy - and fast.
Like mentioned - the trick is to roll it down off the dowels.
I watched a small block Ford nitrous guy do it once between rounds - THAT was impressive!
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In ‘76 right out of high school I started working at a uhaul repair shop. The fleet was mostly f350’s & f600’s with 330’s & 359 FT’s.
I pulled many a head off without removing the intake. I even started one just to watch the pistons!
I also changed many sets of lifters without removing the intake. Didn’t take long and I could do a set in under 1 hour.