Red neck exhaust flange repair

[AlanCasida]

I pulled the 390 out of my '66 F100 to replace the rear main seal. While I had it out I thought I'd take a crack at fixing a botched broken exhaust bolt repair. When I got the truck there was a 1/4" nut/bolt running through one upper bolt flange. By the look of it they tried several times to get it out resulting in multiple holes in the flange.  I didn't think I could get what was left of the bolt out so I decided to try and plug the holes and start over. I also didn't want to pull the head so I did it with it on the motor. The biggest hole I drilled and tapped to 3/8 nc and the smaller holes to 10/24. I kind of beat the threads up on some soft bolts and threaded them in with some red loctite. Then I peened them with a hammer and center punch. Then I drilled the hole in steps and tapped for 3/8 nc. No problem... if it holds up.

[Rory428]

Hopefully that repair holds up. If not, you can always do the same repair that I saw years ago, where a guy used a C Clamp to squeeze the exhaust manifold to the top of the flange on the head. Obviously not a valid "fix" on a shock tower car!

[RustyCrankshaft]

Hopefully that repair holds up. If not, you can always do the same repair that I saw years ago, where a guy used a C Clamp to squeeze the exhaust manifold to the top of the flange on the head. Obviously not a valid "fix" on a shock tower car!

C-clamp is pretty top shelf, I've got a yard truck with a tired 360 someone badly drilled a broken bolt and I just vise gripped the header flange on that ear LoL. It's day in the shop is coming for a clean up and the 360 is coming out but until then.....

[TomP]

I remember seeing a TBird a car shows with the hood up and several C clamps