Wednesday December 18, 2013 Guerneville CA.
Seemed like a good day to work on the van manifolds
So, that’s what I did. It wasn’t as cold as it has been around here, but I still had to wait until about 12:30, just after noon for things to get more on the pleasant to work side.
I needed to install a helicoil
I had the drill and the tap and the helicoil to fix the stripped thread in the intake manifold.
This is the manifold and the drill and the tap and the helicoil that I am working on.
A closer view of the work area. I have to drill out the hole by the helicoil and then tap it and install the helicoil.
It went well, but the helicoil I had was too long so I had to cut some of it off after I got it in the hole. Lucky I have a bunch of jewelry tools. I used a small cut off wheel to cut off the excess so that was on the easy side also.
Always some little problem mechanicing
However, when I tried to install the manifolds back on the engine there was one bolt that just wouldn’t start and was giving me fits so I had to take it all off again and file one of the mounting bolt holes larger and that took care of the problem.
This is a picture of the manifolds just after I finally got them bolted in.
I put all the stuff back on the engine and this is what my engine compartment looks like, if you are interested? :O) I have a TBI type carb and a nice big air cleaner for the dirt.
There was one big problem though
There was one thing that still needed to be done and that was to hook up the exhaust pipe that goes to the muffler, but that just wasn’t going to happen. The new exhaust manifold is the right one called for, but it replaced one that wasn’t really the original right part, so that meant the new exhaust system I just had installed wouldn’t line up to the new exhaust manifold. Of course this means I have to drive it to a muffler shop making a lot of noise, to get it fixed up.
But at least I got done what I did, so that’s behind me, I hope, but I can’t test it out until I get he rest of the exhaust fixed. One thing at a time.