As long as I have had my car I have made sure that the gland rings were in place because my exhaust manifold was was straight and didn't want it warped. I am pulling the motor to take care of end play issues and replace the clutch. When I pulled the exhaust manifold off I found the No 1 cylinder ring missing and the other 3 were in place. It some how had collapsed and was dislodged and up inside the manifold! I put a straight edge on it, it's flat to the face but has sagged some. Guess I get to play with the rose bud! I've never done one but at least know the process.
On the bright side, after a couple of thousand miles of driving and vibration I was able to take the sediment bulb off the gas tank and apart. Except for some horse hair and a little fuzz it was clean and the screen was in good shape!
Mark, I've built a straightening fixture and have a rosebud. I tried working on some bent manifolds. The photos on this website and others make it look really easy to straighten a warped manifold.
In trying to do the repair I have found that what is easy to do is to destroy a manifold. Straightening is much harder... so hard to do in fact that I've not been successful yet.
Now that I've tried it my repair attempts will be limited to manifolds where they cannot be installed with alternative gaskets. I'm so glad I did all my practicing on garbage manifolds!
Just a thought for those of us who, like me, do not always succeed on the first attempt!
TH
I found that if you heat it from below it's easy to burn a hole in it. Fortunately it was a 26-27, and not one of the rare ones.
Ya, I wonder how many years they practiced and how many manifolds they did before the video that made it look easy? If I use the alternative gasket I guess I can with gland rings in all the holes but the front exhaust. I may have to make new rings as the fiber gasket is thicker then the copper crush rings.
I was successful on my first attempt, also been successful at the Long Beach model T garage before. But we have also cracked some. I think the main thing is to apply heat carefully and don't put any pressure on the wrench. The weight of the wrench and the heat well do the straightening all by them selves - it's fun to watch it happen,also put a enclosed container over it. So it cools slowly,Good luck with yours.
No photos as I was busy with the torch but I did my first exhaust manifold last night. I mounted the manifold to a 2 X 1 inch thick walled tube with c-clamps at #234. Mounted the tube in the vice so it was oriented in it's normal position. I hung a small c-clamp near the end and heated. I allowed the weight of the c=clamp to pull it down and when it was where I wanted it to be, gently clamped the end to the tube. I then wrapped the whole thing with a fiberglass batt and allowed it to cool to room temp. After it cooled I mount it to a block with gland rings and the two end manifold clamps. The center 2 & 3 ports stand proud of the block by maybe 1/16 inch or less but with light pressure from a couple of clamps pulled it down to the block. I think that after a couple of heat cycles and tightening the center two nuts should take care of that, I hope.
If you get to the point that the manifold just won't move any more let it cool off and go at it again. I have done a bunch of these and only had one that I couldn't get straight, got close. I also use an old block and some heavy gland ring to bring it square to the block using the same method of wrench and gravity.
Got it straight, it's the face that off by less then 1/16 inch.
Way to go Mark!
I did a little more tweaking. The face fit is now better. I wont say it's perfect, but the glands all go in! Thanks