67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

[Kirk M.]

This Saturday my good friend with lots of corvette knowledge and I took off the non-original heads on my 327/300 hp engine and installed two properly dated and matching 462 heads. We started around 9:30 Saturday morning and had everything off by 11:30. Ate some burgers for lunch, and then started installing the new heads. Finished up with a running engine around 6:00 and took her out for a break-in spin. Everything went pretty well. Here are some pics.

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

Ok, almost everything went ok. About noon, I threw my sweatshirt across the garage knocking the distributor cap off the table and breaking one of the towers. $70.00 of stupidity. We used Fel-Pro gaskets for the heads and sides of the intake manifold and then the gasket in a tube for the front and back of the intake manifold. We also used exhaust gaskets. I know they aren't correct, but I drive my car a lot and didn't want to have to worry about leaks. I will loose a few points there.

One strange thing we encounter once we had everything back together (see pics below) was that after we filled the coolant back up and test fired the engine to set the rockers, we had coolant come squirting out of one of the valve cover bolt holes on the driver side head. I guess the hole must have been buggered and they drilled it out to fix it and went all the way through to the core allowing coolant to flow out. The valve cover screw prevents any leaking, but I am thinking of using a set screw and some sealant to permanently fix the leak and then put the valve cover screw back in. What do you think?

To set the rockers, I turned the engine a single shot while by buddy adjusted each rocker. Once we had them about there, we fired the engine up, backed them off a bit and then re-set them all. Seemed to work well. We had marked where the distributor was when we removed it, but clicking the engine over to adjust the rockers changed all that. So, we re-set the distributor to a best guess spot and fired her up. She started but chugged her way along. We eventually figured out we were two clicks off. Once we got the distributor set the engine purred right along.

Very long day, but not bad to totally tear the intake manifold, heads, and exhaust manifolds off and then re-install a new set of heads. Installation took way longer than I thought it would. I also have an AC car, so passenger side work was cramped by the compressor and bracket. All in all a good days work and now I can enjoy the early warm weather!

No comments about my table. I'm a bit of an organization freak and wanted everything at hand and ready to go

[Timothy B.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

Kirk, Nice Job!! That's a bunch of work to do in one day, the table is a great idea and keeps things straight.

The set screw is a good idea, I have never heard of fluid from a valve cover bolt hole but I guess the water jacket is close. Definately seal that good.

[Terry B.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

Kirk,

Congrats on a successful project. I really appreciate the pictures too. Also congrats on your organizational skills. On a project like this, I would think that a few little unplanned problems would have tried to slip in. It looks like you anticipated almost everything you would need. Could a newsletter tech article come out of this?

[Patrick H.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

We also used exhaust gaskets. I know they aren't correct, but I drive my car a lot and didn't want to have to worry about leaks.

I thought so too on my 71. And, with exhaust gaskets, it leaked and leaked and leaked as the gaskets burned out with regularity. I replaced the gaskets once a year, and after a few years took them off, had the manifolds surfaced, and reinstalled them. Zero leaks since then.

It's counterintuitive, but if you remove those exhaust gaskets, have the manifolds surfaced and go from there, you will be much better off.

Patrick

[Ridge K.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

Great shots, Kirk!
Thanks for sharing these pics. Got me fired up to get some work done today.

By the way, are you available for help with organizing a shop....?

[Michael J.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

Wow, great job. But I thought I was the only one who marks the spark plug wires with painter's tape to keep them straight

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

Great shots, Kirk!
Thanks for sharing these pics. Got me fired up to get some work done today.

By the way, are you available for help with organizing a shop....?

Sure, any time you want. I swear the one reason my car buddy likes to work with me is that I am so organized. I am sure, if I hadn't been, we wouldn't have gotten it done in a single day. I know he thought it was a long shot. Needless to say, we did It was killing me not getting to drive in the early warm weather.

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

I thought so too on my 71. And, with exhaust gaskets, it leaked and leaked and leaked as the gaskets burned out with regularity. I replaced the gaskets once a year, and after a few years took them off, had the manifolds surfaced, and reinstalled them. Zero leaks since then.

It's counterintuitive, but if you remove those exhaust gaskets, have the manifolds surfaced and go from there, you will be much better off.

Patrick

OK, we talked about this. My engine before the new heads, did not have any gaskets. These heads were re-conditioned for me by Tracy Performance in Mich. So, if my exhaust was ok before this, and I had reconditioned heads, do you think it would be ok to go gasketless? How do you tell if it is leaking? Thanks.

Kirk

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

Kirk, Nice Job!! That's a bunch of work to do in one day, the table is a great idea and keeps things straight.

The set screw is a good idea, I have never heard of fluid from a valve cover bolt hole but I guess the water jacket is close. Definately seal that good.

I think I am going to try it. I am a bit worried that I will screw it in too far and it will "fall into the engine". Do you think that is possible?


Kirk

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

Kirk,

Congrats on a successful project. I really appreciate the pictures too. Also congrats on your organizational skills. On a project like this, I would think that a few little unplanned problems would have tried to slip in. It looks like you anticipated almost everything you would need. Could a newsletter tech article come out of this?

Terry,

I will try and jot some things down before I forget them.

Kirk

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

Wow, great job. But I thought I was the only one who marks the spark plug wires with painter's tape to keep them straight

Drove Brian, the car guy, crazy because I just started numbering them #1 from the front and went counter-clockwise from there. The numbers had absolutely no relationship to the cylinder numbers. He got a bit "verclamped" at first until he figured out exactly what I had done Works for me!

Kirk

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

I thought so too on my 71. And, with exhaust gaskets, it leaked and leaked and leaked as the gaskets burned out with regularity. I replaced the gaskets once a year, and after a few years took them off, had the manifolds surfaced, and reinstalled them. Zero leaks since then.

It's counterintuitive, but if you remove those exhaust gaskets, have the manifolds surfaced and go from there, you will be much better off.

Patrick

Patrick,

Did you use any kind of sealant on the surfaces before tightening down the screws without gaskets? Thanks.

Kirk

[Patrick H.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

Patrick,

Did you use any kind of sealant on the surfaces before tightening down the screws without gaskets? Thanks.

Kirk

Nope, nothing. Go naked.

Just be sure to use the correct bolts to install the manifolds and torque them correctly.

Patrick

[Joe L.]

Re: 67 Head Installation - 9 Hours Later She's Purring

I think I am going to try it. I am a bit worried that I will screw it in too far and it will "fall into the engine". Do you think that is possible?


Kirk

Kirk------


It's possible it could go through into the cooling system, but that won't mean it will go into the crankcase where it could cause problems.

However, it's easy to prevent even the possibility of it going into the cooling system. Simply use a wire or thin probe to determine what the THREAD length is. Then, do not thread the set screw in beyond this thread length. The chances are you will not even be able to thread it in beyond this point (it will stop when it gets to the end of the threads), but just in case the threads were tapped for the full length of the hole into the water jacket you should probe for thread length.