Repairing 67 exhaust manifold

[Joseph M.]

Can anyone recommend a shop in or around Pennsylvania that can repair cast iron. While attempting to remove an exhaust manifold stud a portion of the manifold broke off around the stud. I know cast iron is difficult to repair, but it's an original piece and I would like to have it fixed professionally. Thanks.

[Joe L.]

Re: Repairing 67 exhaust manifold

Can anyone recommend a shop in or around Pennsylvania that can repair cast iron. While attempting to remove an exhaust manifold stud a portion of the manifold broke off around the stud. I know cast iron is difficult to repair, but it's an original piece and I would like to have it fixed professionally. Thanks.

Joseph-----


Personally, I'd never be comfortable with a repair like this. I'd find another manifold. Plus, you probably still need to get the stud out of the piece that broke off and you might find that's next-to-impossible even with the piece broken off.

[Gene M.]

Re: Repairing 67 exhaust manifold

Joe,
I had one repaired for a member by a process called plasma flame spray. I'm not sure of the process. I was told as long as it is not in a structural area it is a good process. It was on an ear on a cast intake. Not under much stress. You do need the broken piece. They machined the mounting surface and left the rest rough from the process. It looked no different from original once painted orange. I had it done at our local engine shop when doing other machine work on the engine. I'm pretty sure they sent it to a special shop to do the flame spray.

[Jeff P.]

Re: Repairing 67 exhaust manifold

Yikes! Sorry to hear about that. I had the same issue sveral years ago. I had a machine/welding shop "repair" the manifold. It sure looked pretty. Lasted almost 140 miles befopre it broke apart! I replaced mine with a correct (and intact manifold) I found online for a little more than the cost of the "repair". If I had to do it again...

[Donald H.]

Re: Repairing 67 exhaust manifold

You might give Jerry MacNeish a call. His website shows that he does this sort of repair. Check out his link below.

http://www.z28camaro.com/

[Jim D.]

Re: Repairing 67 exhaust manifold

Call a RV repair place and find out where they send their manifolds to get repaired. I've had several repaired, all big block, and never had a failure. It has to be repaired by someone who knows what they are doing. I believe pre-heating them is the key.

[Monte M.]

Re: Repairing 67 exhaust manifold

Cast iron is very difficult to repair, as we all know. The key is the temperature at the time of the repair, how slowly you let it cool and a handful of other reasons. In my opinion knowing the metallurgy of cast iron is the key. No matter what you do repairing cast iron in a place that is structural will never be close to as strong as it originally was.
When trying to replace a stud on an exhaust manifold there is no chance it can be repaired and then screw the stud back in. There is a chance however to do the repair and integrate the stud at the time of repair.
a large portion of the cost of these kind of repairs is just the time involved in getting the temperatures correct to even attempt the repair, but the real key to it having any integrity is the process and length of time they use to cool it after the repair.
If they are just going to try to repair it on a table with a welder, no oven or something similar, do not waste your time. It will fail.

[Richard M.]

Re: Repairing 67 exhaust manifold

I took a mechanical approach to broken stud ear repair and it has held up well. Thinking outside the box I came up with this......

http://s684.photobucket.com/albums/vv208/richmz/Misc/3750556%20Exhaust%20Manifold%20Repair/

Each sequential photo is the step by step process.

One ear was intact so I reused it. One other was damaged so I used a piece from a scrap manifold and made a new piece.

Of course this manifold would not pass judging, but I was able to save it from the junk pile. It's been holding up fine back on the engine running with no problems. With some more creative work I could have hidden the repair but was looking for functionality only.

Rich

[Joseph M.]

Re: Repairing 67 exhaust manifold

Thanks everyone for your comments.

[Chris S.]

Re: Repairing 67 exhaust manifold

Send it to Jerry !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He does great work !!!!!!