Ford 460 exhaust manifold gasket replacement

[69wannabe]

For the last 20 or so years my old ford f-350 has had an exhaust leak at the passenger side manifold, the other day while taking an engine to the machine shop I noticed it got much louder as I started off at the red light. Got it back home and got a good look and a piece of the shim style (heat shield) gasket was gone at the very back exhaust port. Nice I thought so the next evening I decided to get the manifold off one way or another and of course it being a ford two exhaust bolt's broke off in the head. So I did get the manifold off at least and stopped to decide what to do til the next day. Asked Ron his opinion and he said what I was and had pretty much decided by the next evening and that was to pull both heads and get both heads checked out and the manifolds inspected and take care of the broken bolts that way. Also asked my machine guy and he said the same thing so I pulled it apart and only had one bolt break on the driver side manifold. It is clean in the intake valley and I dropped the heads at the machine shop for a good valve job and took the exhaust manifolds to get new studs installed and get them surfaced but the passenger side had a bad port on the second one from the front and from looking at it it will not last long if I try to use it and I remembered years back that I bought one for that side but never tackled the job and haven't saw the one I bought in awhile. I started digging in a big box of different engine parts and finally found the manifold. Cleaned the intake manifold today and the valve covers and cleaned up the rockers and push rods today too. Hoping to get the heads back early in the week so I can have it back going by the weekend. One thing I can say is the 460 heads are a heavy chunk of cast iron!!!! I am not a big guy and dragging them out from under the hood was rough and I will most likely use the cherry picker to ease them back onto the block going back together. Once they are back on there the rest should go pretty good and hopefully with the whole top end being rebuilt my exhaust leaks will be a thing of the past!! 

[69wannabe]

Well I had several looker's but no comment's, guess there are no ford guy's on here. Got the head's back friday and had already cleaned the top of the block and had it pretty much ready to go back together. Took a tap and cleaned all the exhaust thread holes good so that the new bolt's would go in easily. Was going to use the cherry picker to set the heads back on but that was gonna take too long so I got up in there and got them back on there and got all the head bolt's snugged down. That was all I got done on it since it was getting dark but at least the heads were back on there. Got them torqued down the next day and got the intake back on and the rockers and pushrods on too. Got the valve covers and all the front of the engine brackets and belts back on and got the exhaust manifolds back on it yesterday evening and got the exhaust pipes bolted up today and had to put the distributor cap and plug wires back on it and a few other little items and changed the oil and filter and got it running today. Glad to say I got no exhaust leaks!!! Old truck sound's better than it ever has and maybe it will stay that way. Drove it around the block and so far it's running great, was kind of a pricey exhaust fix but I feel good knowing the heads are fresh and I have been wanting to do valve seals for awhile so I don't have to worry about that anymore and the old EGR valve was bad and most of the old emissions crap from the 80's had been removed by the previous owner except the EGR valve was still on there but when I checked it  it wouldn't hold vacuum so I made a plate and blocked it off since none of the other emission's crap was on there anyway. Got new gaskets from the top of the block up and all new belt's so maybe the old truck will be good for awhile. 

[A383Wing]

I have done more than my fair share of 460 head R&R in my lifetime, truck, motor-home, and marine motors....probably explains a lot about my back issues

Yer lucky the head didn't break off a chunk at the exhaust where the bolts go into....it's a common problem

[Sublime/Sixpack]

Good job! Hope that old Ford gives you many miles of trouble free driving now. 

[rt green]

what year of truck do you have?

[69wannabe]

It's an 1985 Ford F-350 dually, it's been a good truck with minimal problems. My dad bought it in 88 or 89 to use on wagon trains and pull the horse trailer's with and when that fad kinda died down. I have used it for the last several years dragging in old cars or dragging in family's vehicles that had died on the road. My dad basically handed it down to me since he has three other trucks to drive and the F 350 was just left to sit and was pretty run down when I decided to do something with it. I had a good old truck to use myself but the dually needed to be driven so when I decided to drive it one of the back tires came apart from dry rot so it got four new tires for the back first thing. Had to put a new clutch set in and it has a carburetor with electric fuel pump's in each tank and they went bad from sitting so replaced both fuel pumps and rebuilt the carb. Done a complete brake job all the way around and a new saddle bearing on the driveshaft. Really haven't done anything to the engine so I guess it was about time. It's in great shape now, drove it to the store today to put some gas in it and it's running good and quiet. Got to do a master cylinder and brake booster on it sometime soon. Brakes are still good but it hisses when you mash the brake pedal. Don't think that will be that bad to swap out!!

[440]

I'm a ford guy 

Should have built a 514 stroker out of it 

[69wannabe]

LOL, my charger has a stroker engine in it. That's enough stroker engines for me. The old 460 in stock form get's around 13 to 14 mpg's if you keep it around 55 to 60 mph. That's pretty good for a big engine in an old truck with no overdrive. It's just got an old granny gear 4 speed. Drove it to town yesterday to pick up my mom a new stove, proud to say it ran great.