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Making
it Live Longer...Manifolds
do crack, but not necessarily any quicker than headers burn
out. These manifolds suffered greatly because lazy mechanics
and/or owners "forgot" to reinstall the brace that runs from
the front of the manifold to the engine mount bracket. This
brace serves two purposes. One is to lessen stress on the
manifold that is generated by the engine jumping around with
the exhaust system firmly mounted. With the brace in place,
the forces that are trying to bend the manifold are reduced
greatly because the leverage is reduced. The brace also
helps the manifold gasket to live longer as the constant
motion of the engine in relationship to the exhaust system
tends to eventually crush the manifold gasket. Unless the
manifold is snugged down the gasket will eventually fail.
The 2000 usually lets you know this by the presence of
coolant staining on the side of the engine block below and
behind the carbs.
Keeping
your engine properly tuned up will also increase gasket and
manifold life. An engine that jumps around at idle is very
stressful on the exhaust system in general, the manifold,
the gasket, and even the engine mounts.
The
above described stresses can also be lessened by installing
a section of "flex" tubing just to the rear of your front
pipe's mounting flange. This is not the lightweight low
quality flex tubing popular in the 60's for "modificiations"
it is a webbed tubing that is used as original equipment
many cars. Your exhaust shop can fabricate this for you.
(When I get a minute I'll make some more "ready to install"
replacements.) This also applies to headers. The headers
have no provision for a lower brace so the flex tubing is
very helpful.
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