why not just replace it? they aren't that expensive...
I am a strong LT advocate, but in this situation I may recommend shorties, as an effective, relatively cheap solution to this situation (stainless ones)

does anyone know if the stock 5.4 manifolds will bolt up to the 4.6 portholes? if so, I'd send the OP my manifolds for free, if he wants to pay shipping.

 

thanks man, but at this point and time its not even worth it. No reason to put headers on a junk motor that wont be in there for long. If it was power worthy, I'd be all for it, but this motor wont be in here much longer. Especially after this mess. Not worth putting any money into it.

thanks

 

What if its compression leakage? When I had my mirror under the lip of the manifold and it deflected and pushed it even further actually under the edge of the cylinder head, the site changed again?

 

hold up guys, theres a difference in deck height between a 5.4 and 4.6. its marginal but it will probably play hell on the exhaust hook up.

also, if your insinuating that you think your problems below the manifolds its rather far fetch but you could compression test and compare the cyls.

btw, did you check to see if the head was still flat or did u just mill off the manifolds and assume that aluminum head didnt distort before the mild steel did?

 

with the amount of built up carbon and hardened flaked metal on the manifolds, they would have never sealed. Had to have it surfaced. And I did not check the head, didnt have a straight edge handy. All the surfaces look to be flush with the new gasket, but somehow I stil got a leak. I JB Welded it and the tick went away, but now its back, so more JB Weld for it later on today maybe

 

Compression leaking from the combustion chamber to where? You mean compression leaking through the exhaust valve and into the manifold? I doubt you would hear something like that.

 

leaking between head and deck

 

did you use factory gaskets? if not thats why...

 

EHHH wrong!

that dont mean anything. Cometic gaskets work GREAT. i rarely hear anything bad about felpro and these motors either come to think of it, as long as its a MLS.
main thing is QUALITY manufacturers like felpro and cometic.

 

Fel-Pro that I used are DEFINATELY better than the chinsy stock ones that were on here. All the surfaces are pulled tight, but I'm still getting hot air coming from that particular area. I just gotta keep gumming it up with JB until it finally hit the exact spot where its leaking out of. Not worth takingh the whole thing apart again, rather have it done half-assed than busting *** again

 

I used Mr. Gasket's when I had my manifolds done, NO problems here.

 

You ought to try running with no exhaust manifold gaskets at all.

Thats the way mine is and I have no leaks - no chance of a future leak there either.

 

I find this hard to believe. . .mating two completely different metals and not getting a leak is kind of impressive. .

 

Actually, I think that could work if you crank it down evenly - Nothing really contracts as it heats up here. The downside is you'll damage the head somewhat - To what extent I don't know.

I wouldn't do it unless the motor was about to bite the bawanna.

Is your exhaust system under any stress ? I know that everthing has to fit and bolt together nicely - I mean, none of that -hold and push here and then tighten down real fast before you run out of strength sh^t. - Been there done that and it will cause a manifold leak eventually. - Cut the crossover and add that heavy flex pipe if that's the case .

 

If I was a machinist, I would have machined circular rings to fit directly into the exhaust ports of the heads, furthering exhaust flow into the manifold, cutting out the pressures on the flange of the manifold. But the no gasket would not work in my case. Even though I had the manifold surfaced, its not as good as it was stock.