Topic: Reassembling a 6X head

[Andy78TA]

I take it you had a paint problem Rick? haha... as for the line, I traced it and it goes all along the cross member to the other side so I have no idea where I would even reroute it. The only other person I know who has these headers of course just took the line out because he didn't need it

[Rick]

Well, depends on your definition of a problem.  The second engine in my 75 TA was a RAIII clone.  It self-destructed when the harmonic balancer hub cracked and pieces fell into the engine.  The crank broke into 4 pieces and 4 of the 5 main bearing webs were broken out of the block.  All the top end pieces survived, so I located another block and used the remnants to build engine #3.  Engine #2 had been the sliver-blue used on RAIII engines (same for all 66-70 engines), but my local parts store was out of ANY Pontiac colors.  Needing to get the project finished, I opted for the "practical" solution.  I wanted to be able to match the color I used down the road, so I asked them which color they sold the most.  The answer was Ford F-150 Blue... so that's what I used.

It's totally wrong for the engine, of course, but I can match it at the drop of a hat in any parts store.  But at the time I did it, matching up with the orignal wasn't important to me, because that was before I got into showing the car.

Believe me, there are MANY days I wished I'd have ordered the correct color and then waited 3 days for it to come in to paint the engine... 

[Andy78TA]

haha, well mines not correct either, I plan on showing the car but its not stock anyway so i don't care, and there are a lot of other things to point out first ha.

For the line problem I decided Im going to cut the line and route it under the crossmember tomorow with fuel hose so that should solve my issues.

Stupid question though: I am now putting my engine back together but I have a questions about the valley pan gasket. Does it just sit along the sides of the engine and the heads and than I just bolt the valley pan on? Is there a correct way to do this? The gasket is a cork like material and it says to use a quick dry adhesive sparingly (I was plannony on using just a small amount of plumbers contact adhesive). Thanks

[Mongo]

We used to use brush on weatherstrip adhesive so that should work ok. It only needs to hold the gasket in place till the pan is torqued down.

[Rick]

Just remember -- the factory routed that fuel line on the upper side of the crossmember so it would be protected.  If you run it on the underside, it will be exposed and will be easier to damage.  Also, the original steel line is pretty tough stuff and rubber won't be nearly as robust.  It will crack and leak LONG before a steel line would.  In your situation you need to do something to reroute it, however, because having it pushed up against that header is unacceptable.  My solution to these kinds of problems was to use a set of RAIII cast iron headers, which are now being reproduced by RARE, as discussed elsewhere on this forum.

Yes, the contact cement only holds the valley pan gasket (aka pushrod galley gasket, IIRC ) in place while you bolt the pan down.

[Andy78TA]

I know I know, but I liked the ideas of headers... We will see how they hold up and If I need to I can always switch over to the rare manifolds like so many people say haha. And thanks for the confirmation on the valley gasket.

[Silentstrike]

I have headers with a steel line on my 350 the line isn't running as close as yours but pretty close and I've had no problems so far

[Andy78TA]

I just put the valley pan on and just put the intake manifold on but I noticed there is a gap on the passenger side head to manifold junction. It is right dead center. I didn't notice this before... is there suppose to be a gap?? I am thinking probably not...

[Mongo]

Do you have a pic?

[Andy78TA]

whats wront here??? its both passenger an d drivers but passenger is worse

[Mongo]

I believe that is normal but I could be wrong. Im sure Rick will see that and let you know for sure.

[Andy78TA]

Thank god... I was about to flip out.... I really hope it is suppose to be

[72blackbird]

I paint any engine going into my 'Bird that light metallic blue, even though my 'Bird is a 72 model. Just my favorite Pontiac engine color.

Geno

[73taguy]

did you use the block off gaskets that came in your gasket set? i think this is the problem it will solve this problem.

[73taguy]

i looked at mine i have 4x heads and mine looks differant. i have looked over your pics closely and this seems to be a cavity just over the heat transfer. i do not think it does anything. should be no problem. someone with 6x and an edelbrock manifold will chime in. good work so far. i remember putting headers on cars, and mechanics telling me boy you are in for a ton of problems. never stopped me and i delt with the issues because i wanted them and liked the way they looked.