new and have some questions

[SandyBoy]

Welcome, Austin

I do not own a Squarebird, but was a dear friend of our founder, Alexander. You mentioned Chrysler. My family and extended family were all Imperial fanatics. I have bought new 5 Imperials (1968, 72, 74, 75 & 82) My parents only bought Imperials as did my cousins, My Mom always "did" Thanksgiving and on that day at the very least, 7 and at the most 10 Imperials could be seen on the driveway and/or on the street in front.
The only person there of still living, is me & I have a Town Car and am still waiting for the return of the Imperial. At 62 I may never see it.

[GTE427]

Austin, mystery solve. I can see where the mounts have been remove.

Never have I seen Exhaust manifolds such as the ones on your car. Do they penetrate the manifold and can they be opened and closed? or welded on handles? Just when you think you've seen it all.

Your car looks very complete without much noticeable rust, can't imagine this one coming from a yard. Did the exhaust manifold bolts came out without breaking, these can be tricky on FE engines. Some of the TBird Suppliers sell SS bolts kits with retainers to replace the original rust prone hardware.

[frank58]

are those "things" cast right into the manifolds? sure is strange... are there any numbers on the manifolds? if there is we can probably get more info..... and welcome to Squarebirds........ best bunch of people around.

[GTE427]

Do we have any FE Forum members that could post Austins pictures to see if any of their membership recognizes these exhaust manifolds?

[Guest]

Austin,

I've circled the mystery item that appears on both sides of your engine, seems to be part of the exhaust manifold, can you shed any light on these items?

I am pretty curious about the "mystery item" also. So I paged thru Steve Christ's "FE Big Block" book and didn't find anything really worth noting, however I do see that the "mystery item" does appear to exit the exhaust manifold in the same place as the typical FE's heat riser tube. Could this thing-a-ma-jig be some type of substitute for the heat riser? But then again it doesn't seem as tho the thing has a lead up to the carb/choke body. So guess I am too clueless.

[Guest]

I've seen alot of FE motors in my travels over the years But never saw anything like that. My most best guess is snow cone maker. Just kiddin. I can't even find it in a book. And I worked on truck motors and didn't see it there either. Shot glass warmer?? We'll keep lookin...

[bird 60]

Hi Austin, Try & trace the previous owners if you can, they might be able to help you.

Chris.... From the Land of OZ.

[Austin D]

Sorry for the slow response, just got home from work. They do go all the way through and they dont open or close. the top spins, but does not appear that it opens a valve of any type. 6 of the bolts broke off in the heads, 3 on each head, two on the top where the blind holes are and 1 on the bottom. I already drilled and tapped them so no big deal. The sad part is that the driver side (left) manifold broke at two of the eyelet holes. Im sending the heads out tomarrow and will get them back tomarrow aswell so I kinda wanted to get this thing running by thursday afternoon. With no left manifold though I dont think its gonna happen due to the availabilty of the part. I dont want to put headers on the car cause then I got to modify the exhaust and thats gonna cost. Im gonna hit the junkyards I think first.

[protourbird]

I asked my FE expert and this is what he said to me about the exhaust manifolds.
I’ll have to do some research here but they appear to be early, early model stuff. The tube on each appears to be an early version of EGR but I am just not sure. The straight up and down bolts suggest they are 352 or possibly 390 manifolds but again these are unique looking to me. What year car are they off of and are there any date codes on the manifolds? Let me know and I will keep looking up here.

[JohnG]

I was actually gonna suggest EGR but figured you guys would all die laughing....

john

[tbird430]

I'm starting wonder IF this is the original FE engine in the T-Bird. I've never seen exhaust manifolds with those "watchyamacallits" on them, EVER!! I wonder if this is some kind of a truck 390cid?

IMO, I would ditch both of them Austin, and go back with OE "looking" exhaust manifolds...

-Jon

[Guest]

I've never seen them on trucks either. I've been asking around about this and most everyone who looks at it thinks aftermarket. Remember j c whitney. That's my thought on it. Do they make noise or whistle the faster you go? They made alot of weird stuff back in the day. Of corse you would have had to drill and tap for threads. Is it threaded in there?

[Austin D]

I dont know if they make any wired noises. This thing was only running on 4 cylinders when I drove it home so it made all kinds of wired noises. I had 4 bent push rods and was loosing coolant trough the resivour. Im to afraid to atempt to take them out of the manifold due to the lack of exhast manifolds I have available to me. Yes they are threaded in the manifold they are not welded. I Think they would look kinda neat if I could get them shined up. I would be unique to the car.

Not to get off topic, but do any you know it there is a hight temp appoxy I could use to repair the exhaust manifold bolt holes? I dont think anyone would weld them for me cause they are cast iron and I head thats a pain to weld. It just would be a shame if the manifolds kept me from gettin this thing running this week.

[Guest]

They can be welded. With todays welders a good shop can handle that. The old days it was a pain in the ---.

[Coral]

Its either an early-bird special advanced air intake or EGR

betcha 5 soda straws....