1985 Ford 460 - Head Gasket replacement - Lots of Pics

[Nuttcaze]

Just wanted to show some love for the 460 since there wasn't much info about it on this part of the forum yet. When I first got my RV it had a broken stud on the passenger side exhaust manifold. Since the stud had broken off in the head the only option was to take the head off. Thankfully I got a good mechanic to help as it turned out to be quite the job. In addition to replacing the exhaust stud, I also planned on removing the A/C unit and AIR pumps. The AIR pumps had bad bearings and the in dash AC didnt work, and it took up ALOT of room.




The AIR pumps







The most annoying part of the smog system is the metal lines that connect to the Exhaust manifolds.







To start the job, we had to disassemble the alot of the front of my RV







Then we could start tearing into the engine, lots of fun

[Nuttcaze]

The AIR tubes were cut off since it was really the only way to get them off, the nuts on the manifold were stuck and there was very limited room to get in there with wrench's







To get the heads off my friend had to heat all the head bolts up cherry red with his torch







Once the heads were off we removed the broken studs (more broke when taking the rest of the bolts out) also spent some time cleaning them







I also cleaned up my intake a bit, while I was cleaning it I discovered a small plate on the intake that had a bad gasket, so I figured I replace the gasket, well when trying to get the 2 bolts for the plate out they both snapped off in the intake manifold, so we welded it in place, no need for a gasket now, lol.

[Nuttcaze]

Once the rest was cleaned up, we could start putting it back together







The head and exhaust manifold with new gasket







We did run into problems with the manifold for the passenger side, turns out that not only did a stud break, but the manifold itself was warped









We were able to put it back on temporarily while I ordered a new manifold, new one I got off ebay for something like $40







Once it was bolted in place all was well, almost... while bolting the Exhaust "Y" pipe to the manifolds, the studs on the drivers manifold stripped, so I had to get another manifold, for the drivers side this time, this pic shows what stripped






We got it buttoned up and it was all good after that. But now almost 3000 miles later one of my lifters is starting to make noise so soon I will be tearing the intake off again so I can replace the lifters. Not gonna be fun but will be easier then taking the heads off again 

[Oz]

Darned great job with the pix AND he commentary.  Thanks a tone!