Exhaust manifold no longer made- option?

So go to

, search the whole country, use your credit card & phone, and have one within a few days. There are several listed.

"Bubba" wrote: '79 Ford Granada 250 CI six.

My exhaust manifold is cracked in two. Auto parts stores don't carry it and Ford says it's no longer made. I've searched every junkyard in a 75 mile radius. What are my options? I've heard they don't weld up too well. I've heard of "brazing". Does it work? _________________________________________

Try

You can get a used manifold for about $40 to $75 plus shipping.

Good luck.

Rodan.

maybe one of these would work?

nate

These things CAN be welded too, it's just the welder needs to build a little jig to hold everything in position while it's being welded, which makes it a more expensive job to do right. Then it needs to be re-annealed after welding or it will crack at the weld.

I'd be a little wary of brazing something that gets that hot, but the braze will be much less brittle than a rough weld.

--scott

And you can't find a fox bodied ford with a 200 or 250? crappy yards.

If I remember correctly there is no exhaust manifold difference between the 200 and 250. The only thing is that later versions like yours have the tubes for the air pump while earlier versions do not.

What part of it broke? The actual casting or one of the air pump tubes?

Maybe someone local to you can help you find one, try

in the forums.... Or you could just buy a header for it ;)

Regarding the lack of Fox bodies, and older cars in general in salvage yards.... I am the office manager of a salvage yard, and it is a shame that the older stuff is just being crushed. But with the price of scrap metal being at record highs, the yards don't have much choice. If the yard pays $180 per ton, as is the local price now, a 2 ton car or truck brings the scrapper $360. Now, the yard can sit on the vehicle, hoping to maybe sell a couple of parts off it, or strip and crush it. We rip out the motor/trans, which can be scrapped or sold to core buyers for nearly as much as we could get by selling to a customer. ( which also entails more time to pull gently, and a warranty that must be honored ) We can process the car in less than half an hour. With so much money tied up in an old clunker, that may or may not ever sell a part, when it can be turned into scrap doesn't make sense to keep around. Also, the aftermarket is producing more and more items, many of which sell for the same as we would have to charge to pay the yard guys to pull off the cars for the customer. As a car guy, and a circletrack racer, it makes me sick to see what gets crushed, but I know it must be done. I pesonally think that there will be alot of regret in 10 years by everyone that so much was crushed, but as long as the price of scrap stays so high, crushing will continue, and many parts will have to be bought new or not at all. Big E

Thanks for the leads and help.

Through Car-parts I found one 58 miles away but the guy said it was very warped, almost 1/2". Buying from an out-of-state junkyard is a last-resort for me... not everyone is honest and I'll need lots of luck to get one shipped that is crack free and straight. I'd really like to see it in person, even if I have to travel.

The new header option is a good possibility. I called 'classic inlines' today and left a detailed message (as they said) but never heard back from them. I will see it there are others who could provide a header for this motor. According to the header websites, the 200 ci and 250 ci are not compatable, I think because of the starter location. I have the original A/C so that will be a problem too maybe as they say it will have to be re-routed.

As the last poster said, it's a shame so many of these old cars are trashed, but I understand. Wish they'd pull the exhaust manifolds off first :)

Thanks again and I will pursue these leads.

Bubba

In the old days, people used to cut out templates and weld up their own headers. It can still be done if you are clever with cutting and welding equipment.

I plan to go to my local pick and pull on Saturday. We still have a lot of the 70's and 80's cars coming through the gates down here in fl. Please tell me again what this was for and I will be glad to see if I can find one for you.

Steve B.

Steve B.,

Thank you for the kind offer to look for me. Using a nationwide search with CarParts.com I found a NEW original equipment one. The guy claims it's brand new so I bought it today and it's coming UPS. I will post here when I get it. Thanks again to all. These forums are extremely helpful at times.

Bubba

I'd just spend a few bucks to get it welded. Might a

well try if it's worthless anyway..

Got the new exhaust manifold and yes, it is NEW! I just can't believe it. The holes match a gasket I have so it should work.

I have a question though..... It has port holes in each exhaust port, they look like spark plug holes, about the same size and threaded. Must be for some pollution control stuff, which I don't have. How do I plug these? I could come up with my own ideas but there must be a correct way.

THANK YOU to all for helping me find an exhaust manifold. It was really wearing me down.

bubba

Your '79 should have an air pump or at least it did from the factory. That's what I was asking you about earlier, the tubes that go into the manifold for the air pump.

I'll guess it's just an NPT thread and you could probably just use a cast iron threaded plug from the plumbing isle... just put some high temp anti-seize on it first so if you ever need to remove them they'll come out.

thinking about it some more, maybe a thin coating of high-temp red exhaust mainfold RTV might be better than anti-sieze to just to prevent an exhaust leak.

maybe someone else will have a better idea....

Maybe, or they might be flare fittings. In either case plugs should be available, although flare plugs will be a little harder to find. I'd use brass rather than cast iron, but that's just my prejudice, either should work.

nate

Go to an industrial bolt supplier. Get some bolts that fit the holes. Grind them down so that they don't protrude into the manifolt at all, but are more or less flush inside.

--scott

The existing cast iron manifold doesn't have these threaded holes, it's cast without them. There's no sign of an air pump or brackets for one. I guess if there was one, it's long gone.

I looked quite a while for a correct bolt today. It's the same thread as the spark plugs on my Yamaha 650- BP7ES. It's like a 9/16th with a fine #18 thread. I don't want to use spark plugs because everything looks so good and original, so I'll keep looking.

Somebody modified something I would guess. The thermactor(sp?) system (the air pump) was added in ~1975 and as far as I know was present on the 6cylinder for the rest of its run (to ~1984). I haven't seen a 75 or later one in a junk yard that didn't have it. Either someone removed it and replaced the manifold with an earlier one or swapped the engine for an earlier one. Sadly, my 1978 shop manual does not have a picture of the exhaust manifold side of the engine.

it's probably either a 14mm or 18mm thread. since you say "9/16" sounds like 14mm (1/2" is appx. 12.7 mm)

nate

Doorman used to make plugs specificaly for this purpose. Check you local parts store.