Topic: Exhaust Manifold Bolt Locking Tabs

[Skyway65]

Can someone tell me the correct way to finish the installation of my '65 6 cyl exhaust manifold.  Do all of the locking tabs get bent over?  Only a few of them?  Jeff- any original photos of these?

[CharlesTurner]

All the tabs are bent over.  The sequence of install should be washer to manifold, lock and then bolt. 

The manifold was in place when the engine was painted, so would expect for there to be block color over spray on the manifold and attaching parts (including the locks, which may have been dipped in black paint prior to install.)

[bryancobb]

Skyway and Charles,

I'm not trying to argue cause I really do not know...
but... If you were an assembly line worker on the engine line at Windsor,  and time was of the essence...
If the Ford training taught you to fold down ALL the tabs, which takes about a minute for all 32 (unless a special tool was provided), my speculation is as soon as the supervisor turned his back, you would do every other one and you wouldn't look like Lucille Ball on the chocolate line!
I just took the exhaust manifolds off my Mar 66 C-code.  Everything indicates they have NEVER been off (no wrench marks on the bolts, no gaskets, and 40 years of surface rust).  Only one tab at each bolt was bent 90 deg.  Every one of the unbent tabs had an EXACT 5 degree "prebend."  When I cleaned them with the wire wheel and looked at the unbent ones with a magnifying glass, here's no fretting at the bend line like would be there if they had been "unbent" once.

[Skyway65]

Bryan I was thinking the same thing.  The difference between the correct way to do it and they way it actually happened, as we know, is not always the same.  I will bend them all because that is the "proper" way.  Because my manifold had been replaced back in the early 1970's I have no way to know what it actually was when it was new.

Charles, thanks for the tip on the paint overspray too.  I was thinking about that but didn't want to mess up all my hard work!

[CharlesTurner]

I would not argue that some tabs were not bent, but most originals I have found had most or all tabs bent.  Got plenty of pics, as I'm sure Jeff does too.

[NEFaurora]

I would also agree that not all the tabs were always bent over.  I've had and also seen many original cars where only 2 or so tabs were bent for each bolt, and the rest were left unbent.  This might have even been common practice.

Tony K.

[bryancobb]

Tony,
I don't have one in my hand but I THINK there's only 2 tabs per bolt.

[Skyway65]

three...

[CharlesTurner]

The 6 cyl are individual pieces, not 2 connected like a V8.  I don't recall how many tabs there are.

[bryancobb]

Oh OK... I'll hush.  I had a 200 6 when I was 15 and 16 but don't recall what they looked like.