1996 F53 / 460 exhaust manifold questions.

[Bleachedrock]

My, new to me, 1996 F53 460 is proving to be a bit of a bear. I noticed I had an exhaust leak from what sounded like the passenger side and decided to wag-the-dog and buy a Banks powerpak.

I got all the passenger side manifold bolts out and found the infamous rear most cylinder gasket completely gone and the other 3 were in pretty good shape on that side.

Now, here is where I think I'm in trouble, I noticed the rear most bolt hole in the head has a small hairline crack in the lobe. I'm hoping I can still get enough purchase from the manifold bolts but to torque to spec but does anybody have a fancy fix for something like this if I just can't get enough grip? I know I can get new heads but I'd like to avoid that. That's a lot bigger job then I'm prepared to do.

Also, unfortunately I could not remove the 2 bolts holding on the secondary air injection pipe so I am in the processes of grinding off the bolt heads to preserve that pipe as Ford has discontinued the air injection (smog) parts.

The drivers side is proving to be a PITA too. For starters the 90 degree EGR pipe fitting broke in half. I know that will be expensive "oops". I know Dorman sells the pipe with heat wrap for ~$35 bucks but does anybody know where to get the 90 degree fitting cheaper? Nick-B, I saw in another thread you might have a NOS part number for that part, any chance you still have that number lying around somewhere?

Another problem with the drivers side manifold is the secondary air injection pipe. I'm going to try to red-wrench (heat) that sucker today...

This leads me to another question. Those of you that upgraded your 460 EFI headers did you continue to use your emission controls or did you bypass them? In my state this coach does not need emission inspections at all. The idea of just capping the air injection ports on the new manifolds has crossed my mind... If you did cap were there any problems afterwards?

Lastly, Manuals? I really really really don't want to replace the heads but depending on the price I'll get charged, I may do it myself. Does anybody know of a good service manual? I have the Ford owners service manual which is definitely not designed to tear down the motor like that.

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Nick-B]

Yeah, my right rear bolt hole is cracked also. I just cleaned up the threads and put in new bolts with a touch of anti-seize and tightened them all up. It is holding just fine (so far).

I'll try to find that EGR pipe elbow part number for you.

I wouldn't remove the air injection system. Without that additional air, you would end up with an exhaust stream mixture richer than the system is expecting to "see" from the O2 sensor and would probably lean out the fuel trim - not good.

I have a PDF manual of the Marine/Industrial version of the 460 which should be the same for the basic long block. Let me know if you want it.

[House Husband]

All your emission controls work in concert. Mess up one of them and your state of tune goes flat. You could purchase a http://www.tweecer.com/ to add to the J3 port on your EEC-IV engine management computer and tune for ever.

Richard
95 Bounder F53
460/528 W/TwEECer

[Brad Felmey]

The manual for the F-53 is rentable online from Ford, but it's fairly pricey, as it comes as part of a subscription to every manual for every Ford they have. $22 for 72 hours' access. If you're patient, you can follow every link and download the pages in PDF to assemble your own electronic manual. I wasn't that patient.

I haven't yet found a source to just buy the thing. Doesn't mean one doesn't exist, just that I haven't found it.

[mpaton]

Originally Posted by Nick-B

I wouldn't remove the air injection system. Without that additional air, you would end up with an exhaust stream mixture richer than the system is expecting to "see" from the O2 sensor and would probably lean out the fuel trim - not good.

Without commenting on the wisdom of removing the air injection system, I'll just say that the ECU knows when air is being injected upstream of the O2 sensor, and forces open loop during that period, so no bad fuel trim information is being generated.
Secondly, these engines almost never go into closed loop control, (a design decision by Ford) and so never generate fuel trims anyway.

Michael

[Nick-B]

Bleachedrock,

Here's the EGR parts info.

The elbow: FORD N801906S51 1989-1997 F250/350 & SD "ELBOW" (19.0 INV FLX 3/4 EX PIPE)



The pipe that goes from the elbow to the EGR: Dorman 598-108 EGR Line



Probably the best prices will be at Amazon.

[Bleachedrock]

Originally Posted by Brad Felmey

The manual for the F-53 is rentable online from Ford, but it's fairly pricey, as it comes as part of a subscription to every manual for every Ford they have. $22 for 72 hours' access. If you're patient, you can follow every link and download the pages in PDF to assemble your own electronic manual. I wasn't that patient.

I haven't yet found a source to just buy the thing. Doesn't mean one doesn't exist, just that I haven't found it.

I was wondering why it was so hard to find a service manual. They changed their manuals to a service!

I'll have to look around for a paper manual.

[Ted Lambert]

Originally Posted by Nick-B

Yeah, my right rear bolt hole is cracked also. I just cleaned up the threads and put in new bolts with a touch of anti-seize and tightened them all up. It is holding just fine (so far).

I'll try to find that EGR pipe elbow part number for you.

I wouldn't remove the air injection system. Without that additional air, you would end up with an exhaust stream mixture richer than the system is expecting to "see" from the O2 sensor and would probably lean out the fuel trim - not good.

I have a PDF manual of the Marine/Industrial version of the 460 which should be the same for the basic long block. Let me know if you want it.

Nick
Just curious! When I worked on Ford light duty pickups in the early 80's the air injection seemed to only work on deceleration. When you decelerated the Thermactor Valve closed and the pump filled the cylinder with air. Is this what you are referring to?

[burgman50]

in reference to the broken EGR fitting, I started a thread detailing my increased power by not using the egr tube. In a nutshell, the fitting in the manifold broke while on a trip. Found a race shop and couldn't get fitting in manifold out so welded it closed. Removed the long egr tube but did NOT disconnect the actual valve. So now instead of sucking hot no oxygen exhaust into intake, it's sucking cooler O2. Made a world of difference on the hills. Gas mileage still hovers around 7.1. Unless there is a downside I don't about I would try not connecting the tube. Just use a plug in the manifold. And yes I have a filter on the egr valve inlet to keep junk out of intake.
Good luck with the Banks system! Oh, there is not supposed to be an exhaust gasket on the stock manifolds.

[Nick-B]

Originally Posted by narampa

Nick
Just curious! When I worked on Ford light duty pickups in the early 80's the air injection seemed to only work on deceleration. When you decelerated the Thermactor Valve closed and the pump filled the cylinder with air. Is this what you are referring to?

Two things being talked about here. The OP mentioned removing the air injection lines which pumps air into the exhaust manifolds. That is the Thermactor system. The parts noted above were for the EGR system which allows exhaust gasses to be drawn into the intake and thus the cylinders. The Thermactor and EGR are 2 different systems so I'm not sure what you are asking.

[VE9GJ]

Originally Posted by Bleachedrock

Now, here is where I think I'm in trouble, I noticed the rear most bolt hole in the head has a small hairline crack in the lobe. I'm hoping I can still get enough purchase from the manifold bolts but to torque to spec but does anybody have a fancy fix for something like this if I just can't get enough grip? I know I can get new heads but I'd like to avoid that. That's a lot bigger job then I'm prepared to do.

I have a 98 Bounder on a 97 F53 which we bought 3 years ago. It also had a badly warped and leaking RH manifold. The rearmost bolt hole in the head was split badly and a good part of the bolt hole was actually gone.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b3fyqzqcnd...49.52.jpg?dl=0
Some of the other bolt holes were cracked also.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/znccg9fpwd...50.14.jpg?dl=0
Limited budget and like you I did not want to replace heads even though that would have been the correct repair. I bought a Dorman manifold and copper manifold gaskets from Summit Racing. I then used studs instead of bolts. With studs I could thread right to the bottom of the hole to take advantage of all the threads. I had to put the manifold and gasket on loosely with bolts and then swap the bolts for studs as there is not enough clearance to put the studs in before the manifold. Use lots of anti-seize in the head. I torqued the nuts on the studs very lightly, maybe 15 - 18 lbs. Every so often I have to re-torque them. This is the third season, about 5000 miles, since the repair and still no exhaust leaks! If it comes back I may have to change heads but until then this was not expensive or hard to do. BTW the original manifold I removed was shaped like a banana it was so warped!

Good luck which ever way you decide to go.

Glenn
98 Bounder 34j F53
NB, Canada

[Bleachedrock]

Hi Everyone, I wanted to give a follow up and lessons learned while installing the Banks PowerPack into my older RV. I suspect, at some point, this information will help someone else out there. I’ve made it very wordy to supply search engines as many keywords as possible.

Follow up; lessons learned:

- 1996 Newmar Mountain Aire 3760 is a gasser built on the Ford F53 chassis that left Ford as a standard F53 stripped chassis with a 178" wheelbase. The chassis was lengthened by a 3rd party to ~197" as measured from the drive axle to the steering axle.

- The 1996 Ford F53 7.5l / 460 motor has a very simple "emission" system that is known as a "secondary air injection" or "thermactor". Very simply, this system consists of a belt driven air pump that blows air into the exhaust manifolds. Both driver and passenger side factory exhaust manifolds have a single port located on the rear of the manifolds to supply with outside air. These tubes will be difficult to remove intact and Ford has discontinued production of those parts.

My engine has 66k miles, I suspect the manifolds were original. The passenger side / RH manifold is easy to get to from the wheel well. The factory exhaust manifold gasket was completely missing for the rear cylinder and half missing for the next one forward. The extra play in the manifold from the missing gasket allowed the studs and bolts to be easily removed using air an air impact wrench and penetrating oils. This side has only the thermactor air tube attached at the rear of the manifold. It is connected via a diamond shaped flange with 2 small bolts. You must remove the tube to get the old manifold out. I could not find this part anywhere online so be careful if you plan to keep the emission system intact. I had to grind off the bolt heads to get this part off after I rounded the heads with a bad angle and wrong socket with an impact wrench.

The Drivers side / LH, was a pain because Ford decided to put the brake master cylinder & reservoir right in your way. This side's gasket was intact and the bolts and studs were very tight and it took days to get them all out (see sidenote below). I found a huge crack between the middle 2 ports on the underside of this manifold. This manifold has two extra ports, one is for the EGR tube and another for the thermactor air injection. The thermactor tube is Ford part # F4TZ9B449G. The EGR tube is actually 2 parts. One crazy 190 degree fitting Ford part N801906S51 and the tube itself which Dorman continues to make, part # 598108. I managed to remove the EGR tube but the 190 degree fitting broke. I could not get a grip on the pipe compression fitting for the air tube. I wound up buying a new New Old Stock (NOS) part from ebay and just cut through the old tube to get the manifold out.

(sidenote: I used liquid wrench, PB blaster, and WD40. I'd spray behind the nut or bolt itself but I'd also spray the crack between the cylinder head and the manifold approximately where the bolt/stud should be. Then, I would try to back the bolt out, if it would not move, I'd try full power forward, then reverse again to rock the bolt or stud back and forth and to work the penetrating oil in. I would do this on all the bolts/studs, eventually over a couple of days all the bolts and studs came out without a single one breaking. You will know the bolt is getting close to coming out when you spray it and the runoff is brown with the rust your flushing out.)

- The Banks TorqueTubes that came in the PowerPack system for a 1996 F53 has connections for the air injection and EGR tubes. The EGR tube will fit directly to the new manifold without the crazy 190 degree elbow N801906S51.

- The Banks Powerpack comes with everything you need for a base F53 178” wheelbase. Measure your wheelbase, don’t rely on your VIN information alone, and order the extension with your kit or you may end up scratching you head about a ~2 ft. gap in your exhaust system… I know.

- Thread Chase, never heard of one? Me neither until I started working on this project. – After removing my old manifolds, the new bolts provided by Banks were exceptionally tight. Almost cross thread tight. I noticed the old stud threads looked a little flattened. I assume this is from thermal expansion of the cylinder heads. I was very hesitant to force the bolts in because I noticed a slight sheering or scraping of the lower threads of the bolts. I originally thought I needed a tap set to fix the existing threads but Tap and Die’s are cutting tools. I did not want to cut material from the old heads just repair the existing threads. That is exactly what a chase set does it restores threads. It can even fix cross threaded holes and bolts. I used a 3/8 -16 with a little oil to help lubricate and started threading the tool into the hole. Just a half turn forward then a half back, one whole turn forward, then another half back, work the chase back and forth to fix the threads and clean out any debris. After the tool bottomed out I was able to remove it with my fingers only. Lastly, I flushed out the holes with brake cleaner to flush out the oil and any debris left in the hole.

That’s it for now. If I run across anything else of interest I’ll post it.

[Lt46]

Nice write-up Bleachedrock. Totally agree with the thread chaser. When I put on my Doug Thorley headers I quickly realized the original bolt holes needed some attention. Spending that time was well worth the effort because the remaining bolts went in like butter.