chipped intake - what to do?

[Greg R]

That truck gots luv written all over it. A labor of love fer sure.

Redturbo has a damn good idea. We've used belzona at work, and if it works good on old pump casings; I think it'll save your manifold. It's not cheap, but it'll do the job.

I can't really see how bad it is, and tear down is in order as we're only guessing at this point.

 

[designerlarsb]

that truck gots luv written all over it. A labor of love fer sure.

Heh. Yep. And clearly its seen plenty of smurf love all over it as well.

I've currently got all the coolant parts removed to the workbench and am in the process of a thorough bare metal clean-up. I'll post some pics as I get it back together. It's looking a lot better already.

Meantime, I've already acetoned and wire brushed the chipped spot to a sparkle, then made a steel stick patch. Filed it down flush, drilled down a little bit more, and chased the threads, so we'll see once I get the coolant parts back on.

Can anybody recommend the torque I need on those tstat housing bolts?

 

[designerlarsb]

Just an update:

I got the last few coolant parts put back on and ran some rust-flush through this afternoon. Snapped a few pics of the whole setup again. It's not so 'smurfy' anymore, though there's still a few traces in the area on plugwires and stuff. While I was at it, I reinstalled the po's aftermarket temp gauge, though it took a little fiddling around to make a step-down adapter fitting to relocate it to the proper spot next to the t-stat.

Here's a photo of the chip repair here. You can tell if you know what to look for, but overall it turned out pretty clean. Time will tell how well it holds a seal.

Overall, I was quite pleased at how well these heavy cast coolant parts have held up over the years. Seems totally rust-prone, but they cleaned up surprisingly well. I did replace the waterpump, but only because I wanted the newer style for easier fan mounting.

And before anybody scolds me, 2 things: I went for the cheap napa t-stat at this phase. If the summer heat changes my mind, I'll upgrade to the shaw one later...and I'm still brewing up some sort of fan shroud. The body lift on this turkey makes that a 'custom' endeavor. So far she stays pegged right at 180 though. So much better than before.