Well, I did it! I got the cast iron manifolds to clear on my 69.5 with the 88 roller 5.0! I have a CNC mill, so I set them up in the mill, and I shaved off .200 off the manifold flanges that face the block. Now, what I found the first time round, is that the 88 t-bird manifolds, had a angle cut stock,, that tipped the bottom of the manifold outwards and hit the shock towers. So, I back cut the angle the other way. Which brought the bottom of the manifolds closer to the block and away from the shock towers. On the passenger side, I have one inch of clearence inbetween the shock tower, and the closest point of the manifold. On the drivers side,,, I had problems with the manifold just touching the steering box, (before machining) Now, I have 1 inch away from the shock towers, and 3/4 inch away from the steering box, and no where near the linkage! Now, I just have to make my drop pipes off the manifold, and build the dual exhaust from there. Stay tuned,,, Ill have photos of how I did it, and will be happy to do the same for anyone. More later. ChadS
Not to rain on your parade or anything, but isnt that alot of work for some manifolds that are just going to choke the engine off? Wouldnt some super cheap heddmans or summit headers be better?
Well, I was really directing that towards ChadS, but if he has a column shift I guess I understand why he is doing this. So thare arent any headers for column shift cars? I dont know, I was just thinking that custom machining manifolds DOES seem like alot of work for little gain over stock exhaust...No big deal really, just curious.
Stockhatch, Mine is a floor shift. I did it cause I have more time than money these days. LOL! it did not take me long to cut em down,, bout a day and a half. Im loving it cause i can reach the spark plugs very very easy! I gasket matched the manifolds, its not a high rpm engine, under 5500rpm, so it wont choke it too bad. My engine is mild, just a bigger cam, and soon to have a 4bbl carb, still running cast heads, (lightly ported) if I had to guess on HP, probably 325 if that,, Ive ran mustangs with bigger hp, just had too many issues on the street to run it all the time. The manifolds have a 2 inch outlet, and will run into a 2-1/4 full length dual exhaust. I had plenty of power when it was still inthe t-bird,,, so it oughta rock a maverick! I suppose the column shifter would work with em,, got plenty of room after all that. I guess, in a phrase on why I did em this way is,,, well,,,, cause i can! LMAO! Pictues tomorrow sometime,,, Chad
Curious.....wouldn't milling the manifolds make them too thin in some areas and possibly heat up and crack? Scrapper........MCCI President Shawn Simpson had headers and a column shift on his car....so it can be done. I think he had to bend the linkage up some to get it to fit.
Hi Craig. They are pretty thickwalled on the sides, mostly, it was removing the casted lip along the sides, and right at #2cyl, and #6cyl, there is a notch cut a little deeper ito the cast where the bolted tower sticks out. Its still over a 1/4 inch thick in that area. The flanges on the short bolt are thinner, but about 3/8thick still, I torqued the longer bolts first, then tightened the shorter bolts. started the engine, let it warm up, and rechecked them again. best part,, they went in pretty easy,, I lifted the engine up about 2 inches, moved it from side to side to bolt the manifold on, and dropped it right back down into the frame mounts. I took a lot of photos today, Ill email em to you, see what you think. Chad
new to the thunderbird manifold thing, I assume they flow much better than the stock maverick manifolds?
Craig, Do you know if there is a difference between the column shift linkage and the wheel lock linkage locations? i have a floor shifter and am putting in headers but the lock linkage looks like it goes the same way as column shift linkage. sorry if this is too much of a high jack
sierra I have never compared the two side by side...but in my recollection they do appear that they are real similar.
http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com/programfiles/talers/M21.JPG Whole engine compartment. Kinda fills er up dont it??? ChadS
