Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Fenton headers and blown gaskets

With just a couple hundred miles on my Fentons and new exhaust system, the gaskets have blown. I'm trying to figure what went wrong. This is on a 248.

I first thought that the installer must have warped the flanges when he welded them. Then I thought maybe it takes a special gasket. Then I thought about how solid the pipes are attached to the frame. Maybe the pipes need more flex when the engine twists.

What have you guys running these done to keep gaskets in them? What are your thoughts about my thoughts?

All tips appreciated.

I,ve had a set of the orignal fentons w/ heat riser on my 261 for 2 yrs. and had on problem.Are you talking mani.to head or mani. to pipes? My pipes are hung on rubber hangers.

I,ve had a set of the orignal fentons w/ heat riser on my 261 for 2 yrs. and had on problem.Are you talking mani.to head or mani. to pipes? My pipes are hung on rubber hangers. 1 OL REDNECK

Manifold to pipe. I tore it down and here's what I found. (From a post on another forum.)

Shoddy workmanship. One of the flanges was badly warped. They both had ragged edges of pipe sticking through the flange keeping the header from seating. Neither flange met the header squarely and when one is in place the other was off. (They are welded together at the muffler.)

The header surfaces were machined smooth but there were some tiny cutting tool marks. They probably wouldn't matter but I smoothed them anyway using 220 grit on my table saw table. I then went to 320 then crocus cloth.

Then I went to work on the pipe flanges. I first dressed them down with a vixen file to get the ragged pipe edges off. Then I used a method suggested by Bill M. (Thanks, Bill.) I used a piece of steel plate wrapped in sandpaper. I started with 100 grit, ended with 320. It took at least 2 hours to get the warped one trued. The other took less than an hour.

Then I put the manifolds back on using the hi-temp silicone sealer. (Thanks for that tip, Greg H.) Even though there was no evidence of leakage between the manifold and head I suspect the intake was sucking air there. I had to run part choke. I hope this fixes that.

Next I did Tony P's trick to stress relieve them. (Thanks, Tony.) I bolted them up without a gasket then heated about a 2" strip on each pipe red hot and let them cool overnight. I haven't pulled them loose yet so I don't know how successful it was.

I found a gasket that I think will work. It is a Fel-pro 60052. It is for a 1949-67 Ford. It has a metal crush ring around the hole. But I had to order the other one. Out of 4 parts places in Mineral Wells there was only one of these gaskets.

I think there is enough flex in the mounts that they won't be a problem. I think with the other problems I found and corrected this ought to fix it. When I put the engine back in last month I used new mounts so it shouldn't be flexing much anyway. I hope.


I went to get the gaskets today and the store got them and shipped them back. So i still don't know if I got it fixed. I'm off to Weatherford tomorrow to find gaskets.