I am looking for feedback on what I found today as I screwed around with my engine. I pulled it to change the rear main seal and to keep myself entertained. Of course the MAWS have hold of me so I've been removing all sorts of things. Today included the intake as I wanted to blast it and clean it up. I found some centralized sludge at the crossover location. It is cracked in two places.


As luck would have it, I have a second (455 Performer) manifold that came with the car. It is cracked in one location. I never knew where the crack came from...guess I do now.


I only drive the car in warm weather and I have an electric choke. My thought is that if I get those silly plugs for the heads that I could plug the heads and run the less cracked/trashed manifold for now. Am I crazy?

 

The cooked oil in the bottom of the intake is common. It's a side effect of the heat crossover and oil splash. This is why people run a valley tray, or the stock Olds metal intake gasket. That won't prevent the splash, but it slows it down a lot. Yes, you can plug the crossovers and use an electric choke. You can also have the cracks welded.

 

Thanks Joe. I will look towards plugging them and use the better of the two intakes. It does have the large metal gasket so I will replace that as well.


John

 

They make a splash tray that mounts to the center of the valley so you don't need the big turkey tray is what i call it. It is a after market part not what you get when you order upper end gasket kit. I hope this helps.

 

Also consider welding crossover plugs into the intake verses welding the plugs into the heads, which are original parts unlike the intake. If you dont weld and just simply try to tap in or press fit plugs into either they have a habit of coming lose and rattling.

 

Thanks. I have the Turkey Tray already so I think I will stick it back in. Good to know about alternatives for down the road though.

 

Good point. I decided against the plugs for the 'wiggle' and because I thought about the cool mornings when I actually do use the car. I decided to glass bead the less cracked of my two intakes and make a go of it as is...

 

Be careful with the plugs. Mine came loose and I just had to pull the intake to remove them. They were making a heck of a lot of noise.

 

Im thinking to cut out my used valleypan and let only the hole for the two boltholes beside the exhaust port in heads be left and make a smaller valleypan,
(like pic below) just to cover a little for the oilsplash under the crossover. As long it will seal it 100% after then and not be to vibrating, Include the 2151 intake, with fiber headgaskets, Just a tought for now.

(this engine have cam splash cover include,so it will help a little more i guess)

Do you have the cam splash cover too?
Or is the oilsplashed intake on your first pic in this thread out of a engine without splash cam covers?

 

i see this valley pan replacement (or the camshaft splash replacement cover??) on ebay, does any know how it looks like when installed? maybe the orginal cam shaft cover need to be removed? no crashes with the lifters etc ?

 

Yes that replaces the original splash guard. Just make sure it sits higher than the highest lifter travel and also make sure not to bottom out the bolts and crush the cam bearing underneath.

 

That would be ugly, expensive and frustrating!

 

Ok, maybe its a better choice then, than the orginaly splash cam cover then without vallypan use.. The orginal cam cover have small holes in it for Oil return i guess.. I guess the orginal bolts is not to long that they could damage the cam bearings. Thanks for tip anyway.

 

Im lazy to wait for ebay stuff these days so i made a cover by self from the orginally old valley pan.. i think this will work.. i will use a little loctight for the 2 screws when assemble.. its not looks so nice cause i just made a fast one...i guess i could make a nicer one with some stiffer metal and from beginning.

Lets call it.. The oldsmobile "H-pan"







Smashed some bulg in to it so make it stiffer. maybe i will i will weld a stiffnes pin for the mounting brakets too, up to the pan to make the brackets not so flexible. im not sure if its nessesary yet.

 

The oil splashed intake did indeed have a turkey tray underneath it.