Folks,

I'm an old car nut, probably like a lot of folks on this forum, and since this is my first post perhaps an introduction is in order.

I work in Food Service, my pet projects are a '48 Plymouth and '67 VW Bug, and my Lady Wife and I live 45 miles North of Denver. I also write social satire.

My Landlord is a great guy with no mechanical ability, so when his '76 Ranchero started to take a dump on itself he asked me to diagnose the problem. The problem was a bent exhaust valve in #2 with so much ground steel in-and-outside the engine that replacing the head was not an option.

My question: How can I torque the head bolt at the rear bottom next to the heater box without removing the box? I can get a crowfoot wrench on it but not the torque wrench. I could use a universal driver but the torque would be off, perhaps a lot.

So, rather than re-inventing the wheel, I turn to some folks who've probably been in the same barrel. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Randy

 

Er, sorry, but I must have assumed you knew it's a 400 ci engine. That's 6.6 litres for the Yuppies. Oops.

-Randy

 

It depends on the clock position you put the crowsfoot and the center to center dimension of the c/f. At 12:00 you would decrease the torque setting by the percentage of 1foot that the c/f center to center is. At 6:00 you increase torque setting. At 3 or 9 your nuetral. Good luck.

 

Gents,

My time to wrench on that '76 400M engine has been limited to just a few hours on only one day each week, but I honestly thought I'd get it finished today. I got a crowfoot wrench for the head bolt but it requires a universal joint and although I was able to put 60# of torque on it, any pressure more than that would cause the universal to twist vertically, which makes the cf to ride up the flats and slip off.

I thought seriously about cutting a hole in the heater box to make room for the head of the torque wrench, but although I think that portion of the box is simply an air duct I'm afraid of cutting into something I shouldn't.

Fords are made too well to require pulling the engine to get to one stinking head bolt, so there must be some way short of that to wrench it properly.

A local dealership offerred to do it for me for an exorbitant fee if I had the Ranchero towed in, but they wouldn't tell me how they'd get the job done.

Since the vehicle is driven only about 1000 miles per year I toyed with the idea of leaving the torque on that one bolt light, but that's inviting a blown head gasket and a warped head. Besides, I don't like to do Mickey Mouse jobs, not to mention that the owner is a friend of mine.

So, what's the general consensus; could I get away with cutting the box or is there a realistic approach to this that hasn't occurred to me?

Thanks in advance,

-Randy

 

Gents,

If I were to do it again I'd make the cut an inch taller to facillitate insertion of the torque wrench, but after the re-torquing I'll seal the plug back in with silicone and never need to look back.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...d/DCP_0807.jpg

Next time somebody asks, it's a walk-in-the-park.

-Randy