Stock 302 Engine Build Question

[Dennis Crews]

Power head to tower gasket shows signs of an exhaust leak but the block and the tower do not. If this was your motor would you clean it up and put it back together as is or would you do anything else to address this before reassembly?

[Shane_B]

Tuner Pipe.jpg Check if the top of the tuner pipe is flat with the top of the tower using a straight edge. If not, remove the three nuts holding the tuner pipe, lift the pipe out, and add shim washers to level off the tuner pipe. You can buy shim washers or cut open a beer or soda can, use a paper hole punch to make a hole and then scissors to cut out washers (think they will be about .015 thick). An exhaust leak around the tuner pipe can cause loss of power.

[Dennis Crews]

Checked it this morning before heading to work. Looks like I will be making some shims this evening. Thanks for the response Shane.

[DeanFHobart]

Shane does know what he is talking about.

[Tim Weber]

While you have the pipe out, clean it too.

Tim

[Dennis Crews]

Worked on cleaning the pipe last night but haven't figured out yet how to get to the inner most part. Going by the hardware store to look for a wire brush that may work.

[guedo499]

Leave the pipe alone! Dirtier, with more carbon build-up, the better.

Also, you'll need to deck your exhaust manifold and change that gasket too.

[Dennis Crews]

Hmmm....looks like we have differing opinions on cleaning the pipe...from two folks who know far more about this stuff than I will ever know.