i found a good used edelbrock performer manifold for my 305. I was wondering how hard is it to do the swap. I have a pretty good understanding of engines but is there any things that could get tricky. Seems strait forward.

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86 IROC LG4,DUAL SNORKEL,AMERICAN THUNDER,3.27 GEARS

 

Not hard at all if you have a little automotive knowledge.

Just make sure to mark where the rotor is pointing on the dist. housing and put it back in the same spot.

Its pretty straight foward.

Good luck.

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ASE Mechanic/Machinist/Smog Tech

1999 NBM Trans Am
1986 Chevy 3/4 ton pick up
1981 corvette
1995 Kawi ZX6R

GO #3

 

The swap is pretty simple it's getting everything off and out of the way that's the pain in the rear! I'm swapping my stock TBI manifold for Holley's projection manifold and man what a pain in the rear for certain parts of it. THe biggest thing is trying to make everything work with the non-stock intake such as vacumn lines, re-routing fuel lines, ect. You want have these problems (or shouldn't since it's carbed) but make sure the manifold does have the provisions for your Alternator/AC and the vacumn lines. In other words make sure it has the emission provisions. The ones you don't need can be plugged.

Make sure to put a good amount of sealant on the ends of the manifold b/c I can't tell you how big of a pain it is to get everything back on and then have a trickle of water leaking from the front or back of the manifold. Make sure to torque the manifold in the proper sequence and the correct ft-lb rating so not to warp your manifold. The basic rule of thumb is start on the inside bolts and then go to the back bolts then to the front bolts. Get a manula for the proper sequence.


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1988 TA 300+hp 350 w/ TBI and Holley TB unit,
WC T-5, 3.42 gears w/ Auburn posi. MSD 6A, edelbrock TES headers, dynomax 3" cat and cat-back system, ACCEL coil, polyurethane bushings all around, aluminum driveshaft, Mr. Gasket open air cleaner.

1993 S-10 w/ 4.3L V6 TBI, slightly bigger cam, Mild polish job and 3 angle valve job on heads, Edlebrock TES headers, Dynomax cat back, MSD 6A, ADS chip
(bought from my dad)

2000 GMC Sierra Regular Cab Stepside
285hp 5.3L w/ 3.42 gears and locking diff. (sold to my dad..no!!)

 

Bad,

88 has some great tips. Make sure to get a Chilton's manual for this project. It is a great first project IMHO, because it has just enough tech (like the man said, mark where that rotor is pointing BEFORE you ****** the distributor), and moves along fast enough to remain interesting.

Here's a tip - pop the cap, look to see where the rotor tip is pointing - and make a mark with a red magic marker on your intake in this direction. Then put the cap back on.
Just to be safe, put masking tape around #1 plug wire, and a small piece of tape on the cap where it plugs in.

When you pull the distributor, just unplug the plugwires from their respective plugs, and ****** the entire distributor/cap/wires as an assembly. A 9/16" bolt holds the dist. in place. On reassembly, position the dist. down in the hole as far as it will go, then, with the rotor tip pointing in the general direction of that mark you made on the manifold, begin to slowly move the rotor clockwise, then counterclockwise.

The gear at the bottom of the dist. will mesh, and you'll see that the entire dist. rotates a little as it slides home to it's resting spot.

Hummm, reminds me of something else.....

Anyway, get a manual and tackle it - it's a great first project. Good luck.

BOR

 

Just another thing or 2. When doing this type of work, cleanliness is next to Godliness. Clean the stock manifold the best you can around the base of the carb and around the manifold-head junction. An air hose is great cuz you can blow out all the crap. When you come up with the manifold, any crap that you didn't clean is going to fall into the lifter valley and that's not good. After the manifold's off, plug every single head hole with a rag, and after you clean the lifter valley and scan it for junk, throw another rag over that area. Use a new razor to clean the gasket gunk off of all gasket surfaces. If you haven't done this before, practice on the old manifold. You want to hold the razor as parallel to the surface as you can. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to scrape the gasket off without nicking the surface.

The front and rear manifold seals are also a big point of debate. Most people prefer just to use RTV to form the seal. My Fel Pro kit came with 2 sets of rubber seals. One set was the usual junk set that won't ever get into the right position, and the other was a set with tabs that helped hold them in place. I coated them with high-tack gasket shellack, then a couple dabs of rtv in the corners. They didn't twist or deform when I put the manifold on, and so far I have no leaks.

Oh yeah, take the rags out of the intake ports before you put the new manifold on

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"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

Box of Rocks...how are you going to know where to put the distibuter back on at if you mark your original manifold and then replace it with a totaly different manifold... ? Couldn't resist..lol! I almost did the same thing on this swap. I popped the cap and place a screwdriver in the gap that's located on top of the rotor and marked a small spot on the firewall. This will allow me to make sure my timing is pretty close to where it was when I put the distributer back on.

I also marked all my wires and a small number on the cap to the corresponding wire due to my wires being a pain to get to on the passenger side b/c of my headers.

Jim made a good point also, compressed air worked good for me but I still had to wipe some of the caked on sand/grit off and the use the air some more. Or carefully spray it off along those mating surfaces with water before you loosen any bolts.

The rags are your friend and stuff every hole you can find then place rags in the lifter valley. I used a wire brush on a drill (very quick just have to make sure it doesn't get near the rags or...******) to clean my gasket surfaces b/c my old Fel Pro gaskets came right off. After all is clean remove the rags starting from the intake ports and then the lifter valley last. Then clean any chunks out of the valley b/c no matter how hard you try some will fall through.

Release and leave released, the gas cap or the fuel will start leaking out the lines. I left mine off for 4 hours and then screwed it back on. Luckily the pressure didn't build back up in the tank until the next day due to the heat and I was able to catch it before it leaked all into my engine. It did soak a few rags though. Changing the oil to be sure before I crank it.

Drain all the fluid out of your radiator before you start to get it out of the old intake. There will still be some left in it so lift the intake straight up. Good time to flush and clean the radiator.

Get a manual and it will help.

[This message has been edited by badbird88 (edited September 27, 2000).]