My engine is worth at least 20¢ and I can prove it!

You may recall that my car now has a B20 from a 1975 140-series car. It came with fuel injection, which was removed in favor of S.U. H6's.

When the 'mechanic' (and I use the term very loosely!) needed to plug the injector ports in the head, he used nickles...American 5¢ coins! Four coins = 20¢!

On top of those, he put in large washers and then added a series of homemade brackets to hold it all together.

In this picture, the brackets are the tan pieces alongside the rocker cover.


I took the brackets off yesterday afternoon to see what was under them, as they look pretty tacky.

Apparently the nickles are held in place with silicone sealer. Today's job is to go out and remove them, clean everything up, and re-seat the coins with JB Weld.

Once they're set, I'll file the excess JB Weld off, leaving a nice flat surface with no indication that there were never any ports at all.

I might have let the whole thing slide, except the ports are right on top of the head, in plain view.

I've ordered an intake/exhaust gasket (it should be here today) so I can pull the carbs and intake manifold to clean and polish them out. While the manifold is off, I'll check the inside of the injector ports to make sure they aren't creating an eddy of air. They will probably need to be filled on the inside, too.

This gasket is the last part I've needed to trigger a full engine cleaning, detailing, and paint job. The PO used some kind of paint that has crackled and ridged with the engine heat. I'll be using Ford Red engine paint, so there should be no more problems.

I also want to get the exhaust manifold off and take it to be ceramic coated. If I polish it well, it will come out looking like chrome, except it will never turn blue.

More later (maybe pictures if I can locate my camera!)

Steve