66 small block exhaust manifold

[Tim L.]

Just wondering if anyone can shed any new light on the presence of overspray on base engine exhaust manifolds. JM says manifolds installed after painting. Checked archives and a thread in 2005 says maybe/maybe not, but go with the JM.

Had the car judged last year and received deduct for lack of orange paint. Brought up that the JM says no paint and was basically told it was wrong!

Talked with a few people at convention and heard both sides. Getting the car ready for another round of judging this fall....should I keep them unpainted??

1966 with 327-300hp.

Thanks for any help,
Tim

[Gary B.]

66 small block exhaust manifold; most will not deduct

Tim,

Until and unless the TIM&JG is changed to include the possibility of overspray, I don't think it is consistent with the spirit of giving the owner the benefit of the doubt to take a deduct for no overspray. If the TIM&JG says no overspray and you HAVE overspray, then I can see most judges taking a deduct. So if I were you, I wouldn't add overspray until the TIM&JG says that overspray is a possibility. If you have your car judged multiple times I think you're going to wind up with more deducts for having overspray than not, given the current TIM&JG.

Gary

[Gary B.]

PS to my last posting

Tim,

If I know positively that something on a car is incorrect based on prior research and the TIM&JG is silent on the issue, then I will take a deduct when judging. But I won't deduct if the item on the car is consistent with the TIM&JG, even I think or "know" the TIM&JG is wrong.

Gary

[Michael H.]

Re: 66 small block exhaust manifold

Just wondering if anyone can shed any new light on the presence of overspray on base engine exhaust manifolds. JM says manifolds installed after painting. Checked archives and a thread in 2005 says maybe/maybe not, but go with the JM.

Had the car judged last year and received deduct for lack of orange paint. Brought up that the JM says no paint and was basically told it was wrong!

Talked with a few people at convention and heard both sides. Getting the car ready for another round of judging this fall....should I keep them unpainted??

1966 with 327-300hp.

Thanks for any help,
Tim

Tim,

In my opinion, the JG is correct. Much research has shown that ALL V8 manifolds were coated (not just oversprayed) through the 65 model year but the 66 (and later) 327 was the first year the manifolds were added to the engine assembly AFTER the paint operation.
It's possible that some very early 66 engine manifolds were coated but I know of no absolute documentation on this.
I have a great picture of a new 66 chassis going down the assembly line, about to receive it's engine. The manifolds are naked.
I'll try to post the pic later.

[Tim L.]

Re: 66 small block exhaust manifold

Tim,

In my opinion, the JG is correct. Much research has shown that ALL V8 manifolds were coated (not just oversprayed) through the 65 model year but the 66 (and later) 327 was the first year the manifolds were added to the engine assembly AFTER the paint operation.
It's possible that some very early 66 engine manifolds were coated but I know of no absolute documentation on this.
I have a great picture of a new 66 chassis going down the assembly line, about to receive it's engine. The manifolds are naked.
I'll try to post the pic later.

Michael,

Thanks for the info, just what I was looking for. The photo you mention would be great to see.
Thanks again, Tim

[Michael H.]

Re: 66 small block exhaust manifold

Michael,

Thanks for the info, just what I was looking for. The photo you mention would be great to see.
Thanks again, Tim

Sorry for the delay Tim. Here's a shot of a new 66 engine about to be dropped into the chassis line at the St Louis plant. The manifolds are unpainted.
It may be a little difficult to clearly see the difference between the orange painted engine and the raw manifold because of the fact that the pic is black/whte but if we look at the bolt that's installed through the orange painted alternator lower bracket and into the manifold, we can easily see that the bolt is black. If the manifold were installed during engine paint, the bolt would have been paint also.

[Timothy B.]

Re: 66 small block exhaust manifold

Is there a logical reason manifolds were installed after engine assembly/paint for 66-up? I assume they put a piece of tape over the cylinder head mounting surfaces as paint in this ares probably would not seal after a while.

[Tim L.]

Re: 66 small block exhaust manifold

Thanks Michael for posting the photo, yes you can tell they are not painted. That does bring up the interesting question as to why the process was changed in 66.

Tim

[Daniel S.]

Re: 66 small block exhaust manifold

I have a 66' Coupe that I will have judged soon. Because the car is new to me, I am doing a lot of research for correctness;therefore, I have the 4th edition of the JM. AS they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words"! I have a base engine with Aluminum Valve covers as do the VC's in this photo. However, the JM for 1966 says the "base engine" had "Stamped Steel VC's" only. Hello? Where do I go from here?

[Tim L.]

Re: 66 small block exhaust manifold

I have a 66' Coupe that I will have judged soon. Because the car is new to me, I am doing a lot of research for correctness;therefore, I have the 4th edition of the JM. AS they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words"! I have a base engine with Aluminum Valve covers as do the VC's in this photo. However, the JM for 1966 says the "base engine" had "Stamped Steel VC's" only. Hello? Where do I go from here?

Daniel,
If your car has the base engine (327-300hp) it should have the stamped steel valve covers as seen in the attached photo. The aluminum VC's came on the 350hp version of the 327. Alot of times these were added because they looked better!! Mine had chrome VC's when I bought it.
Good luck with your car.
Tim