Or, you could just approach it with a wrench in hand and do it -- whatever you think it needs -- by yourself, stop torturing the guy. As opposed to the conversation above, the amount of contraction will have zippo to do with the aluminum manifold, since 100% of it will be in those steel studs that hold down the carb. I'll buy you a 6-pack of good beer if you can show any useful length increase in that ~3/8" of stud length that is occupied with holding down the carb. Tighten it down once and forget about it.
BB, the issue is that gaskets settle in and shrink after heating and cooling a few times. That is why head bolts are retorqued. It ain't because the head bolts have stretched! Carb gaskets are usually thin and don't shrink much, but intake gaskets will give up a bit.
That, and, as I had said before, aluminum expands and contracts more than cast iron, and between the intake and the intake gaskets, it's not necessarily a 'fire and forget' kind of setup. In my years so far as a mechanic, I've never have had a comeback with aluminum manifolds because I do not treat them the same way as I treat cast iron. And whether or not there's a torque spec, it's for sure aluminum is not torqued down as hard as cast iron. Without rechecking the bolts, there is a risk, no matter how small, of a leak developing.
I don't think that Ford ever intended you to re-torque head bolts. For sure that would not be true for any modern motor. In any event, you don't need to do it for a carb gasket. Suggest that you take a look at some of the factory guides on youtube re how various modern motors are built. Those are completely assembled with computer controlled torque-sensitive wrenches [if that's the right word for it] and you'll never have to worry about torque again.
Those modern engines you refer to have newly designed and engineered gaskets (in some cases, molded rubber rings), which behave differently than the older graphite-face gaskets for these older engines of ours. If you do an older engine and not retorque anything, you're likely lucky nothing's sprang a leak. But I had a Fel-Pro head gasket torque sequence booklet, and it did mention that retorquing was a necessity for certain engines. And BTW, any bolt that has a torque value then "turn X number of degrees" is a torque-to-yield bolt, and that bolt stretch is part of the final torque design. Those head gaskets, when used with TTY head bolts, do not get a retorquing...they are the exception for graphite-faced head gaskets.
Intake re-torqued, all good. Warm idle adjusted from 550 to 650, no longer wants to die at a stop light. Fuel gauge was reading below EMPTY with a little less than 5 verified gallons in the tank. Sender arm readjusted back to read EMPTY. How the sender arm physically changed in the tank is a mystery. Full gauge movement verified by moving the sender arm up and down. The coil springs will be reversed at a later time when I can afford new air bags and will have both completed at the same time. Next up, the doors, and not the band. My thanks to all that have taken the time to help. I really do appreciate it.
Speaking of the doors, they appear to be fixed. No not the band members, the ones on the vehicle. I arrived at the shop and spoke with the owner. He said that they did a water test with a garden hose with thumb pressure and found no water leaks, and the owner test drove the vehicle at 75 MPH on the highway and said there were also no wind leaks. I also spoke with the person who did the work and I believe he said that each door has at least 8, maybe 10, different window adjustments, all interacting with one another. He said that the driver's side roof rail seal is indented from the previous window alignment and should, since it is new, rebound and take on the new indent. I looked at the glass in relationship to the cab and it is even all the way around. The owner said the tech spent 8 hours working on it, but he would only charge me for 4 hours, plus he gave me a slight discount on the hourly labor charge. He felt it was not right to charge for the whole day just to adjust windows, when normally with new vehicles it takes only a couple of hours for both sides and said with this job he probably broke even. I found it interesting that he said he gets a lot of brand new vehicles from the nearby dealerships in to adjust their windows, many from the factory are not adjusted properly. When I arrived at the shop the vehicle was parked in the sun with the windows rolled up. It must of been 100 degrees, a lot more in the cab and with no AC, when I left the shop I only tested for wind leaks a short time before rolling down the windows to get some much needed air. During the short test I did not hear any wind noise on the driver's side and I believe I didn't hear any on the passenger's side either, where it was previously worse. Later this week the daytime temperature is going to be 105 degrees, so no testing during the day. Instead a buddy and I are going on a nighttime cruse, when it should be in the 80's, to do further wind and water testing. It's better when someone is sitting in the passenger seat right next to the glass when on the highway. Unfortunately, they did not fix the passenger interior window sweep and the loose door panels. Although, the door panels are at least tight to the door, which is an improvement. By that I mean, even if they are not clipped all the way around, at least the panel is sitting flat to the door frame, which is much better then the way I received the vehicle back previously. While I am a little disappointed that the window sweep and the door panel clips were not addressed, I do understand the amount of time that was spent adjusting, the more important, windows. Had they done more, I suppose, that would have been a greater loss for the shop. If I can cross off the windows from the to-do list, then at a later time I'm going to have them address the remaining door issues. They seem to be honest and do in one take what the other shop failed to do in two, and for a reasonable price. So far I'm happy, we'll see what happens later in the week.
Hot Sh*t !! Finally going in the right direction. Glad to hear it. Don't give up, it's worth the fight.
I mentioned previously that the fuel sender arm was readjusted a second time so that the needle sits on the EMPTY mark with a little less than 5 gallons in the tank. Went to the gas station when the fuel gauge was reading a little more than one needle's width below the EMPTY mark. After the second gas tank burp, I put a total of 19.5 gallons into the tank. With a 22 gallon tank, that means there was around 2.5 gallons just below the EMPTY mark. That suggests to me that the fuel sender might be finally reading closer to what it should be. Less important, the needle also went one needle's width above the FULL mark, something it didn't do with the previous sender arm adjustment and stayed there longer before beginning to drop. Also went on the nighttime cruse to test the window adjustments. Earlier the body shop said when rolling up the window with the driver's door closed, make sure to give the window crank an extra tug, something that is not needed when rolling up the window while the driver's side door is open. I see what they mean. When the door is closed and the window is almost rolled all the way up, the extra tug insures the glass is in contact with the rubber flap of the door seal that folds over the glass at the bottom of the A-Pillar. With both windows tugged, we step out onto the highway doing about 80 MPH and I'm not hearing anything on my side of the cab, but I can hear a tiny wind noise on the passenger side. The person I was with also hears the tiny noise, but can't determine exactly where the noise is coming from. A check of the usual suspects, around the window crank and door handle, turns up nothing. Overall it is noticeably quieter in the cab, to the point that a conversation can be had without having to yell at one another. Next we took the vehicle back to the same car wash to do the water test. With the windows tugged, the driver side passed the rinse cycle. When the rinse cycle reached the passenger side there was a tiny amount of water that flowed passed the seal at the bottom of the B-Pillar. I would describe the tiny amount of water to be a good tablespoonful's worth that, considering the water pressure, only managed to produce a quarter inch stream of water about the size of a half-inch arc. I do not believe the water actually reached inside the cab, more like it ran down the door jamb. The second pass of the rinse cycle was the same as the first, only there was now a couple of slow drips from the middle of the glass between the top of the passenger side A and B-Pillars. Enough water to get your leg slightly damp in one spot. This is in stark contrast to the Niagara Falls effect that poured in from across the entire top of the window under the same conditions with the previous window adjustment. Bottom-line; the tiny wind noise on the passenger side was most likely coming in from the bottom of the B-Pillar. Gone is the loud whistling wind noise and overall volume level inside the cab is now conversation friendly. The leaks from the water test occurred under high water pressure, a normal rain most likely would not find it's way in or at least not nearly to the same degree. I suppose the passenger side could be tweaked a little more to match the tighter driver side window, but I'm not sure if it is worth doing that. What do you think?
With the history of the work performed, I wouldn't even THINK about messing with such a small thing like that. I'd just be happy the work was finally properly done.
Yeah, I tend to agree. The leaks were the result of extreme conditions and under normal ones would likely not be an issue.
One thing I forgot to mention is the tricky warm engine starts. I'm not sure if it is technique or something needs to be adjusted, but when the engine is up to temperature and I go to start the engine, one of two things happens. One, I turn the ignition key and the engine starts right up without touching the gas pedal. Two, I turn the ignition key and after spinning the engine for approximately 10 seconds I give it a little pedal and while I can hear the engine wanting to start, the engine chugs to life because its been flooded. After the engine starts there is a strong smell of fuel everywhere. Once the extra fuel is burned, everything is fine. Most of the time it's the former, but any ideas what might be causing the latter to happen?
Just for a bit of relief while the window rubbers are taking a set to their new shapes, try cleaning the glass then apply some clear silicone spray to the rubbers. Apply the silicone, let dry a few minutes, then wipe with a clean soft cloth. Repeat this a few times then close the doors with the glass fully up. Let it sit overnight then try the windows. This just might reduce the effort needed to completely close the windows. This leaves a bit of silicone residue on the glass but a good glass cleaner like Stoner's Invisible Glass will cure that problem after a few cleanings.
For the hot start, it depends on how long it sits. When the engine has sat awhile, go ahead and hold the throttle open 1/4-1/3rd open then crank. If it sat Les than 5-10 minutes, depending on ambient temp, you should not need to open the throttle. But do not sit and crank for ten seconds. If 3-4 cranks doesn't catch the engine, stop immediately and open the throttle as I described.
I wonder if they failed to clean the surfaces. New rubber has mold release on it so it won't stick to the mold. That stuff also keeps it from sticking to glue. X2 on the yellow 3M glue, just make sure the trim is exactly where you want it when you push it in place, because that is where it is going to stay.
