The World's slowest auto mechanic took it upon himself to finally investigate, why the very end of the exhaust manifold on old 230 tends to smoke on startup. Looking more closely after a warmup, it seemed to be coming from the upper bolt of the number 6 exhaust port. I backed it off slightly... and steam came hissing out! Oh No!! When I had the engine rebuilt last year, some of the studs turned out with the nut, and this was one of them. (I shouldn't have recycled it, but I did.) A couple had snapped too, and these the rebuilder drilled out. Could he have reamed out this hole, and punctured a water jacket? Thank goodness, there's no indication that I'm getting water in the oil. How serious a problem do I have? Should I just permatex a new stud and put it in, as I did with the two long cap screws (per the shop manual) that go in the center of the exhaust manifold? Hoping for some not-too-scary news this Halloween, Dan, TWSAM '55 Savoy |