"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...
My 8N ford tractor has a loud clatter...

I found the cause, the exhaust gasket has blown out in a small spot. The
metal in the block is slightly burned away. ( a couple years ago, I put a
new manifold on so its in good shape here) Its a flat head engine so the
ports are in the block not on the heads. And to make matters even worse
the block on a tractor is the frame support also. No way can I take the
thing apart enough to re-machine this surface.

So, do they make some sort of gasket goo to add to the manifold gaskets
that will correct this problem?

Karl



how "slightly" is "slightly burned away" - on my L head cars, erosion of the
block in the area of the manifold is common, but a proper gasket seems to do
the trick - it's quite possible that you didn't torque the manifold
correctly when you put the new one on. Note that some bolt holes are
enlongated to accommodate expansion (at least on cars), and that
overtorquing causes troubles as does lack of proper washers and hardware.
I've had a cracked manifold (on a 51 dodge) welded successfully - nickle
rod - I would expect that a good welder could build up some material if you
needed it, and then some work with a file could bring it back down to level
enough for a gasket to seal. There are also some high temperature ceramic
fillers.

If your tractor is running right, the manifold isn't "that hot" - but if the
timing is off, it can get really hot - I made a mistake on setting one of my
cars and the manifold ended up red-orange before I shut it off to figure out
what I had done wrong.