sloppy Mechanics

popeye766 wrote:
RV mechanics worked on my 460 before I bought it.....they did not clamp the hoses in my A I R system which I blew off climbing in Nev. Every since then it blows manifold gaskets and eats plug wires every 250 mi......
why would the damaged AIR system cause this.....everything was perfect till those hoses were blown off....
any ideas......
tom

Tom, your 460 should not have manifold gaskets. It came from the factory with none. The gaskets were probably installed to seal warped manifolds. Remove the manifolds, take them to a machine shop and have them surface ground. Then clean all the old gasket off the heads and install the manifolds with out gaskets. As with most 460s in motorhomes, the right rear manifold bolt will eventually break and start leaking again. The permanent cure is headers.

Richard

RLS7201 wrote:

popeye766 wrote:
RV mechanics worked on my 460 before I bought it.....they did not clamp the hoses in my A I R system which I blew off climbing in Nev. Every since then it blows manifold gaskets and eats plug wires every 250 mi......
why would the damaged AIR system cause this.....everything was perfect till those hoses were blown off....
any ideas......
tom

Tom, your 460 should not have manifold gaskets. It came from the factory with none. The gaskets were probably installed to seal warped manifolds. Remove the manifolds, take them to a machine shop and have them surface ground. Then clean all the old gasket off the heads and install the manifolds with out gaskets. As with most 460s in motorhomes, the right rear manifold bolt will eventually break and start leaking again. The permanent cure is headers.

Richard

sorry to disagree,I have seen lots of 460 engines come from Factory with gaskets and they(gasket) also have a built in plug wire heat shield

The better sealing gasket may help. I suspect your exhaust manifolds are warped. I would not mess with the gaskets that much. I would go with headers with heat resistant coating. Would suggest plug wires for high heat conditions.
Exhaust Manifold gaskets
These with angled boots may keep away from leaking manifold.
Plug wires

My Rv has NEW manifolds, a new dual exhaust system and barely completed a 1200 mi trip. Melted 2 sets of ford racing wires, and after an inspection today discovered it wrinkled , swelled and almost busted my new walker mufflers.....now they are trash.....they just couldn't take 100 degree driving and the awesome heat generated by the 460 under load. Iam waiting for my new headers and am switching to a straight thru type mufflers.....
tom

A plug wire protector kit from DEI will stop the melting. you can get them at any performance shop.

DEI

You know,
Reading this thread is kind of amazing to me. I had a '79 F-350 Lariat (Long wheel base) 1-ton pickup that I bought brand new for get this, $9,435.00 OUT THE DOOR, in Dec of '78. It came with the 460. Man, I loved that motor. It was smooth, quiet, seriously powerful, ate gas like it was free, but then again, what Ford truck hasn't?

Now, I put over 66K miles on that truck before I sold it to my brother and he put another 40K on it and sold it. It had a 11.5 cabover camper on it for many of those miles. And, we climbed grades all over California in it and to my recollection, I never burnt one single plug wire or, never even had one exhaust leak or damaged/warped/broken exhaust manifold.

Later in life, we purchased an '89 27' Class C Ford Chassis motor home and it too, had the 460. We bought it with 30K on it, kept that coach for 14 years and put around 40,000 miles on it. And, to the best of my knowledge, we never burnt and spark plug wires on it or, replaced any manifolds or manifold gaskets or anything like that. The only major "Exhaust" issue we did have as a catalytic converter plug up and that was something else. Talk about loss of power, instantly. Wow!

Anyway, I've always been fond of the 460 and had great luck with the two we had. So, to read of the issues that some of you are having or, have had with it, makes me think I either got lucky or, some of you just weren't or, aren't that lucky with yours.

Ours almost never, ever even ran hot, even towing a 21' boat in 105 degree weather to the Colorado River and back. Sorry to hear about your issues.

I've heard of the older 454 Chevy engines in trucks and motor homes cooking spark plug wires left and right but, just not too many 460s.
Scott

HA-HA Thanks for the sympathy..I agree...Ive never seen an engine like this.....It is STRONG, SMOOTH and docile... gets 7MPG pulling a truck.... when not missing from melted plug boots that short to the head,...... total weight is about 21000 lbs.. Since it blew off the AIR hoses it has reacted like this....as my research continues seems that AIR system has no effect on drivability.. but something is....Iam home and safe and my MH is safe....so I can try and figure this out.
When I bought it , it had 49000 miles and had sat so long that a valve stuck and bent a pushrod so the RV place did a valve job and all seemed to be fine. First trip, 1500 mi..ok, next trip 4500 mi,made it 950 blew those hoses and that's when it started. Ive replaced the entire fuel system, not injectors. Almost all the ign setup except pick up coil in dist. That's next to be complete. My scanner shows nothing.....dealership shows nothing.... OBD 1
Headers and magnaflows coming in a few days.....but I still feel there is something else.

popeye766 wrote:
HA-HA Thanks for the sympathy..I agree...Ive never seen an engine like this.....It is STRONG, SMOOTH and docile... gets 7MPG pulling a truck.... when not missing from melted plug boots that short to the head,...... total weight is about 21000 lbs.. Since it blew off the AIR hoses it has reacted like this....as my research continues seems that AIR system has no effect on drivability.. but something is....Iam home and safe and my MH is safe....so I can try and figure this out.
When I bought it , it had 49000 miles and had sat so long that a valve stuck and bent a pushrod so the RV place did a valve job and all seemed to be fine. First trip, 1500 mi..ok, next trip 4500 mi,made it 950 blew those hoses and that's when it started. Ive replaced the entire fuel system, not injectors. Almost all the ign setup except pick up coil in dist. That's next to be complete. My scanner shows nothing.....dealership shows nothing.... OBD 1
Headers and magnaflows coming in a few days.....but I still feel there is something else.

Popeye,
My comments were not meant to display anything but, the fact that I had good luck with the two 460s that we owned. It's too bad your unit is giving you the trouble it is. One of ours was a carbureted version (the '79 F-350) and, the other one, was the first version of fuel injection in '89. I for one, never liked the "A.I.R." system on any engine. It never made sense to me. But, we had to have it on there so, I kept it. Hope you get your issues worked out.
Scott

OH Heck Fire up..I know that...no offense taken....

Those AIR hoses are connected to a one way check valve at the AIR manifold inlet. I would be checking to make sure that the check valve isn't clogged or bad. You may also have an excessive amount of back-pressure in the exhaust, check it with a vacuum gauge.
Good luck.
Steve