Spark plugs: 7 tan, 1 black

[ceslaw]

It has been a while since I reported on the problem with the 427. As we know, the problem was determined to be the intake manifold gasket. The Cobra has sat in the garage, idle, while other tasks preoccupied my time.

The Genesis engine was actually built by Woody’s Automotive, Thorntown, Indiana, a few miles north of Indianapolis. With Run and Gun rapidly approaching I was getting anxious to get the intake manifold gasket replaced. On Monday of this week I called Dennis at Woody’s Automotive and he graciously agreed to travel the four and a half hours to my home on Friday to check the engine.

Friday afternoon was warm but the humidity was low: a good day to work on a Cobra. In a couple of hours time the job was accomplished. Not only was the gasket on the starboard side badly distorted with a quarter inch opening by cylinder 2 (the one with the oil problem), but the gasket on the port side was also deformed and likely would have soon failed as well. Looking at those gaskets it was a bit amazing the car ran as well as it did.

The Felpro gaskets were replaced with gaskets that have a steel inner layer, so hopefully this repair won’t need to be repeated.

We opted to put the "Cobra" air cleaner rather than the turkey basket back in place to make adjusting the carb easier.

I will report further after the car has some more miles on it. Thought it best to let the sealant set up thoroughly before running the engine more than necessary to adjust the timing and carb.

I have not yet figured out how an easy way to incorporate pictures on this site. For pics go to www.gt40s.com, Engine forum, thread by the same name.

Special thanks to everyone for the excellent input in identifying the problem and getting it repaired.
Dennis at Woody’s Automotive deserves special recognition for going way out of his way to accomplish this repair and doing it on such short notice