1F / 2F Manifold Prep for Carb or Sniper

A lot of what we do here at Red Line Land Cruisers are Land Cruiser engine REVIVALS! Bringing these old Toyota Land Cruisers back to life! And we love 1F/2F engines! We can sell you an 1F or 2F Sniper manifold adapter, but that does not do either of us any good if you do not “check & deck” your manifold’s mating surfaces prior to installation! You are going to have air leaks and this will only leave a bad taste in your mouth towards us and the “us” part you just purchased from “us” is not the issue. Air leaks are real even though they don’t bleed, are totally invisible and finding them is easily overlooked! Call us the ghostbusters of air leaks.

We all have to remember these old 1F/2F Toyota Land Cruiser engines are 34 to 54 years old! These old engines have gone through many heat cycles and this new-to-you old rig may have even ran hot… a time or two! Heat deforms metal over time and we have found on numerous occasions that the intake manifold has some warpage even though engine exhaust is not going through it, but the manifold itself is mounted to and sitting in a “oven!”

“But I didn’t have an air leak before…” And that is most likely because the carburetor you removed from the manifold had “formed” in unison to the the manifold over the 35+ years… thus you “may” have had a sealed connection before. But now you’re adding a Sniper Manifold Adapter, or maybe a new carb, thus you should “check & deck” your mating surfaces as the surface of the new item should be flat or the old-new carb surface may be different than the old surface of the manifold. Getting these two surfaced matched for mating is very important!

BEFORE YOU GET INTO YOUR BEAUTIFICATION PROCESS!
It’s “check & deck” your mating surface first! Then you can spend time and maybe some money too, making your Toyota F-Series intake manifold look good! Maybe have Pristine Powder Coating apply a thermal barrier ceramic coating on it… BUT, “check & deck” FIRST!

Get yourself some type of cutting oil.

Use an 8X1.25 thread tap.

Clean the threads. So many times we see these things all crossed up! We’ve even came across a hole that was filled and miss-drilled in the wrong location!

Take your time and be patient!

Aquire yourself some 180 grit sand paper.

With your sand paper attached to wood block or sanding block, you will lightly deck the mating surface.

You should start to see where it is sanding the high areas.

Give it a few more rounds and you don’t have to over do it!
You can see where the heat warpage or deformation was, but now we have a more “flattened” surface better suiting for sealing!

“Air” out your mounting holes especially the rearward / inner ones as those two are “blind-holes” passing through to the inside of your manifold. So make sure you clean these well of all debris that potentially fell down during your sanding and threading.

With your freshly decked mating / gasket surface, you are now ready to attach your gasket and carburetor or Sniper manifold.

You can take your MANIFOLD PREP ONE STEP FURTHER!!!
Read our 2F SNIPER 101 – WHERE TO START article and see the section where we test the manifold for air leaks by using “light leak” method for chasing those ghosty whispers of air escaping!

See the Red Line Land Cruisers Replacement Carb Spacer, 1F Sniper intake manifold and factory Toyota air filter adapter kit available.