cylinder head movement side to side

[Sedanman]

Not getting a clear answer on the ford six board so will try here; I installed the head on my 200 and tightened the bolts finger tight, but there is some side to side movement/slop in the head bolt holes. I don't remember encountering this before, but it's been over 10 years since I've had one apart.

So is this normal? And does it matter which side I move it to before torquing down? I've seen many of these sixes leak at the head gasket on the driver's side and want to avoid that..

[pbrown]

Are there not head alignment dowels like on the V8? I figured there would be. Do you have a rebuild book to refer to?

[pbrown]

Okay, there are no dowels to align the head based on this thread.

http://fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20474&start=0

[Sedanman]

Yeah, only the big sixes had them. Somebody suggested making dowels today, but they would have to be tapered since the bolt holes in the head are fair amount larger than those in the block. Or threaded...

[61ranch]

I ran into this while putting 351w heads on a 302 (except they had dowels), they make larger shaft bolts with the correct thread size for the block from what I remember. Check ARP and see if they have the correct sizes to fit your application.

[Sedanman]

As somebody on FSP suggested, I centered it as best as possible and then torqued it down. The car seems to be running fine - idles a lot smoother than before - but I haven't driven it yet due to a bad valve cover leak (should have looked at those flanges before painting/assem.!) and a leak at the manifold to pipe. I'm hoping I don't need a new head pipe - they had to mill quite a bit off the exh. manifold surface so it may have moved the manifold over too much to seal to the pipe.

Hopefully, I'll have be able to drive it by the jingle bell cruise in early December ;)