Intake, Valve Cover, and Cylinder Head Inspection

Last night, I decided relatively last minute to remove the upper intake from the Mustang.  In part, I wanted to look under it and inside the runners to evaluate the condition.  Additionally, it would allow me access to remove and look under the valve covers.

The intake removal was rather easy except two of the screws to remove the 5.0 plaque on top simply would not come out.  I've been working on them for several days now with PB Blaster without any success.  The T20 provision on the top ultimately stripped out and I had to drill them out.  It worked but that left me with the project of what is removing what is left of those screws at some point.

The upper intake was still sealed with a stock Ford gasket (E6SE-9H486-CA).  In my research, this is the original gasket and not the service replacement (E6SZ-9H486-C) sold if it had ever been replaced.    There was a bracket that connected the passenger side rear intake bolt to the lower driver side of the block that didn't appear as it had ever been touched.  These all lead me to believe this intake has never been off the vehicle.

The intake runners are rather dark on the upper and down into the lower side of the intake.  I expect this is from 181,000 miles of slight oil entering through the PVC and perhaps some type of carbon buildup over the years from the EGR setup.  It doesn't feel particularly oily and doesn't really smell like oil or fuel.  

I loosened the valve cover bolts next to check the condition of the rockers and tops of the heads.  The bolts had that snap feel when you break them loose that tells you they have been through many heat cycles without being removed.  When I removed them, I was very happy to find the engine condition is immaculate.  It certainly seems to have received regular oil changes as the is no oil buildup or even dark residue.

The valve cover gaskets are a metal version that has a thin black rubber style gasket on the inner edge.  The metal portion was rusty all the way around and rather hard to remove.  I could not find any part number on them but I imagine they are original.  The part number should be on the metal portion but the bottom edges are rather rusty so they have likely just vanished to the rust process.  You can't remove the vale covers on this car without removing the intake which certainly seemed to have never been removed.  

I love that this car is a time capsule that some lady owned and cared for since she graduated college.  You can't replace originality.  This originality is a little different in that it is 181,000 originality so it is appropriate to maintain and improve the condition as it is aging.  

Since I had it removed, I weighed the stock upper intake, EGR spacer, and throttle body as removed and complete.  It weighed exactly 26 lbs.