Exhaust manifold leak

Just mulling here . . . How about stove cement? The kind used for caulking your woodstove and chimney? Just a dab on the block and put your gasket on over top of it while it's still wet? Then bolt the manifold down. You just need something heat-resistant that will not blow out with exhaust pressure.

Or, how about just a smidge of the rope stuff that goes around the door of the stove. Coat it with the stove cement, gasket, etc. It keeps the fire in the Ashley, why not the Ford?

Ain't worth time to try and repair it. Castiron doesn't weld very good and exhaust contaminated castiron doesn't weld worth stuff. You can "braze" castiron, but guess what? braze melts at exhaust gas tempature.

If you decide to not follow my advice, lets hope that all that excapeing exhaust gas doesn't corrode your engine block which is impossibe to fix without replacement..... ...respectfully, Dell

Having said that you CAN, but not easily, grind the block evenly to fix the problem but you will have to remove the manifold studs to do it. Talk about a pain! Are you sure the manifold itself is not burned too? Normally, it burns away much faster than the block. $75 or so for new manifold and $2 for gaskets. I'd try that first before grinding the block. BTW, I've heard people suggest using Permatex to seal this kind of problem. It'll work for a few hours beofre it too burns away.