[stepman]

I'm in the process of building a "basket case" for my sons car. The machine work was already done and it just neede assembly....NOT.Any ways..I've gotten everything together and tried to bolt the lower intake up when I noticed that the front bolt-hole is in the wrong place. It is about an inch farther back on the head than it is on the intake but, the gasket has the hole for both. What gives here? I've been searching the net for any answers for 2 day now and can't come up with anything. The numbers on the head are RF-E5ZE-9K461-B and the intake is E4ZE-BA. Are these different (other than the holes)? Can I just drill and tap a new hole where I need it to be?

[ARdoller]

there were two different intakes for the 2.3L between 87-93. one ran from 87-about 90 i believe, and the other was from about 91-93. the older one had the ford logo, EFI and 2.3 on the side, and the newer one splits into 2 pipes with no writing on the manifold at all.

[stepman]

I got my numbers backwards. The longer number is on the intake. It has the Ford logo on the top , the engineering number and another number on the bottom but, that appears to be it. I'll see if I can figure out how to get a pic or two in here. From the top of it there are 4 holes which look like 4 seperate pipes all the way to the head.


I believe that this guy must have overheated the motor and came up with a different head. I have 2 sets of valves and springs and stuff....what gets me lost is that the head should be from 85 and the int from 84 so, why would the bolt pattern be off? Also, it's just the front bolt-hole. All of the others line up.Is there something like this head came off a different vehicle that used a diff intake for some reason? Can I just add the hole that I need and put sealer on the bolt since it will go through to the valve spring area (where there is oil)?

Thanks for the reply.

[jhudak]

Originally Posted by stepman

I'm in the process of building a "basket case" for my sons car. The machine work was already done and it just neede assembly....NOT.Any ways..I've gotten everything together and tried to bolt the lower intake up when I noticed that the front bolt-hole is in the wrong place. It is about an inch farther back on the head than it is on the intake but, the gasket has the hole for both. What gives here? I've been searching the net for any answers for 2 day now and can't come up with anything. The numbers on the head are RF-E5ZE-9K461-B and the intake is E4ZE-BA. Are these different (other than the holes)? Can I just drill and tap a new hole where I need it to be?

Yes you can. I had the same situation,just put thread sealer on the bolt and it will be fine.

[stepman]

yeah, I happened to see it at the wrecking yard today. Pulled an intake off an injected one to get at something and it had both the holes in the head. Should be able to get it up and running this weekend I hope. Thanks for the repllies.