I am swapping heads on my 63 Dart from the original head(which needs reworked) to a freshly reworked 1977 head. The 1977 head has an air injection port at the rear behind the manifold for emissions. I need to blank this port off.

Are there any places I could buy a prefabricated hole cover for this or do I get a piece of aluminum and start cutting to the shape of the gasket I have?

I have seen similar blank-off covers for EGR holes on other vehicles.


Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Kevin

Do you still have the tube? I cut the pipe off and brazed the hole shut on mine, easier than fabbing a new piece.

_________________
O==\=/==O

"A mechanic is Somebody."
- Jim Preston

Nope, never had the tube, but going to the yard to get one to modify is a possibility I suppose. I also thought of using a distributor hold-down with a round engine plug and sealant beneath it....pretty ugly but would probably work. most car manufacturers performance sites have custom looking covers, guess that's the look I'm after.

http://www.buickgn.com/EGRcap1_small.jpg

Here's an example from a Buick Performance site.

One of those with the "6" logo would be cool even though it's always associated with Buicks.
However, it's hard to see the plug with the manifold on, so I ground mine flat, painted it with the engine and it "disapeared" into nevermind...

_________________
O==\=/==O

"A mechanic is Somebody."
- Jim Preston

Sometime you can find a truck or van that did not have the air pump and that hole in the head just has a cover (with gasket) bolted over it from the factory. Actually, the same cover is used on some of the V8 exhaust manifolds when the air injection port is not used. There is the same cover on the left exhaust manifold of my 1979 Dodge truck with 318 V8. So you have a couple options too look at for a used cover.

Otherwise can you tap it with pipe thread and just screw a plug into it?

Or get a pipe end cap and pound it into the hole (use a small dab of high-temp silicon to help seal any pits/deformities). Poor man's "freeze plug"

-S/6