Where can I find a 3600 exhaust manifold that isn't garbage?

[petebert]

I bought one from ebay seller stevenslake. I liked purchasing from them because they're also in Michigan so it only takes 2 days for my parts to arrive. Well the one they sent me was terrible, whoever made it didn't cut it well at all. The exhaust ports are almost 1/2" off center. So I started a return on that one and bought another one from ebay seller "reliableaftermarketpartsinc". Well apparently they're either the same seller under two names or they use the same supplier, because same story, exhaust parts are off center. Interestingly they're off center the opposite direction. I'm guessing these things are being made in some 3rd world country. Do I just keep ordering from random ebay sellers and hope I get lucky? There's a seller in South Carolina who's manifold looks pretty good in the picture posted.

At first I thought the new gasket was what was misaligned but I checked it against my motor block and OEM manifold and the gasket matches perfectly to those.

Here's the one from "stevenslake"

Here's the OEM one

Here's the "reliableaftermarketpartsinc" one, a little tougher to see since I didn't take it out of the plastic because I'm going to return it. You can see down at the bottom of the exhaust ports where it's misaligned. This ones bare metal has a goldish color which you can kind of see through the plastic.

 

[RickB]

Fast, cheap, good. Pick any two. You can port match one of the aftermarket manifolds or cough up BIG BUCKS for an OEM manifold.

 

[boomer1025]

What's wrong with the original manifold ?

 

[topbuilder]

It looks like you could match the ports if you did not use the hole the bolt is in.

 

[topbuilder]

Maybe not. Looks pretty bad.

 

[GLyford]

Weld up the bolt holes, mark and punch from the gasket and redrill?

 

[Midniteoyl]

Havent bought from here in a long time, but check it out: Ford 3600 Manifold, Exhaust, Horizontal - C5NE9430A

Or, Mufflers and exhaust parts for Ford 3600 tractors | All States Ag Parts


edit: This is suppose to be an OEM, never used, part: Ford 3 Manifold Exhaust Horizontal Part C5NE943A | eBay No pics make me leery, however.

And this is 'New - Other', but dont know if OEM or aftermarket. I do have the question posed and awaiting a response: Manifold for Ford New Holland Tractor C5NE943A | eBay

 

[petebert]

I didn't see all these replys, here's an update. Here's the story of why I even needed a manifold in the first place. It all started because I bought an OEM style muffler. Well I get it and it won't fit on the S shaped exhaust pipe. I finally figure out that over the years the skinny top portion of the exhaust must have rusted away so a previous owner put a larger diameter muffler down a little lower on the pipe. No big deal, those S shaped exhaust pipes are readily available. The one on my tractor is the type with the triangular flange that attaches to the manifold via 3 bolts. Not surprisingly since I'm dealing with old exhaust bolts, one of them breaks. Not a huge deal but my 1 hour job is now going to take longer. I drill out the old bolt pretty easily and now I'm running the tap in, just as I'm reaching bottom the tap breaks off in my new hole. I'm kind of screwed at this point. Those taps are hard metal and a drill bit won't touch it. So that's when I jumped online, saw tons of manifold and thought, to **** with it, I'll just replace the manifold.

So now I've got a tractor in my driveway with no exhaust and I'm dealing with these junk manifolds. I thought about asking the local machine shop if they could bail me out. The broken tap is Y shaped in the hole, it broke clean at the top of the hole so I can't grab it with anything. I figured since it was threaded in I might be able to tap it left with a screwdriver and hammer and get it turning, no luck. I then get the idea that maybe my air hammer will be able to get it turning left. It didn't work that way but the air hammer did start to break little pieces off of it, so a little at a time I shattered the stuck tap. I then drilled out what was left, threaded a new hole and just a few hours ago I got my OEM manifold back on the tractor along with the new exhaust and muffler.

 

[GLyford]

Excellent! I have broken out taps with center punches before, and was going to suggest that before I read further...