Exhaust heat valve question.

[69Z28]

Here is a pic of Jano's and the one I picked up for comparison. Note his valve weight on the left and mine on the right. So the valve weight on mine will point to the front of the car and his will point to the rear. Different for 68 and 69? Here's a question, how is the valve oriented when installed, with the arm on the engine side or the the fender side?

[69Z28]

Any way to tell if this valve is stuck? The more I think about it, I noticed that at the rear tips the exhaust flows better on the drivers side than passengers. So I am thinking mine might be stuck?

I always thought something odd was going on there. In the wintertime I noticed how steam would be coming out more on the driver side exhaust then the passenger side on a lot of cars when they were first started up and run in the morning. Would see it a lot with dual exhaust, not at all on single exhaust of course.

[JohnZ]

<<Here's a question, how is the valve oriented when installed, with the arm on the engine side or the the fender side?>>

Here's mine - if the weight is on the inboard side, it would probably interfere with the starter solenoid with the valve open.

[69Z28]

Thanks John...that's the shot I was looking for. The valve I have, looking at your pic, will be at 9 o'clock where yours is at 3 o'clock and the weight will be pointing the same as yours, towards the fender well. Can I assume that even these heat valves have differences in them? Or will/should they all be the same? I was looking at my survivor 69 Impala LM1 and the valve is installed with the weight on the left as well with rams horn (center dump) manifolds.


Reason I brought this up is because I took the headers off my Z to install the manifolds about a 1000 miles ago and noticed that the passenger head pipe was pushed up tight against the floor. I'm still wondering if I even have a packing donut in there. I'm sure I do since there isn't any exhaust leaks. I hate bring this up but I felt like I needed to. Always had headers on my cars so I have never seen what I need to connect UNCUT head pipes to manifolds before. At least now I know I need to get new studs ( short and long), 2 packing donuts, 2-2" head pipe extension tubes and a flat gasket. I should be all set then.

[1968zee28]

  FWIW , I used a small grinding wheel and cut/removed butterfly from riser assy.
    Re-installed  //  Looks, and functions (weight-spring movement only ) as original, and no worry about sticking in closed position!!

[hrlyfxdl]

In circling back to this topic, I remember reading in one of the forums someone discussing how they disassembled the heat riser valve to take out the flapper portion (without cutting it out) and then have the weight and spring still showing so it looked original. I have read through forums about heat risers, but can't find that string. Does anyone know which forum what discussion was on, or have input on how to disassemble the heat riser to take out the flapper and then reinstall for the original look? Thanks

[bertfam]

Is THIS what you're looking for?

Ed

[hrlyfxdl]

Is THIS what you're looking for?

Ed

Exactly, thanks Ed.

[Stingr69]

I just bought a fuel injection car spacer.  They look the same as the heat riser valve but do not have a flapper/shaft hole/weight. Just a straight thru design.  No cutting or mods required.

[firstgenaddict]

I didn't think about the fact that the fuelies  did not have heat crossovers.

[Mike S]

 I used the process Ed posted and it works. I had to cut through the flapper centers just enough using a Dremel cutoff wheel to split them so as to remove the shaft.

Mike