Glad Rings

[JimK1930A]

I am about to replace my manifold gasket. After removing my manifolds and the old manifold gaskets the two piece copper style (P/N 13770~Bratton's), I noticed that there were not any glad rings?
The surfaces of my manifold to block are flat and true to each other without warpage.
I bought the one piece manifold gasket (P/N 13760~Bratton's).
Is there one manifold gasket that is a better style than another?
I do not care about being era correct, I care more about performance and reliability.
Should I replace the missing glad rings?
Thank you in advance.
Jim

[Art Bjornestad]

They are usually described as gland rings and they may not fit if there is too much sag in the manifold.

[Jim Parker Toronto]

An older manifold may sag at the 4th exhaust hole due to being heated and the weight of the muffler on it. That is why the gland rings may not fit. The gasket is a matter of preference as they all do the job, I use the 2 piece gaskets with no glands and find them satisfactory.

[Chris in CT]

Hi Jim, Use the gland rings if you can get them to fit. Another thing to watch out for is if the exhaust/intake manifold assembly has been milled so that the gland rings actually prevent the manifold assembly from being fully brought down against the block ports (gasket in place, of course). In that case you must grind the gland rings narrower so that the manifold can be properly snugged to the block. Good luck!

[Earle]

Don't the gland rings sit in recesses/counterboars in both the block and the manifolds? If so, I would think that using the rings serves as a positive means of keeping the manifolds aligned with the ports in the block as well as preventing the manifolds from being pulled down out of place ("sagging") due to the weight of the exhaust system. I insisted on having my engine rebuilder install the rings properly while working on my engine. 'Have had many happy driving miles since and see no signs of manifold leak, gasket failure or sagging.

As the saying goes:...If Henry intended them to be there, I'm going to use them.

Earle

[Tom Wesenberg]

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Plus the gland rings make a smoother air flow.

[Russ/40]

Actually Henry went back and forth on the Gland rings. Now I know why #4 would not seat properly. The sag you guys refer to... What a wealth of information you guys have.

[davidmerrell]

Jim,one little problem i have had in the past,that you must know about.If the manifold you are using has been surfaced a few times,there is not space for the gland rings.If there is not space,the result when torquing the the manifold will be to break in half.Good A parts are becoming harder and harder to find. Thanks,Dave m

[Earle]

David, Right - the more material you plane off the manifolds to make them flat, the shallower you're making the counterbores in which the gland rings install. Just speaking for myself, I consider the use of the rings important enough that I would pay a good machine shop (shouldn't be that expensive) to cut the counterbores back to the right depth so the rings fit again.

Earle

[Bob A.]

Jim, don't be too hasty in installing the manifolds. Fit them by hand and check alignment.When your sure everything aligns square with the engine then bring up the nuts. Make sure your washers are placed correctly. I learned the hard way by cracking the intake on my '31

[spike]

I have found that just about all exhust maniforld have a sag if they have been run for years...so I started using Don snyders and it fits great and have not problems with them. I install the intake to the exhust manifold and turn it over and check to see if the two are flat with one another then remove the intake and put the gland rings in the block and hold the exhust manifold up to the block and see if it will seat flush(with no gasket) and if everything matches up I install it. If your intake has been milled I suggest you replace it with another. I use glad rings to help save the gasket and give better flow for the exhust, and dont forget to put the washers on the correct way when installing to the engine. good luck and happy A-ing