Exhaust leak issue

[bigtruck94]

A while back, I was in the process of replacing my clutch and I had to take out the y-pipe so I could take out the transmission. There was one bolt that was hard to take out and kept at it until I finally got it to come out. I used a 1/2 inch air impact driver. Finally got the clutch replaced and than we got the y-pipe back on and it went in smoothly. After that, I went to test start it and it had a exhaust leak. It sound like it came from the flange where the headers and y-pipe meet. I tried tighting it some more with the impact driver, but didn't budge? What could I do to fix this?

 

[Surrey]

How much torque does your impact gun put out?

If its an old rusty bolt, you might just need more power.

Was there any gasket or anything in there that needs replacing perhaps?

 

[adsm08]

The flange style on the 4.0 manifolds/y-pipe needs fairly even torque on both sides of the collar. If you run one nut up tight and then try to take the other side up you usually end up with a small leak from the cup not being seated right.

Back off all of the nuts at the top of the y-pipe until it is loose to the manifolds and then tighten it up evenly, turn each nut twice, then go to the next one, until they are all tight.

 

[Mark_88]

I had a leak on my Sidekick...the guy that put the system back together could not get it to sit right...after charging me $2,000 for his work...so I drilled it out and put a bolt through it and tightened it up...finally got it to seal properly with some liquid metal around the joint...

If what Adsm08 suggests doesn't work...try the liquid metal...it comes like a paste and you spread it like peanut butter...fill in the cracks and heat it up as prescribed on the package...mine lasted about 4 years after I did it and was still sealed when I blew out the head from an overheat...

It's always better to do it the way it is supposed to be done...but if that doesn't work it's good to have an alternative method...

 

[bigtruck94]

They didn't have any nuts on top of the bolt. They just took a lot of pb blaster and lots of trying to loosin them up. If I do get these bolts out, I will replace them and maybe get a new y-pipe and maybe a new catalytic converter. I don't know yet. I will try what adsm08 said when I get the new bolts and tighen them with ease.