exhaust manifold help!

[farmer]

My exhaust manifold is leaking at the first cylinder on the drivers side, if anyone has some tips to pulling the manifold off I would love to hear them, this sounds like a lengthy project so anything to make it easier would be awesome. Thanks!

 

[Big Jim M]

I have two things to say. First if them are on the 94 and have never been off...you may be in a world of hurt. I'd advise wetting them down for a day or two to help break them loose. Those bolts have a reputation for breaking off.
Second! That leak is leaking both ways. Air is entering the #1 cylinder on the intake stroke! That cylinder is much hotter than the others. Your chances of burning a valve or cracking the head are 100%... Got that? 100%! So time is everything here. Hurry and get a new gasket on there. If the engine has already begun to miss and it IS the #1 cylinder then take the head off too. It is already burnt up and will have to be repaired.
Big JIm

 

[farmer]

Thanks for that Jim. I'm pretty nervous now because I made some bad noise when I put my new exhaust on because I didn't have the flange after the cat tightened, It made a pop pop pop noise. I sure hope I didn't booger anything up too much.

 

[Big Jim M]

exhaust

Thanks for that Jim. I'm pretty nervous now because I made some bad noise when I put my new exhaust on because I didn't have the flange after the cat tightened, It made a pop pop pop noise. I sure hope I didn't booger anything up too much.

Well that leak is a long way from the cylinders and shouldn't allow fresh air to get into the cylinder. So tat leak could only screw up the fuel mixture if there is an 02 after the leak.
But a head to manifold gasket is a really bad place to have a leak.
Big Jim

 

[88_Eddie]

yeah, exhaust manifold bolts SUCK, broke 5 off of the right side and 2 off of the left side when i took off the heads on my 2.9. i drilled them out and retapped them, but that was a bitch too. good luck

 

[Nhaz]

The 4 manifolds I have taken off these trucks have all broken anywhere from 3 or 5 bolts per side. Some broke off 1/4 inch inside the head. Those were fun.

The ones that didn't break off inside the head I used a mig welder to attach new bolt heads to the broken bolts. The high heat of the mig welder is usually enough to break whats left of bolt free.

I must note in both cases I was taking the heads off the truck anyways. I wouldn't want to try to mig weld those bolts on the truck there's very little room for that.

 

[farmer]

ok whats the best way to get to the drivers side manifold? do I need to pull any other parts off? I know I can figure it out when I start on it, it's just nice to have a plan of attack.

 

[tonyjklh]

as for the bolts breaking, ive changed the manifolds on a couple 4.0, only had one where they broke. what i did was just break them and the after the manifold was off i used some visegrips and a torch, if you have a good hat torch(not a simple propain torch) then just clamp on to the bolt, heat it nice and hot up at the threads and should come right out

 

[AllanD]

I've managed to get all six off without breaking one of the uppers twice...

I've broken all six bolts on atleast ten occasions

THE problem is that while the lower three bolts on each manifold are blind holes
the three upper bolts aren't....

And it's always the upper ones that are most prone to snapping off.

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