Sup2jzgte

How did everyone remove the stock manifold? I'm trying to change the exhaust manifold gasket, but for the life of me I can not break the nuts loose near the cats, there is not enough room to even fit the breaker bar in there. Any help would be great.

Is there an easier/better way to go about doing this?

If anyone is wondering why I'm changing the gasket, it is because I can about a half inch space between the manifold and the block. When I put my hand over the hole when the car is running I can feel alot of exhaust coming out and it makes a hissing noise.

I was going to spray wd40 on the nuts and let is sit while I ran to a few places, but it is flammable and I'm not sure if its safe to keep on there while the car is being used.

SHOLEXMAN

Us PB blaster that stuff always helps me out with rusted bolts. Apply and let sit for about 10 minutes. You might have to get under the car if you want to get those lower bolts it won't be fun though. Get 1/2 inch drive rachet with a 6 or 12 inch extenstion and see if that works for you. You can put a pipe or a cheater bar on it and that will give you the extra torque to take it off. If you have any air tools that could help you out even better. If the PB doesn't help use a torch and heat the bolts up and then that could break them loose. Let me know how it goes or if there are other issues.

Sup2jzgte

Surprisingly the manifold bolts came off super easy with a breaker bar and wd40, but these little monkeys are hanging on for dear life lol. Its amazing what rust can do, I mean hell these are originally only torqued to 36ft lbs but now it is seems like a few hundred.

Is there an easier place I can unbolt the exhaust from, some place easier to get at?

Sup2jzgte

Son of monkey *** **** **** ****** Now I'm really annoyed. I get under the car start to remove the nuts then I hear SNAP...........the god damn flange was so rusted that is freaking broke, then to make matters even worse where the cat connects to the exhaust THAT flange is just as bad GRRRRRR. I hate rust with a passion. So the long and short of it is, I ran out of day light not only do I still have the manifold leak but I now have a destroyed rusted POS exhaust.

Any thought on what I can do? I mean aftermarket exhaust are well out over what I'm willing to spend right now.

davidv433

go to your local auto parts store, the should have pieces of pipe. in stead of the flanges just have pipes connecting your exhaust. connect them with some couplers, or go to a muffler shop. sorry dude rust sucks i have no mufflers right now due to both muffler hangers rusting off.

5sp_jzz30

iTrader: (2)

the header and exhaust on our cars is stainless steel from the factory. mine doesnt have a speck of rust anywhere. the car has almost 160K and all year round constant driving.

sorry to hear that. hey go find the number juan exhaust shop in your area and tell them to fix it for you. at the same time tell them to cut out the resonators too.

i got the local mexican-owned muffler shop all the time. they do good work and they give awesome prices since they know all my friends too.

Sup2jzgte

The last line made me laugh for some reason lol. I'm really thinking about seeing if I can find someone looking to sell a stock exhaust and replacing the entire thing.

DarkManXXX

I love air tools! Are you talking about the two bolts/nuts that connect the cat to the midpipe? or the 4 ones at the top of the cat? the top ones i used a really long extension and my impact gun, but you should be able to use extensions and a breaker bar if you jack the front and the rear of the car high enough.

Sup2jzgte

The 4 bolts that connect the mid to the cat in the engine bay and the 2 bolts that are under the car connecting the cat to the straight exhaust pipe. So I went from a manifold leak to a manifold/midpipe/cat leak

LOL there is a sawza staring at me right now and I'm not sure if its the beer talking or what but I'm contemplating cutting the damn cats off lol

DarkManXXX

Yes, the bottom two will be rusted no matter what. I replaced mine after I took them off the first time. The 4 up top are just hard to get a good grip on. Like I mentioned, you will need to jack the car up really high to get tools in there. Then you need to find a long extension or two and it should be a straight shot to those bolts. PB blaster works better than wd40....and to heat up the bolts, just turn on the car and drive it around for a bit, the only downside to this is that everything in there will be hot so becareful. It sucks when a 1 hour job turns into a 24 hr job...lol.

Gunnar

I hear ya. I couldn't get my midpipe to disconnect from the manifold, and coudln't slide the entire piece out up or down, and I was getting frustrated, so I just hacked the manifold off and slid the rest out of the bottom.

SHOLEXMAN

Lol just read your update from yesterday.....gay to the extreme! I say get a cutting wheel or a reciprocating saw and cut the biznatch off! As long as you don't have emissions in your state you should be good. Go to a shop and have then weld a a pipe in place of were the busted cats are. You might have to pay them cash because they don't want that on record of them doing that. Federal law could get them closed down fined along with you being fined. If your exaust manifold flange is rusted out you might want to search for another one on CL. Or try and go to a junkyard and search for one that is salvageable. Use that piece and bring it to the exaust or welding shop and they should set you up. Hopefully this works out for you. Good luck

CCC-TT

iTrader: (1)

do it! i did on my last SC and then took it to the exhaust shop up the street and had em' weld in a new midpipe. Worked great