Any tips on how to remove bolts that are pretty much connected to the manifold itself? I've got an exhaust leak and im sick of hearing the annoying tapping noise it makes.. But like 2 or 3 of the bolts will not come loose.. Is there any tips on removing them? Im getting tired of banging my hands on stuff from the socket wrench slipping off.. lol.

 

unless you can get an impact gun on them, all you can do is soak them in PB blaster, or something like than and keep wrenching on them.

aluminum heads or iron?

 

Try a cheater bar or breaker bar mine were the same way on my truck wd and some muscle.

 

I just got 2 of them out.. All i did was run the engine for a few seconds to get the manifold warm.. and they just came right out with some muscle.. Ill try the third one tomorrow once i can find a place to get to it.

Since i kinda solved my own problem.. Ill ask another question.. What kind of gasket should i use for the exhaust manifold? This annoying tick really messes up my cars sound and i want to reduce the noise as much as possible

 

i run a graphite gasket which is metal in the center and a beefy pad of graphite theyre really brittle, so you wanna get them in there without bending them or cracking them, but so far theyve stayed unbroken

 

Make sure the manifold isn't warped before you put a new gasket under it. I've never had any problems with Felpro's for stock manifolds.

 

Ok this is weird.. I finally got all the bolts off.. As i was checking out the driver side one first.. I was looking for the gasket but there wasnt even one ... It must have blown completely off. All that came off was a small piece of what was left. So i guess that kind of explains my exhuast leak.. I just find a weird that the gasket was completely gone from the driver side.. Now i gotta go check out the passenger side.. Probably the same results.

 

It turns out both of my exhaust manifold had no gaskets.. pretty weird.. No wonder it had that annoying knock. This is also probably the reason why my exhaust smoke too.. a few of the exhaust manifold bolts were covered in fresh oil.. Leaking valve covers+no gaskets on manifold + loose bolts=alot of smoke

 

The factory didn't use gaskets.

 

So you're suppose to add gaskets yourself? Don't see how that works.. Wouldn't that cause a big exhaust leak without gaskets?

Well.. I went out and bought some fel-pro exhaust manifold gaskets.. The guy recommended me with the individual hooker type gaskets rather then the whole gasket in 1 piece. So i went with those.. About to go to work on it tomorrow.

 

They are machined so well from the factory that they are not needed. The metal moves some over time, so you should always use gaskets when reinstalling them. Make sure you don't over-tighten them or they will warp more than the few thousands the gaskets will help with.

 

i guess ill just add the gaskets in since i already bought them.. Itll probably help alittle eh. Im going to lock tite the bolts in since they seem to keep rattling loose.

How come some of the bolt threads are covered in oil? how did oil get on them?