Exhaust Work - Part 3 - 08/29/2015

While I did fix the exhaust earlier this summer, there remained one manifold I didn't touch. Naturally this manifold had a pretty serious leak that has been only getting worse lately. I decided to bite the bullet and dig into why it's leaking and fix it. Since I'm rebuilding the AC and stripping that down, it gives more room to maneuver around.



Fortunately all of the bolts came free. The #4 cylinder and #2 cylinder rear were very difficult to bust loose, but ultimately came free.



I'm pretty sure we've found the source of the leak... Part of the gasket has copper tape wrapped on it, like they tried to "fix" it at one time rather than just replace it. No evidence of any gasket material left where the gaping hole is. $8.99 for a gasket was too much of a price to bear apparently...



I love this scene. All hardware came out without breaking.



The manifold. It comes out from between the #6 & #8 cylinder from the top (can't drop out the bottom without removing oil filter housing). Probably could work to toss it back in, but I wasn't taking chances...



I put a "new" one in from the '74 wagon. It's already cleaned up and ready to go.



All hardware cleaned up, 3 bolts were a little thin so I replaced them with good ones. Anti-seize for EVERYTHING. Even though exhaust heat will bake it, it's better than nothing.



New manifold goes in. Put the 2 end bolts in a few turns and slide the gasket in.



All tightened up and ready.



New hardware and anti-seize for the donwpipe section too.



I noticed the heater return hose has been pinched. Not a good thing. The control arm has been munching on it and could lead to a gusher on the freeway at the most inconvenient and distant time possible. There's supposed to be a bracket to support this...



And here it is.



And here it is installed. No more munching on the hose! You can notice my control arm bushings are completely shot... that will get fixed eventually.

I took this opportunity to change the oil while I was at it. A test drive revealed no exhaust leaks anymore! Being under the car revealed a lot of mickey mouse stuff in the timing cover area that I'll have to go back in and fix.

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Last updated August 29th, 2015