When manifold gaskets go wrong

[s p a c e m a n]

From the other thread..

s p a c e m a n said:

I have had the worst day possible today, manifold gaskets..

Started at 10am and just gave up, put the car sort of back together again so I can have another quick go in the morning, then drive it to Halfords to buy a chisel. N/S bottom 2nd from front, the one that you can only get an opened ended spanner on, I've tried everything. I got to the point where I had the Y piece off so that I could tilt the manifold, using bits of wire to pull the spanner to get extra leverage and using a hammer to try and shock it loose.

There's no gaskets left in there, I've just sprayed the last half of the release oil on it and if it's not loose in the morning I'm going to make loads of noise driving to Halfords

Don't know what to do, day 2 and the bolt is still in there holding the manifold on. If I remove the engine mount is there enough room to get a grinder in there? I'm currently doing this on my driveway with a pair of of axle stands, I'll need to use a proper lift to take the exhaust off to take the mount off won't I?

Even been driving it to get bits with just the one bolt holding it on hoping it would pull it out or something, if I can get the manifold off I can deal with a broken bolt.

Any other ideas? Got quarter of the way through it with a hacksaw, can't do no more.

For a giggle, you think your manifolds blowing a bit?

http://youtu.be/Yli_q2eRnj0

[tvrbod]

Hi I had the same problem, I got the last bolt moving by disconnecting manifold from Y piece and rocking manifold up and down to get more movement on the spanner, that i had modified. Steve.

[Alun450]

Feel for you mate, which side?
A grinder might just reach if you remove mount bracket. You might get a blow torch in there or something, soften it up and butcher the head off the bolt with a very sharpe chisel ?!!!! If you removed both engine mounts you could possibly drop or raise the engine a couple of inches for better access. Stay logical and positive Spaceman.
Easier said than done I know, I spent half the afternoon mating Y piece to manifolds, gave up until I loosened manifold bolts, another two hrs and it eventually played ball. No wonder manifolds crack, mine was about 6 mm out and and complete bd to fit. Goodluck with it.

[brett84]

You can get the engine mounts out on the drive mate as I did mine the other week, I just had a scissor jack under the front of the engine to take the weight.
What are you using for release spray? Have you got some plus gas.
Have you removed the exhaust? I found with it gone and the car quite high on stands that access wasn't all that bad, I remembered it to me a right nightmare the first time

[s p a c e m a n]

I had the Y piece off and was spinning it on the bolt, that's how I ended up with no gaskets left on there. I was working on the theory of 'keep on removing stuff and it will come off at some point'

It's beyond undoing now, have used a can of release oil and a load of ATF on it over the past couple of days, there's not enough grab left on the head to turn it for how tight it is. I think if I was able to get a ring spanner on it in the first place it would have snapped in there, its welded itself to the head.

I've always been able to do them with the exhaust in place and with the starter motor on the other side, I'm used to making my arm bend in twelve directions whilst squinting though a little gap with one eye

Last time I took the exhaust off it involved taking off the antiroll bar, is there enough wriggle room to get up in there with the front part of the exhaust hanging down then or did you take it all the way off to do the engine mounts?

Chisel didn't work, just blunted the end, 10 hacksaw blades only got me a quarter of the way through the head at most.. I'm starting to think of air powered reciprocating saws at the moment

I'd happily throw a couple hundred quid at it right now to get someone to do it but it's my only car and it would leave me even more screwed if I had to hand it over to someone for a couple of days, it would end up with me having to take time off of work to get it to them and then I would really struggle to get to work for 5am.

[brett84]

would there be enough room to get some form of reciprocating saw up there? Would mean getting a new tool but if the blade is long enough it might help?

[s p a c e m a n]

Great minds and all that

[brett84]

hope it works mate, if not then try to get someone round with a torch or plasma cutter Jeremy Clarkson it out

[Chuffmeister]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Slot them before you put them back in. Save loads of trouble in the future and makes the job much easier.

[QBee]

My TVR guy did mine. Couldn't shift all of the bolts, so whipped the heads off and got them onto the workbench. Still had to saw six bolts off.......so you are not alone.

[Goaty Bill]

That has to be the 'manifold gasket change from Hell' story of the year (and last year too) QBee
Good luck OP

[spend]

You maybe able to drill across the bolt head then saw / chisel the remains off. Assessment of 'strangers' engineering skills is always a bit tentative

Did you use imperial spanner, was it cross threaded on insertion?

Certainly sounds a case of 30mins with grinder slotting would have paid for itself 10 times over

[s p a c e m a n]

When I bought the car it had a blow and came with a gasket kit, which looked a bit cheap. I used it anyway and being the first time that I had done them it took a while and I was rushing once I got to the N/S ones, I probably didn't clean the threads out that well. They've got 14mm heads on them too that probably didn't help the cause.

My tips for doing them is if you are using bolts then try to find the 1/2 inch ones or whatever they are supposed to be, thoroughly clean the holes out and use a load of copper grease on them. I would now highly recommend using studs instead of bolts and grind slots in the manifold rather than having holes.





I still don't know what I'm going to do yet, one of my mates might be going to his workshop later and will give me a call if he does but for now I'm defeated. The most annoying thing about it all is that one bolt has killed my bank holiday, I was supposed to be at a BBQ yesterday and a car show today. Haven't even got a tan because I've been wearing a sweatshirt and jeans where I've been rolling around on the floor

[s p a c e m a n]

Is this circled red thing part of the engine mount. How does the mount come off of the engine, I know there's 2 17mm bolts to get it off of the chassis and why is there no engine mount section in the bible?

[ianwayne]

I've got a leaking exhaust manifold (no. 3 cylinder quite bad, others less so) and I've decided to pay Central TVR to do it for me. The threads I've read on here persuaded me.

A quick look shows mine are held on with bolts, not nuts.May be a facelift thing (car is 2000) or been done before?

[spend]

On the engine mount brackets there are the two bolts in the bottom of the block that you know about & a single 5/16UNC bolt up at the top just under the head face.

[Else]

s p a c e m a n said:

Chisel didn't work, just blunted the end, 10 hacksaw blades only got me a quarter of the way through the head at most.. I'm starting to think of air powered reciprocating saws at the moment

Don't know where you are but you are welcome to borrow my air powered reciprocating saw, I'm in north Essex. I used it recently to cut through the bottom bolts on Tuscan shocks. They were seized solid in the bushes so no hope of getting them out any other way. It took about ten minutes and they are twice the diameter of your exhaust bolts.

[s p a c e m a n]

Thanks for the offer, I'm near to the Dartford tunnel, land of the traffic jam and shopping centre

I've got a load of HGV fitters at work who are always happy to point and laugh at the idiot bloke whos always got the bonnet open on his car, sometimes when they stop laughing they help me out a bit so I'm hoping one of them has one. Most of their toolboxes are worth more than my car so if they don't have a tool and can't think of a way to get it off it may be on there for life.

The only problem is that the health and safety bloke doesn't allow anyone to work on their own vehicles so it's going to be a case of trying to slip it in there unnoticed or do it in the middle of the night

[QBee]

s p a c e m a n said:

..........so it's going to be a case of trying to slip it in there unnoticed or do it in the middle of the night

I have often noticed that PH adverts are appropriate for the subject matter of the thread.

I scrolled down from your post and bang in the middle of my screen.....



........was a picture of George Clooney's fiancée in a white bikini and a smile.....

[s p a c e m a n]

Sometimes i wish that I didn't run adblock on here so that I could perv too

Finished work at 16.30, finished annoying everyone in the workshop and stealing their tools at 21.00

Can get an air powered reciprocating saw on that bolt. Although I had never used one before and was expecting it to work at jigsaw/grinder speed, bit longer than that, I now have a repetitive strain injury from the vibrations







I'm going to mount the fker like a trophy and stick it on my mantelpiece