removing the Exhaust manifolds........what a f***ing bitch

[smudge660]

, any one got tips on removing the exhaust manifolds without me loosing my teddy and beating the engine

also , the pre-cats are perished, is this a major problem.......?

[CHIMAERA 339BHP]

If you can get it on a ramp and remove the exhaust its not to bad.You can get to the lower bolts from underneath other than that you will be on it for days.If you do get them off fill them with water and make sure there not leaking from the four in to one section .I removed the manifolds three times before the problem was found..

[Colin RedGriff]

Remove the starter too to give you better access to the rear offside bolts.

Soak them with penetrating oil a couple of days before - plusgas or something similar.

[BillC99]

Just removed mine - Two bolts snapped and I had to cut the head off a third. On the plus side the other side came off in 1/2 hour. Both pre cats were loose so it made the decision as to wheather to remove them or not easy! Now I have to remove the broken bits. I will have one last go tomorrow if no go I will have to remove head and let the professionals do it.

[haircutmike]

Remove as above, curse , hit, curse and hit many more times.

Assemble using ARP bolts and special locking washers from ACT using a 10mm ratchet spanner and a 3/8th AF to finally tighten.

Took me about 45mins to assemble the offside today, life is beautiful ain't it .

[Alexdaredevilz]

Did you not try attached to heads then bolts heads on after?

[haircutmike]

An impossibility I'm afraid .

[smudge660]

we got the manifolds off , a complete and utter nightmare!!! if only you could get a ratchet spanner in there it would take half the time.

put it all back tomorrow

[haircutmike]

smudge660 said:

we got the manifolds off , a complete and utter nightmare!!! if only you could get a ratchet spanner in there it would take half the time.

put it all back tomorrow

With the ARP bolts you can use a ratchet as they have a smaller head, (well on most of them).

[spend]

haircutmike said:

With the ARP bolts you can use a ratchet as they have a smaller head, (well on most of them).

The clearance twixt bolt head and primary is not the same on all manifolds ~ there seem to be a couple of subtly different patterns that you can't see until you tackle the job...

I use 11mm bolts with additional socket cap centres, ring ratchets go on most and anything between 2 & 5 bolts will need an open ended ratchet spanners depending on the particular manifolds, I've found them to vary that much.