Hi all,

I’m looking for a tutorial, tips, tricks advice on removing my stock exhaust manifold from my V6 ‘91 Fbody.

I have got 3 broken bolts so it’s time to fix this.

I need some guidance on:

- What parts do i need to remove to get best access to the manifolds, as possible
- tips on removing the manifolds such as tricks to get to certain bolts
- tips on removing all the bolts without breaking them
- are there any other suprises?
- I want to use the stock manifolds. What do I need to do to get these back properly? Flatten them?

I thought I read a ‘how to’ couple of years ago here, but can’t seem to find it.

hope you guys can help me out!

cheers

Don

 

A bit of a clarification is in order here ; You appear to be using the terms "Header" and "Exhaust Manifold" interchangeably , when they are two very different things . To anybody whose gonna read your question and try to answer they will be thinking that the stock piece fitted to the head is a cast iron exhaust manifold , and that headers are aftermarket replacements for the factory manifold made of steel pipes .

With that out of the way , the exhaust manifold bolts on any car are a pain in the butt . They break , the heads strip , there is precious little room to work on them , pretty much general automotive frustration at it's most basic level . The usual remedy for snapped bolts , especially ones snapped flush with the head , is to drill them out and either tap the hole for a different sized bolt or use one of the "Helicoil" type products (Keenserts ? Timeserts ? etc) to reclaim the threads . A right angle drill and a really steady hand (along with a good sharp centerpunch) are essential here , properly repairing such a threaded hole being almost close to machinist's level skill level required . The worst case scenario is to end up removing the cylinder head from the engine to gain access .

There's no sugar coating it , some automotive repair jobs just flat out suck , and this is one of them ......

 

I salute you....

I mean: the iron cast original exhaust manifold. Thanks form clearing that one out of the way.

That being said, thanks!

any tips on gaining access to the passengerside manifold bolts? Any tips on that...

What i have read; sock the bolts in PB blaster for several days.

Any more tips? More then welcome!

ps. I will update my post with the correct terms