holy ****. this is the worst thing i’ve ever done on this car.
305 TPI. i’m de smogging and making room for headers.
trying to get the manifold with the air tubes off.
i’ve gotten most of the bolts on the drivers side off and manifold wont budge. do i need to remove the bracket?
and then the passengers side. nothing will move. no bolts are even close to coming off.
i dont know what to do, the manifolds NEED to come off and i can’t (and won’t) bring it anywhere to get done.
any tips for removal? i will be putting in shortys so if anyone has any advice to tweaks that will need to be made please let me know.

bracket

 

Spray all the bolts down with a break clean or rust penetrant and let sit over night. If they are that bad, you might be looking at some broken manifold bolts along the way unfortunately.

 

In a car this old, I would have started soaking the bolts like 10 days prior to doing the job. I'd move the ac compressor w/o damaging the lines. I'd pull the alternator and plugs. You need as much access/clearance as possible. Once you start breaking bolds off in the heads it's a whole new mess. So take your time and let the penetrant do its thing.

a broken bolt in a bad spot could turn into head removal quickly!

 

i’ve been on and off soaking them for about a week and still no give. i’m getting super mad and starting to think breaking them off and extracting them out might be a better idea. i have enough room to get my tools on the bolts, they just dont want to move.

 

Have you performed the sacred ritual of heat / juice / heat / juice? I'm also terrified of this one and am in a similar boat.

My go-to move for scary bolts is the 30" breaker bar and bouncing it mostly loose but also tight occasionally.

 

See if you can get your hands on an induction heater. They're not cheap to buy but maybe you can find one to rent or borrow. They're life savers and safer than getting the acetyene out.

 

This is coming from a 30+ year tech/boss of techs, who's paid salary...IOW, the faster I get stuff done, the sooner I can go home.

Drain the coolant, heat the **** out of the head where the bolt threads into it, remove the bolt. Heat works, and it works RIGHT NOW. Not in hours, not in 10 days....RIGHT NOW. Get the water out of the heads, heat the head, take the bolts out. Move on.

 

This is an interesting idea, it makes sense. I've never heard this as a suggestion for manifold bolts. Obviously I've heated plenty of other parts. Do you think there's much risk to any of the gaskets on the heads? Anything to look out for while doing it. It sounds much better than broken bolts. Any issues w warping/damaging the head?

 

The heat will likely work, but you still need to remove as much stuff as possible to access all of the bolts/studs. The more room you have, the better your outcome will be. Definitely utilize the loosen/tighten technique as well, this breaks up the rust and debris in the threads. And if you do happen to break a bolt, hopefully you have enough of the stud left to weld a bolt onto it and continue the removal process.

 

I totally agree w/the point about getting accessories and all other junk out of the way. Make yourself a GOOD work space. That will make getting the head hot, FAST (which helps IMO while mitigating "side effects") a hell of a lot easier.

No, I don't. The head is a big heat sink and it will absorb the heat and spread it out enough that it won't likely get any hotter at the gasket, than it does while running. For the same reason, I wouldn't be concerned about warpage, either.

It will DEFINITELY work. We do this **** every day, at the shop I manage, with broken off exhaust manifold studs (and plenty of other old, rusted junk that we have in our fleet). Heat works. If it "Didn't work" for you (someone/anyone)....ya didn't heat it hot enough.

 

Thanks, I appreciate that bit of knowledge shared.

 

What are you soaking them with? Specifically what brand? For stuff like this, I only use Knock'r Loose from CRC.

 

What about Kroil?? Or Candle wax?

Waste of time. Everyone has an elixir that they love, though.