Fluf97zj

Hello all:

For those of you that have DIY'd the notorious 2.8l broken exhaust manifold bolt heads, how difficult of a job was it? It appears that the bolts on our RS are sheared off at the outside of the manifold, not at the head.

My daughter is home for the summer from college and we are back working on the 89 RS and this is our new job to tackle.

Would you recommend we take it to a shop or is it worth attempting to DIY?

As always, thanks for your advice!

Shawn

zs&tas

Hi, if it's not at the head you can do it ! All the bolts need soaking in wd40 pb blaster whatever even for a couple of days keep going back and re squirting all the areas , then tackle it 😀

Fluf97zj

Thanks for the reply. That was what I was wondering. PB Blaster is great and the job would be a great education for my daughter - she loves working on this car.

Any suggestions for a source for replacement manifold bolts -particularly the bolts with a stud on top? I was thinking of just using a stud with lock nuts if I cannot source replacements - one lock nut at the manifold and one where attaching the accessory bracket.

Thanks again!

Fluf97zj

Getting ready to tackle this job. I have one remaining question and would immensely appreciate feedback from your experiences.

Should we use exhaust manifold gaskets or not? I know these engines did not originally come with gaskets, but did installing them make sense to you or just go with what the factory did?

Thanks in advance

zs&tas

Use only good quality metal compression gaskets , but if your putting the old exhaust back on , i wouldn't bother ?

Sierra6

i'm probably too late but I would go with remflex exhaust gaskets. I had mine replaced several times with felpro and they always blew out but remflex fixed my problem.