I have a cracked passenger side exhaust manifold and a guy on my local F-body board has an extra manifold he said he will give me. I was going to wait to do headers, but that may not be till at least fall. How long would it take to just replace the one stock manifold? Money is going to be tight for a while, which is why I am considering doing this instead of waiting for headers. Just wanted some opinions.

 

oh its not THAT bad unless you break off one of those rusty head bolts but more likely than that, you will break off a bolt on the y-pipe. so as long as you be sure to use some penetrating lube on all the bolts(manifolds and y-pipe), all should go pretty smooth. my only question is.. howd you manage to crack the old manifold?

 

I have no idea. The engine has been replaced by a dealer about 58k ago by previous owner (have paperwork, dealer damaged prev motor doing a repair) the only thing that I can think of is that it was cracked during the replacement of the engine. I just noticed the leak in fall when it started getting cold, I would hear a tick when starting up in the morning and didnt find the crack till about a month later when replacing the power steering pump. I would LOVE to get headers now, but the funds prevent it. I would rather spend some money on some suspension/appearance mods first anyways.

 

i did the header install by myself, IMHO i would try my best to wait until i get headers. which side is it? either way you have to pull all the plugs out on that side...pass side you have to take the alternator off....pull the entire y-pipe ( i believe) some ppl have problems breaking the bolts in the the manifold/ypipe joint...i think i broke one or two....oh and you will have to cut your intermidiate pipe. its a pita install but not that bad just time consuming and be sure to buy a BIG box of bandaids
if you have any questions just shoot me a pm ill be glad to try to help you out
jesse

 

I would say try to save up and just do headers. It is a headache of a job to do but its really not that terrible either. Just takes time. Also, I'll put money on it that you'll break at least 1 of the bolts for the ypipe trying to take the nut off. I broke 3 of my 6 with hand tools.

Aaron

 

I think for now I am just going to replace it with a stock manifold. My exhaust has smelled like gas since I noticed the leak and mileage has gone down also. Since the part is free, I think I may just go ahead and just replace the stock manifold for now because it will be at least a few months before I can afford to do long-tubes. I need to spend the money on some other things like new tires, new tint, repaint front/rear bumpers, new diff and gears (posi wearing out), and I also have a cracked taillight I need to replace. Would like to get the little stuff out of the way before I move on the the larger $ projects.

 

for free its hard to pass up...headers are expensive...including everything, new plugs/wires, o2 sensors, headers/y-pipe, better gaskets, better bolts, i had over a $1000 on mid lengths...looking back i shoud have went with flp's..oh well guess you live and learn....good luck
jesse

 

I second the BIG box of bandaids thing, I have several cuts and I don,t even have my manifolds off yet, although most of my bolts are loose.

 

it really shouldn't be that bad. Pull the alternator first thing, its gonna have to come out anyway. You will want to soak the manifold and Y-pipe bolts with PB Blaster the night before, and again before you work on it. You WILL snap off most of your Y-pipe bolts, but it doesn't matter because yout not reusing your manifold. I don't see why you would have to pull the Y-pipe either, but if you do just unbolt it at the cat, you don't need to weld anything. The passengers side manifold comes out through the top, so its no big deal getting it out and back in. Check out this writeup by Injuneer, its what I used doing my header install (BTW I put a total of $500 into my headers, and that was including used SLP shorties, bolts, gaskets, Thunder Racing OVC wires, plugs, O2 sensors, etc.)

http://members.aol.com/InjuneerZZ/JBAHeadr.htm

 

PB Blaster rules. I got all my Y pipe bolts off without breaking one of em. Too bad I am not reusing it.