I took my car in yesterday to have a exhaust leak taken care of. I was pretty sure it was comming from the exhaust manifold gasket. Well, the shop just called and told me that the back manifold bolt on the passenger side was broken off and the stud was stuck in the head.

He says the best he can do is put the new gasket in and put all the other bolts back on, but it wont last long..

I know its going to be expensive to have them pull the head and get it out, so i was wondering a few things.

1. Will an issue like this cause damage to anything else? Or is it more or less an annoyance and losing a few HP because of the leak?

2. Is there an easier way to fix this without removing the head?

3. How hard is it to remove the head???

ps. its a 93 trans-am

 

Now that i have searched the site for how to's, im thinking i might as well do a head swap....


But............. How dumb would this be on a 198k mile motor?

 

Depends on the shape of the bottom end. Why not pull the motor and have the bearings and rings replaced. Get the cylinders honed and the block cleaned at the machine shop. They can do all this and reassemble for around 550-600$. Get yourself a basic portjob for 700-800$. Once it's back in the car you got nothing to really worry about.

 

Same crap happened to me accept it was stripped bolt threads. I figured since my rebuild was coming together, that I would just say screw it and wait it out.

I just sucks hearing a exhaust leak, and not being able to do anything.

 

But will it hurt anything?

 

If you do indeed have an exhaust leak that developed, it can in turn lead to poor fuel economy, degraded drivablility, and loss of performance. I would bite the bullet and have it repaired. There is no real easy way of getting to the broken stud without yanking the head off.

 

I have a broken bolt on the back of the drivers side. How does this leak affect fuel economy?

 

I had the same problem, last bolt on the p/s head had snapped.

Luckily on the passenger side, there are 2 holes on the head. All I had to do was drill a hole in my header and the gasket, and put the new bolt in there.

It worked fine for me. If you have stock manifolds that could be quite a problem though.

 

the Manifolds use a seperate bolt then the headers use on the back bolt maybe time for a change to headers?

 

Low mileage long block from the bone yard. Your current engine is on borrowed time and you are just throwing money away having a shop replace the manifold gaskets. You probably already owe them money for the diagnosis.

Once the bottom end is worn, any top-end work will probably hasten the demise of the bottom end. If you want to keep the car, get another engine. JMHO

 

I have a broken one in the back on the driver's side. I have no noise, no exhaust leak, nothing. It been that way for about 4 years now, so......

 

Roxy, only you could weld cast iron to aluminum

 

actually if their is a peice of stud sticking out a little you could have someone weld a nut on the end. Thats how I got 2 broken bolts out of a monte carlo ss header install. Rusted really bad. There are also things called easy outs if its broken off inside the head. Oil the hell out of it and every once in awhile you will get lucky. I would try it before yanking the head, Goodluck.


1997 Camaro SS #1039 M6
Pacesetter Long tubes, TTL exhaust, No Emissions, Under Drive Pulleys, Mad Z28 Tune, 4:10’s, Level II Suspension, BFG KDW’s. best time 13.3 @ 105, 94 F

 

Get it fixed dude......Treat ya f-body right