NEEDING HELP BAD ON exhaust manifold issues
 

Hey guys I am needing some help on removing the driver's side exhaust manifold. Went to replace the turbo up-pipes of course the two manifold screws were rusted and seized completely to the manifold. So I tried to drill it out and unfortunately that didn't work. So I thought about removing the exhaust manifold and replacing that side. The truck came from Michigan and had severe rust. I just got done doing a full restoration. Manifold bolts are no exception they were rusted beyond recognition. I have tried every nut extractor sears had, none have worked. So I decided to grind each head off the manifold. I've emptied one whole can of PB Blaster. After grinding them all off... 7 hours later my fear becomes realized: The manifold appears to be seized to the exhaust manifold studs. I've tried hammering, crow bar and everything else I can think of. The way I see it now I have a few options... drill the studs out which I want to avoid, due to extracting the manifold studs, two try to heat the exhaust manifold however it's still in the truck and I don't want to damage wiring etc. The truck only has 120,000 miles and ran great but it had a leak from the turbo which is why this whole repair started. Looking for any suggestions... It's November in ohio and the truck won't fit in the garage so I'm running out of time. Help, ideas, suggestions would all be appreciated.

Heat with a MAP torch and soak with oil/repeat on each bolt. The more times you repeat the better the chance of success

keep a fire extinguisher handy.

air hammer/air chisel may make some headway as well.

Just bought some map gas and more cans of pb blaster thank you for your reply. I really hope this works I feel like I made the biggest mistake possible the passenger side 2 bolts unscrewed so that gave me hope that maybe its not seized to the studs. of course the drivers side is far worse condition I should have known this was going to happen. I am going to heat and spray with map gas there two and see if I can get the collector screw out and save the passenger side manifold. Hopefully it frees up and I will only have one side to do.

I have a few suggestions that I did on my mason dump rust bucket when i had to replace the manifold.
You can remove the inner fender and use a long sawzall blade to cut the bolts close to the manifold as there is a good gap between the head and manifold. I was able to cut most of them. There was a few that I could not cut and I found a simple solution as I was replacing the manifold any way. The simple solution was to use a air chisel and it just shatterd the manifold at the bolt holes and manifold falls off. The remainder od the bolt will just unthread with fingers or vice grips

Do you have mig welder?

You need crank way UP heat and weld slow to build weld bead with nuts on bolts. It will come off.

Not enough heat will not do anything expect break bead off nut on bolts.


YEAH THEY PITA to do.

Replaced the passenger side this spring. the bolts would not move, so we cut around all the bolt and then used a stud remover on the bolts. Reason for replacement was three holes in the manifold. One hole is in the picture that was made larger with the grinder.
John

Photo not working!!
I'll get it up soon.
Second hole to the left of the bigger cut one.
https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/...26280381_n.jpg

a air chisel will shatter the cast in no time and fall off the bolts. Once the manifold falls off the bolts will unthread from block easily. The problem is the bolts seize to manifold not block

We tried the air chisle, but it did not work. Could have been that it was too thin. Wish it did as it was a pain to cut the manifold and not the bolts.
https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/...37964400_n.jpg

I did the same thing Erebus did I was not wanting to torch the studs fearful the problem would get worse I am inspired to make a better nut extractor cause everyone I tried failed big time so as a trained toolmaker I will be thinking of a way to improve this device. I got the drivers side off it took cutting it loose at each cylinder to free it but it got done now I just need to do the passenger side doing similar process I did cut the top loose and try an impact to get the bolts I could out and managed to get 4 half of them so hopefully the other ones will get cut loose soon

Boy, I'm glad we don't have that problem in Calif., we got enough problems to deal with.

^^^:-partybud I 2nd that!

When I use air chisel, I hit the manifold not the bolts. The manifold will shatter when hit on the hollow area's and comes off with not much fuss. Of coarse this requires a NEW manifold to replace it