Exhaust Manifolds | Warped

[WillardBerg]

Why long tube over short?
Don’t you need a tune for the long ones?

 

[tegster1]

How about changing the bolts, and machining the exhaust manifolds before this broken bolts and ticking appear, I don't know how about a certain mileage you do the job and avoid broken bolts kind of like Preventative Maintenance.

I would like to know this too. 2017 with just over 20k miles. No rust anywhere even underneath so I wonder if pulling the manifolds now and hopefully avoiding the issue to begin with is the way to go?

 

[Crusader556]

How about changing the bolts, and machining the exhaust manifolds before this broken bolts and ticking appear, I don't know how about a certain mileage you do the job and avoid broken bolts kind of like Preventative Maintenance.

The only concern I would have is if you do this too early the exhausts manifolds may not have been heated and cooled enough to start warping yet. If this is the case I would think the warping would still occur and bolts would still break.

The tough part is how would one know the right time to do this?

 

[Tom8]

The only concern I would have is if you do this too early the exhausts manifolds may not have been heated and cooled enough to start warping yet. If this is the case I would think the warping would still occur and bolts would still break.

The tough part is how would one know the right time to do this?

It’s one of those things where you have to wait. A blessing and a curse. Blessing is that it happened and won’t happen again. Curse is that it will happen, just matter of time.

 

[olrobk]

Check you kustomblack motorsports on you tube and also lukes garage on a lot of ideas and advise on how to do it...if you have broken bolts my advise is using a center punch, 90 degree angle attachment with left handed drill bits and it that doesn't work use Dewalt drill bits with a craftsman extractor set...I ended up using the extractor set myself...see pics

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[olrobk]

DO NOT go the drill and extractor route if you can POSSIBLY avoid it. Just read "Pickles" story from May 4, 2020. My friends at Midas Muffler "get the manifold out of there as fast as possible". They go in with a little cutting torch and snip off all the bolt heads; this leaves them with bolt shanks to weld nuts on to... combination of heat and gentle back and forth twist with wrench... they will come out! Attempting to drill steel out of an aluminum head is almost impossible in my opinion. At the least, an awful, awful job... and then there's the water jacket right there. After you get your inner fenders out, YOU look at those manifolds and try to even SEE the bolts in question! I will post my experience shortly. I have plenty of time. I'm old. I also have a cutting torch, induction heat gun and MIG welder. I spent two weeks just on extracting bolts. I did get them all out, no drilling, no extracting. NOTE: I was told the flat rate from Chrysler is NINTY MINUTES a side! IMPOSSIBLE! See my next post for my experience.

 

[olrobk]

'09 2500 with 42K mi... Here's what I learned: both manifolds are warped at least 1/8th inch. That's a lot. This thing is up on horses with all the wheels off, inner fenders out, front axles out (they both need universals for a second time - I'm in New England), calipers resting on top of axle housings, starter out, dipstick out (that's a job, see below), passenger side heater tubing pushed up out of the way... disconnect and remove whatever you can to make it possible to reach in around the shock towers and motor mounts. Chrysler recommends removing the motor mounts and jacking up the motor. !!! I didn't do that. THEN you're ready for the hardest job you'll ever do (in my opinion). This thing is terrible to work on because the motor's pushed back under the dashboard and between the frame rails to allow us to have that sloped hood and wind screen. I recommend watching this guy's video. He's good but some of his advice did not work for me. ....

First, the dipstick: I had no problem getting to the two bracket bolts. One on the manifold and one low down on the block. My problem was that despite soaking the tube entrance into the block, moving it all around with two hands from underneath, that sucker would not come out of the block. The reason is that it's rusted in place. You can rock it around all you want, rotate it while pushing up... it does NOT move. I finally put my air chisel on the lower bracket and gently vibrated it out. Gently! This is tricky. I use a dulled down chisel, nothing sharp, rest it against the spot welded lower bracket while holding the tube steady with my other hand and with just a little vibration from the gun, it'll come out. It is rusty in there.

Then the heat shields: my passenger side was partly rusted off. I soaked everything with Blaster. Do not count on it doing much ...but I did it anyway... for about a week while I was disassembling the front end. The nuts snap off anyway. Get them out and you can sort of see your job. I used a lot of 6 point tools, a torch, an air chisel and an inductive heat gun by Venom called a Mini Inductor. This looks like a soldiering gun but it has a heating coil sticking out its nose. You form the coil to fit the bolt head, rest the coil on it and pull the trigger. It heats the heck out of the bolt. Then you put a six point socket on it with a breaker bar and rock it back and forth gently... till your arms wear out. Then you do that again. Then you get your air chisel against the bolt collar and vibrate the heck out of it... and after an hour of heating, vibrating and rocking that sucker, you'll hear it crack loose in the block and you're on your way. My pals at Midas just stick a small cutting torch in there and lop off all the bolt head as quick as possible and get that manifold out of there. Then they MIG weld nuts on the remaining shanks and rock them out.

Chapter Two: I had no luck with a torch. My cutting torch is too big and too hot to get into these tight spaces. I also had no luck heating the bolt heads red hot and cranking on them like the guy in the video at South Main Auto Repair LLC. I worked all of them with the induction gun, air chisel vibration and a 10 or 13mm 6pt socket. Back and forth until your arm wears out. Heat, chisel, rock it back and forth... eventually they will crack - you can feel it - use the twisting motion of the bolt head to break the rust loose in the manifold and eventually cracking the threads loose in the head. It will work with great patience. As the video shows you, it's possible to weld nuts with a MIG on to studs. That's easy. What's more difficult is to weld nuts on to the bolts broken off in the head but it's possible. First, build up some weld directly on the steel in the head. It won't stick to the aluminum head material. Then use that built up weld to center the nut with pliers. Stick the MIG right over the nut opening and pull the trigger. It will weld the nut to the built up weld on the bolt in the head. This also heats the bolt in the head. Start rocking on it and it will come out. Avoid drilling! Spend your time patiently rocking the bolts back and forth. It's worth the time and trouble. Some of those bolts are located in impossible positions; I can't imagine drilling at all let alone dead nuts through a piece of steel in aluminum.

 

[Robert Alcock]

What is everyone replacing the bolts with? Mine are not snapped yet, but I want to replace before they do. Is there a product that will not have the same problem?

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk

 

[mlappin]

Something I do to remove bolts broken off flush, instead of welding a nut to them, first weld a flat washer a size smaller than the bolt. A 5/16” bolt would use a 1/4” washer. Vision is much better welding the washer first, then once its welded on, weld a nut to the washer.

 

[mlappin]

Has anyone tried aftermarket cast manifolds?

Different application but we bought a IH straight truck from a guy, he was sick of it, already bought three exhaust manifolds from IH in 5 years and both were busted again. Also hard starting, etc etc.

Ripped the rev limiter off the firewall, replaced what ever junk that was on it with a four barrel holly and ran a new wire from the ignition key to the coil, Took care of the starting issues, for manifolds got a set from Dorman, lasted almost 15 years now ,one of them just cracked a few months ago, engine is a IH 392.

 

[zeb handeland]

I had my left side warped and 2 bolts were snapped. I was told from the dealer that this was a thing from the cold environment that I live in.. After they were tapped out and redrilled new manifold on and new bolts, I was good to go. It was at 52k miles. Thought I heard the right as well. They said nope, Just was trying to get the 2nd one replaced. Told me it would've been $850 without the warranty. Awesome motor for pulling. Add a Throttle Body Spacer and a Cold Air Intake and it's more responsive. Too bad the left front strut is leaking. Next item on the list to replace.

 

[scott lass 18]

well mine was warp exhaust bad fuel injector and all great on driver side ! but now other side has a loud tick hoping its a exhaust but there saying no noise really been hearing each weeks now ! maybe a lifter I know truck is old but 60,600 miles and this ? what happen to pride in what you sell ?

 

[Flryder]

I have a 2012 at 116,000 with a 4.7 and both manifolds were warped. The drivers side was warped much more than the passenger. All the old bolts came out without breaking. I had the manifolds resurfaced. I used all new Mopar bolts, nuts for the exhaust heat shield, y-pipe nuts and bolts, and gaskets. The only trouble I had was with the lower manifold to y-pipe nuts and bolts. They were hard to break loose. I looked at pictures of the Felpro gasket for this motor on Rock Auto and it looks identical to the Mopar ones I bought.

 

[magician]

Pulled both of mine today,4 broken bolts and one that required a trip to the dealer and a head removal/replacement if thier guy can’t get it with a welded on nut? If the head comes off I’m replacing the cam and lifters on both sides as well as new manifolds. Might start looking at headers and a new down pipe as well.

 

[wkirklandco]

I just finished replacing the rear upper manifold bolt from the passenger side on my 2011 1500 5.7 Hemi about three weeks ago. It was a pain staking process to extract the bolt, but after about two hours of very slow drilling with a 3/32" titanium coated bit, I used a left hand 7/16" bit that started the bolt to back out, then I used the bolt extractor to turn it out the rest of the way. Total job of disassembly and reassembly took 4 hours. After that, no more ticking. My manifolds were good and not warped. My catalytic converters and exhaust pipes on the other hand are in desperate need of replacing!

 

[Eram]

Left side bolt snapped then 30k later the right side snapped. I tow a 5k trailer long distances and don’t want it to snap again so thinking about shorty headers and wanting some feedback. Has anyone here installed headers does it change to db of the oem exhaust? If so how much loader is the exhaust report?

 

[Mossybloak]

Installed shorties and I also tow a fairly heavy trailer. No real change in exhaust note from the rear of the truck. I do have a 24 inch magnaflow, not OEM, but I hate noisy trucks so I would've noticed. Just glad I won't have to mess with broken bolts in the future. Install is a pain in the ass...be sure to mark and secure your steering column before you start.

 

[16Ram4x4]

I just had my passenger side header leak fixed earlier this last week.
I had two of them break back in March, but working an essential job I could not be without transportation.
So I finally had the repair done at the dealership I purchased my Ram at.
The repair receipt shows that four studs were replaced and two of them had to be drilled out. And best of all it was still under warranty at 53k

 

[bchap05]

For those of you with broken bolts. Did you happen to notice the noise under acceleration? My truck has 38k, Redline 5w30 since new, and has only twice ever made a tick type noise. Yesterday was parked on the driveway which is fairly steep (live on a hill) and when I went to pull in the garage it ticked fairly loud at start up for 30 seconds or so and quit. Figured it would be like the other two times and would be fine in the morning. Or thought maybe the lifter bleed off weird due to the hill.

Well this morning start again and it does it again. Drive to chiro, go to leave, start and does it again. But the thing I noticed was as I accelerate I could hear it pick up, almost like having a card in bike spokes when you were a kid. I got to the light. Put it in park and revved it and it sounded normal again. Was normal rest of trip home.

Obviously there are a million threads on bolts and lifter noise. But I don't remember seeing many mention it under acceleration.

Going to go grab the heat shield and start it once it cools down and see what happens.

 

[HEMIMANN]

I'm gonna pay the bucks and put ARH headers on this spring - I'm @ 36k miles, it's only a matter of time. Pretty clear by now the stock design is defective and they won't fix it. Just keep putting on more bad manifolds. Ridiculous.