[P38] Exhaust gases in coolant

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Afternoon all,

I bit the bullet and decided to try my hand at getting the heads off myself.

20250302_154446-2.jpg


All was going very well, until...
Those bast*rd exhaust heat shield bolts. 16 of them total, and only 2 have come out.
The rest of them are seized and rounded, result of another handyman's work it seems.
It's the only thing between me and those exhaust manifold bolts, and finally getting the heads off!

Has anyone dealt with this before, and how did you get round it?
I've got extractor bits but I'll never get my drill in there.

Thanks
 
Thanks for your replies.

I could maybe try and hack the top ones off, but access to the bottom ones might be a bit tricky.
Car is on it's arse right now, so not really any room to get underneath or under the wheel arch lining.

I'll try the brutal methods tomorrow once my hands have healed a little.
 
I think i just wrenched until some bolts snapped and off they came. My shields pretty much fell apart with corosion anyway, so I don't think I could have refitted them anyway. I'm pretty sure I've read of people taking the heads off with the exhaust manifolds still attached, but I've never done it myself. At least you'd have better access to the rounded bolts that way.

There is a cross member runs along the front by the bottom of the rads you can get a jack on if you need to lift the front at a pinch.

I wouldn't leave the car jacked up for ages like that, but it might get you some room if you need some....
 
MrGorsky said:
I think i just wrenched until some bolts snapped and off they came. My shields pretty much fell apart with corosion anyway, so I don't think I could have refitted them anyway. I'm pretty sure I've read of people taking the heads off with the exhaust manifolds still attached, but I've never done it myself. At least you'd have better access to the rounded bolts that way.

There is a cross member runs along the front by the bottom of the rads you can get a jack on if you need to lift the front at a pinch.

I wouldn't leave the car jacked up for ages like that, but it might get you some room if you need some....
Click to expand...
Silly question, but aren't the exhaust manifolds bolted to the cylinder head itself? Or do you mean they unbolted the manifolds from the lower end and pulled the lot out all at once?
 
I think they're just bolted to the heads, not the block. So if you take all the head bolts off the manifolds can come off with it. You have to unbolt the exhaust at the other end though where it meets the O2 sensors bit...

I'd like a second opinion really. Like I said I'm pretty sure I read about someone doing that once, but I've never done it myself!!
 
The problem is the manufolds obscure the head bolts. When I did my engine rebuild, I cut away the flange to allow access to the bolts in future. The bit cut off doesn't make any difference.

For the manifold they need a decent 12-point socket. Thye oly other option is to use an Irwin Extractor on them.

1740935406963.png
 
For those heatshield bolts i just used a pair of plumbers pliers while lying under the car. Some ended up coming out, most just snapped off. Honestly i was glad if i could get them to snap because it meant less unthreading to do.
Thinking about it now, if i had to deal with those ****s again i would just tighten them till they snap.

With regards to the heat shields i refitted the inner ones(between the manifold and block) just to keep some of the heat from radiating back onto the engine block. I threw the outer ones away and just put a nice thick layer of exhuast wrap.
Sidenote: when wrapping the manifold do not wrap over the flex joints, it shortens their lifespan quite drastically due to the extra heat. It also helps if you wet the wrap and keep it wet while wrapping, just makes for a way more pleasant experience.
 
pwood999 said:
The problem is the manufolds obscure the head bolts. When I did my engine rebuild, I cut away the flange to allow access to the bolts in future. The bit cut off doesn't make any difference.

For the manifold they need a decent 12-point socket. Thye oly other option is to use an Irwin Extractor on them.

View attachment 336281
Click to expand...
damn triple square, I got a kit like this
1740994680665.png
 
When I put my manifolds back on, I replaced the triple square things with normal high tensile bolts I think. Is there an advantage to using the 12 point star thing?
 
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