Need advice from experienced wrench please?

jmonica

Original poster
Member
Apr 2, 2013
384
Hamburg, NJ
Hi, thanks for stopping to read this. Amongst my many vehicle related dilemnas, is a problem I have with exhaust manifold bolts not staying tight. I replaced the engine about 2 years ago. a year afterwards, I started to hear an exhaust leak sound from the manifold area. I started to dig in to see if I could find a crack or something. it turned out to be a loose bolt on first tube. after tightening it, all was well until about 3 weeks ago. I tightened it once again, but this time a leak persisted. after finally, pinpointing the leak by forcing smoke up the tailpipe, it turns out to be the manifold colector . to exhaust pipe joint. I can see that it's not tightened evenly because there a bigger gap on one side of the flange mating surfaces. I tightened it up but it's still leaking so I'm going to just replace the lead donut / gasket thingamabob.

My dilemnas is whether or not to use anti seize on the bolts or not? I feel like it's aiding to the bolts loosening up, yet I want to be able to remove them in the future if I need to. I'm also going to do something to the exhaust manifold to head bolts because I have to take half the shit off the engine to get to that number one bolt and I'm sick of doing it. besides the fact that the vehicle sounds like an old ratty Mack truck right now, I have a p0420 code I need to get rid of to pass inspection before I get pulled over again and the next cop isnt so cool. with my luck I'll run into a cop who just found out his wife is cheating on him with a guy who looks just like me, and he tows my car. that would be a life changing disaster based on my current employment situation and living in a new state without a single friend or family member to call on for help.

I'm so aggravated that I'm tempted to put high temp loctite on the bolts, but I don't know if that will even do the trick or how bad it will screw me a year from now when I try to get the bolts back out? I don't have the cash to blow $75+ on a set of Stage 8 fasteners, so I'm asking you guys what you would do in my shoe's?

Would using new bolts for the manifold to head and new studs, nuts and washers on the collector keep everything from loosening up? I don't have enough experience to know what the correct way to attack this is. Back in the day, i'd use the old wire through the head of the bolts trick bit that was a much simpler time. Maybe that's what I should do? I would really appreciate any thoughts you might have on this.

Also, what about adding some exhaust sealant on the donut joint as well? I dont trust that stuff for some reason. You shouldn't need it if everything is installed correctly IMO.

Tomorrow is the one and only day I'm going to have to work on it for about a month or two so I need to do the right thing so I can get rid of the CEL and get it inspected, or at least be able to rule out the leak as the cause for the CEL. I know there are some really awesome mechanics here who probably laugh at DB's like me who have these little problems, but I'm hoping one of you pro's will take pity on me and tell me what to do. thanks in advance!
 

Tiggerr

Member
Jun 6, 2013
1,324
Perrysburg, OH
If it was me, for the flange, I'd replace the donut gasket, never any snake oil sealer crap...use blue Loctite on everything, tighten it all evenly and should be good to go...

As far as the manifold same thing..maybe replace he troublesome bolt with a new one, stainless would be my choice, either way blue Loctite it.

The Blue Loctite will come back apart for you without too much trouble.

The Red Loctite however is balls to the wall not coming loose...lol...
Usually you need heat to remove anything held with that stuff... or an impact...

Lockwashers couldn't hurt either
 

jmonica

Original poster
Member
Apr 2, 2013
384
Hamburg, NJ
If it was me, for the flange, I'd replace the donut gasket, never any snake oil sealer crap...use blue Loctite on everything, tighten it all evenly and should be good to go...

As far as the manifold same thing..maybe replace he troublesome bolt with a new one, stainless would be my choice, either way blue Loctite it.

The Blue Loctite will come back apart for you without too much trouble.

The Red Loctite however is balls to the wall not coming loose...lol...
Usually you need heat to remove anything held with that stuff... or an impact...

Lockwashers couldn't hurt either
OK Thanks for the reply~! Blue Loctite it is then. I appreciate your help very much!
Kind Regards
Jim
 

Sparky

Member
Dec 4, 2011
12,927
I agree with Tiggerr
 

littleblazer

Member
Jul 6, 2014
9,265
I'd use grade 8 steel bolts instead of the stainless. I believe the heat cycling on the stainless will help it loosen back up and the stainless will stretch when torqued... so it could snap if it needed to be removed. That's just me though.
 
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jmonica

Original poster
Member
Apr 2, 2013
384
Hamburg, NJ
OK, that sounds like great advice, Thank You. I checked the repair manual to see what the torque specs are and the repair manual says to use high heat thread locker on them. Imagine that. The book didn't give the torque setting for the manifold to exhaiust pipe flange nuts so I will just have to do it by feel. They are not that hard to get to thankfully. So I will go pickup some grade 8 bolts and install them with the red loctite applied and hopefully that's the end of this saga. BTW, the "donut" between the manifold and the exhaist pipe was totally rusted away and falling apart so I'm changing that right now. After all is said and done this exhaist system should be sealed up tighter than... I'm not sure anyone here shares my sense of humor so I will let the reader finish that sentence. Thanks again for your time everyone! I do have one more issue I can't figure out that parting out didn't fix that I will post in a new thread.
 

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