Advice on reinstalling exhaust manifold

[BDB]

Hi guys,

My original 76 CA spec exhaust manifold finally gave up the ghost a few months ago and now I finally had a good free weekend to work on it. I installed the manifold studs w/ a dab of red threadlocker (all of them) and wriggled the manifold onto the stud bolts. However, i'm having a lot of difficulty getting the manifold onto the studs. The end closest to the passenger headlight went on smoothly but its at the other end of the manifold is the problem. When i removed the old manifold, i had to gently pry it off so I had a feeling that getting the new/used one would be challenging. I was able to thread one nut onto the top front most stud and then the manifold began to move inward, but not at the end where the firewall is. I also tried using a 24" pry bar (ok it was 1" black pipe), but it moved very little.

Any suggestions? Going nuts!

[c.d.iesel]

not clear which manifold or header your trying to install now??

the original '76 manifold?

in any case - you need to test fit whatever your installing

to make sure all 8 holes of the manifold/header

align smoothly with all 8 studs

if not take a small round file and work on the holes

that dont align - some holes a little off the rear side

of the hole- other holes a little off the front side of the hole - usually

do not force pull it on by tightening the nuts - your ending up with

stress where the studs are hard against the side of some of the holes

and you also run the risk of not compressing the new exhaust manifold gasket evenly. This would fail soon after driving. Clean up the

manifold holes so it fits up on to all studs without any tension

[BDB]

not clear which manifold or header your trying to install now??

the original '76 manifold?

Yes, it is the exhaust manifold---looks like a large fat cylinder that attaches to the engine block passenger manifold side. Also has down pipes that connect underneath to the straight pipe going to the muffler. The one that has cracks is the original one from my 76. The replacement one is one I bought it off a forum member here.

in any case - you need to test fit whatever your installing to make sure all 8 holes of the manifold/header

align smoothly with all 8 studs

Yeah, all 8 holes do not fit on properly. I could figure it would've been easy to slip on the manifold. It did take some prying to get the old one off though.

if not take a small round file and work on the holes

that dont align - some holes a little off the rear side of the hole- other holes a little off the front side of the hole - usually

Thanks, I'll give it a go. I'm also going to remove the down pipe to make this easier on me. I have a replacement gasket (somewhere)

do not force pull it on by tightening the nuts - your ending up with stress where the studs are hard against the side of some of the holes and you also run the risk of not compressing the new exhaust manifold gasket evenly. This would fail soon after driving. Clean up the

manifold holes so it fits up on to all studs without any tension

Ok, good advice. never done this, thought that might work.

[napa02]

i had this problem on my old Ford. Slight distortion of the manifold made it difficult to install. If you install all the studs before hand, you cant get the manifold back on. I installed a couple of studs first, then hung the manifold from them, then installed the rest of the studs afterward... no problem

also slightly bent studs may cause the same issue.

[BDB]

i had this problem on my old Ford. Slight distortion of the manifold made it difficult to install. If you install all the studs before hand, you cant get the manifold back on. I installed a couple of studs first, then hung the manifold from them, then installed the rest of the studs afterward... no problem

also slightly bent studs may cause the same issue.

MJ.

I do have some extra studs so I may take the worst offenders out and replace them with new studs. good thought.

Bob

[BDB]

Well I finally got it on. Know what I did? I just removed the downpipe. 3 nuts on bolts, removed, moved out of the way, and then fitted the exhaust manifold. It just slipped right on, no fuss. etc. Just like that. So there you have it for the next person who does this repair.

The other advice I have is to keep your existing exhaust studs with the unthreaded shoulder/bare area. I know that goes in contrast to what many have written---I still don't understand why. My replacement studs were completely threaded along the entire length so they do not stop. So you have to apply red thread locker. One of them kept turning with the nut. Arrrgh! Had to redo that one again. Then another one started to do the same as it got close to the bottom. Aggravating and VERY time consuming to say the least.

Just waiting on one more part related to smog and I should be good to go. My baby has been sitting in the garage for about 2 months now. Fun = NO!!!

[BDB]

Well I finally got it on. Know what I did? I just removed the downpipe. 3 nuts on bolts, removed, moved out of the way, and then fitted the exhaust manifold. It just slipped right on, no fuss. etc. Just like that. So there you have it for the next person who does this repair.

The other advice I have is to keep your existing exhaust studs with the unthreaded shoulder/bare area. I know that goes in contrast to what many have written---I still don't understand why. My replacement studs were completely threaded along the entire length so they do not stop. So you have to apply red thread locker. One of them kept turning with the nut. Arrrgh! Had to redo that one again. Then another one started to do the same as it got close to the bottom. Aggravating and VERY time consuming to say the least.

Just waiting on one more part related to smog and I should be good to go. My baby has been sitting in the garage for about 2 months now. Fun = NO!!!