[Unknown User]

I have done everything I can think of to get the exhaust manifold off of my cylinder head. I have the engine out of the car, I removed the intake, took off all necessary parts, but it seems like its frozen together. The head is an e31 with only 68,000 miles on it, and I want it! I'm afraid to yank too hard on it because of the soft aluminum. Does anyone have any suggestions? Its the original manifold from 1970 and its never come off. The engine has been sitting, unused for over six years, so that might have something to do with it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[rob72]

An old trick I heard about but never tried yet is to soak in liq wrench or marvel mystery oil overnight then place your socket wrench over bolt head so handle is horizontal. Then suspend a weight (like 5 pounds) from the handle to keep pressure on the handle(and bolthead), but not enough to break it loose. Leave it there overnight again. Supposedly it works every time. The key is to NOT increase pressure to 'break' it loose, instead just keep constant pressure on the threads for hours.
Let us know how it goes, since we all have this same problem!

> I have done everything I can think of to get
> the exhaust manifold off of my cylinder
> head. I have the engine out of the car, I
> removed the intake, took off all necessary
> parts, but it seems like its frozen
> together. The head is an e31 with only
> 68,000 miles on it, and I want it! I'm
> afraid to yank too hard on it because of the
> soft aluminum. Does anyone have any
> suggestions? Its the original manifold from
> 1970 and its never come off. The engine has
> been sitting, unused for over six years, so
> that might have something to do with it. Any
> help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[240Dave]

> I have done everything I can think of to get
> the exhaust manifold off of my cylinder
> head. I have the engine out of the car, I
> removed the intake, took off all necessary
> parts, but it seems like its frozen
> together. The head is an e31 with only
> 68,000 miles on it, and I want it! I'm
> afraid to yank too hard on it because of the
> soft aluminum. Does anyone have any
> suggestions? Its the original manifold from
> 1970 and its never come off. The engine has
> been sitting, unused for over six years, so
> that might have something to do with it. Any
> help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I'm assuming you've already taken all of the bolts off. If so, then your gasket is causing the problem, and you should try soaking it with some WD-40 or something similar. This should soften up the gasket. Now, all you need to do is get a soft hammer, and wack the manifold a few times. Take care not to strike too hard, you don't want to crack the manifold. I had a similar problem with an oil pan gasket. I removed all the bolts, and it still wouldn't budge. But, after spraying it with WD-40 and giving it a few good hits with a soft hammer, it came loose.

 

[Unknown User]

> I'm assuming you've already taken all of the
> bolts off. If so, then your gasket is
> causing the problem, and you should try
> soaking it with some WD-40 or something
> similar. This should soften up the gasket.
> Now, all you need to do is get a soft
> hammer, and wack the manifold a few times.
> Take care not to strike too hard, you don't
> want to crack the manifold. I had a similar
> problem with an oil pan gasket. I removed
> all the bolts, and it still wouldn't budge.
> But, after spraying it with WD-40 and giving
> it a few good hits with a soft hammer, it
> came loose.
I tried soaking it in WD-40 already. I put oil on the bolts and gasket a few times already, and its seems like the top bolt isn't holding it at all. But, th bottom two look like they are. I could care less about the manifold. Its an emission design and someone removed the emissions and plugged the holes. I'll cut it off it that would halp. I have two new condition ones to replce it with anyway. Thanks for the help though. Maybe I need to take more drastic steps.

 

[Unknown User]

> An old trick I heard about but never tried
> yet is to soak in liq wrench or marvel
> mystery oil overnight then place your socket
> wrench over bolt head so handle is
> horizontal. Then suspend a weight (like 5
> pounds) from the handle to keep pressure on
> the handle(and bolthead), but not enough to
> break it loose. Leave it there overnight
> again. Supposedly it works every time. The
> key is to NOT increase pressure to 'break'
> it loose, instead just keep constant
> pressure on the threads for hours.
> Let us know how it goes, since we all have
> this same problem!
So, this is a common problem? It pisses me off then that the Book 'How to Rebuild a Nissan L series Didn't go into ANY detail to cover this problem. The book makes it look so easy, I thought mine was just totally ******. I'll try your method, so thanks.