Exhaust Bolts At The Manifold

[Guest Ben Allen]

I'm trying to put a standard exhaust back on my 1.6, unfortunately I'm having some trouble

 

I've for a whole new centre section/backbox sat around waiting to go on but have been having trouble with the exhaust bolts at the manifold end

There's one that's blocked by the exhaust manifold and we simply can't get to it to undo it as there's not enough space

It's a really bad design and is really annoying as exhausts are always simple to change

How have you lot changed exhausts over?

 

I can't re-use the original centre pipe because it had the join cutoff to fit the Ashley backbox which is an arse

 

Anyway this has been pissing me off for a bit now... please help before I give up and take it to a garage who will charge me about £30 to fit the next exhaust!!

 

Cheers

Edited December 11, 2003 by Ben Allen

[Guest d-9]

I assume your talking about the spring bolts between the exhaust manifold and the downpipe.

 

 

Go to B&Q and buy yourself a 4.5" angle grinder and a couple of cutting discs. £25

 

Go to Pug and buy an gasket and bolt kit £13

 

Put the car up on ramps/bricks/axle stands and lie underneath it. you should be able to see the springs with the bolt insides. Slide the grinder up through the subframe til you can get to the bolts. Put on your favorite oakleys to shield your eyes, and grind the bolts off. It may help if you put a g-clamp on to hold the downpipe onto the manifold when you do the second bolt.

 

Knock the cups out that the bolts go into on the manifold with a chisel (or you wont get the new bolts in).

 

And the rest you should be able to work out. Trust me, it really is easiest to do it this way, I faffed around from above trying to saw them off with a hacksaw blade, then tried to do it with a grinder from above, but its so much easier to do from below.

[Zoldalma 0]

I faffed around from above trying to saw them off with a hacksaw blade, then tried to do it with a grinder from above, but its so much easier to do from below.

I can second that bit about the hacksaw blade, it is a possible, but quite slow method

[Guest 205007]

Agree, pain in the rse! angle grind is the best option by far

[pug_ham 240 3 Cars]

I had trouble with the exhaust manifold bolts when I stripped a 309 last week & ended up getting a chizel & smacking the top of the cup that the head of the bolt sits in, theres only a small lip & this sheared off so the whole lot could go through the hole in the manifold.

 

Not the best way but the manifold was cracked pretty bad so I wasn't bothered about damaging it.

 

If you are keeping the manifold then the best way could be to suffer using a hacksaw to cut through the bolts.

 

Graham.

[Guest Ben Allen]

Cheers for the advice people. Guess I'll get an angle grinder or hacksaw on it then

 

Problem is though... tightening up the bolt will be difficult, as the head of it sits in the recessed bit which is underneith one of the legs of the manifold.

Soooo.... there's no space to get another socket/spanner on it to hold it steady while tightening it up from the underside if you get what I mean

 

Damn exhausts...

How did you lot tighten them up successfully?

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

I managed to undo and do up mine with spanners at about a 1/16 of a turn each time - this was quite painful but it does actually work.

 

I oiled and WD40 the bolts every night for a week before undoing.

 

When you re-tighten to downpipe, using new bolts don't do it up too tight otherwise the manifold will not be able to move as it should.

[Guest Ben Allen]

I can see this being fun!!!

 

This bloody exhausted has caused nothing but problems, my rear valance has lovely burn marks and s*it on it now aswell

 

Oh well

[Guest d-9]

ben, get a grinder, you know what a cheapskate i am, if i could have done this any other way i would have.

 

doing them up, i got a mate to lie under the car and tighten them while i held the tops.

[Guest Ben Allen]

IThere's no space to get to the offside bolt from the top though as it's blocked by the manifold and the head sits in a little recess

[Rob_the_Sparky 9]

What you need is a set of offset ring spanners, it then becomes easy (relatively anyway). I've just ordered a good set from draper on-line ( http://www.drapertools.com/draper/gotopage...de=5901Z9250Z12 ) but machine mart do a cheap set for about £10.

 

Dunno why these aren't more popular because I find them MUCH better than the ring/open end spanners that are generally sold.

 

Rob

[Guest d-9]

the bigger ones are essential for doing up the top of struts.

[DrSeuss 0]

They're annoying little bastards. I just did it by using the manifold as a brace for a spanner up top then getting underneath with a socket. You can't get them out unless you really twat them with a spanner, but there is enough room to get the exhaust off without too many problems. But i'm very tempted to get a dremel or just a cordless drill for working on my 205.

[Guest Al-2]

No! don't use your favourite Oakleys! sparks will shag them totally. A pair of safety goggles will cost a couple of quid, and you'll see better in the dim space under a car.

 

Minigrinder is one way to go though, but for tight spaces a sabre saw is the mutt's nuts... This one's £152 from tooled-up.com but you can get them cheaper, better still secondhand. You need an air compressor though, unless you opt for an electric version.

 

Also - rusted nuts an bolts respond well to a combination of WD40 and a good all-round pelting with a medium sized hammer, this will loosen and shatter any rust in the threads and get it mobile again - fail to do this and you could shear a bolt off somewhere it won't come out of.

 

Easier just to cut them off frankly, if they're that far gone you can't re-use them anyway.

[Guest jay3003]

i had problems with mine when i fitted a new down pipe, just used molegrips on the top side of the bolt then undone them from under neath, fitting the downpipe to the manifold was a piece of piss can be done from top, just remove the airfilter and lean over the engine. the new bolts should be long enough to accept the springs and washers with enough thread for the nut to attatch to. If your replacing the gasket aswell make sure u remove the old one, i know it sounds stupid but mine went the same colour as the manifold so i thought there wasn't one there only to find out later that i had actually managed to fit another one over the existing gasket, no wonder it was so f**king hard to do