TechCam97

Ok, I know that I posted here earlier about how I had a leak in my drivers side exhaust manifold. The whole story, pretty much, is that two bolts broke off in the drivers side head. The very first and the very last. Now, the very first bolt doesn't leak. I don't know why, but it doesn't leak. But the last one seems to have pulled away from the head a bit and snaps/crackles/pops until the manifolds heat up. I know that to permanently stop the leak, I need to remove the head and tap the bolt, but right now I'm a broke college kid. But I had a small idea yesterday and thought I'd pop the question here. I was helping a friend instal new valve-cover gaskets on his old chevy truck and we used this stuff called "Super Blue Silicone - Type 613" On the back, it said it could withstand temps of 600 deg. F What I'm wondering is, can I put some of this stuff where the manifold and the head meet and make a temperary seal? It wouldn't be for long, two months at max. Just wondering, any help would be much appreciated!

HottZ4ME

that stuff won't hold up for more than a little while...I would be suprised if it would hold for more than a few hours.
You NEED to drill and tap that bolt, replace the gasket, and go from there.
If the manifold is cracked, I could give you one of my old ones to get you by until you can afford to do headers. That Blue Goop just isnt going to cut it for long. LIke I say, if you need it, I'll give you my old manifolds so you can get by. Let me know if you want them.

Best regards,

Jeff

94F1Z28

I agree that blue stuff won't work but if the leak is small you could get a tube of ultra copper which is orange and can handle the temps but if it will seal is questionable but it would be worth a try just go to a parts store and ask for permatex ultra cooper it comes in a gold tube and the silicone is orange.

QUICK305

The only reason I can come up with as to why the first bolt isn't leaking is that maybe the manifold has rusted/welded itself to the head. I'm guessing that once you pull the manifold off and try to reinstall it, it will probably leak as bad as the rear does.

Again, if you are sure these are the only 2 bolts broken off, I suggest picking up a set of headers that do not use these bolts. Macs will not work. If you don't have alot of cash right now, you could install some Hooker shorties from Jet Hot and pay for them on their 3 monthly installment plan. You'd probably rather install the headers instead of pulling the head...

grendal

Do 1996 manifolds fit on a 1993?

Anyway, sounds like a situation man. Some of the copper RTV might work, I dunno, but that would make it a real mess when you go in to fix it the right way.

BTW, I don't see how possibly buying and installing headers would come out cheaper than repairing your problem. Headers are expensive. Install is expensive.

Whenever you do fix it I highly recommend you get some new bolts from a GM dealer and replace ALL of them... obviously they're becoming brittle and you don't want any more of them to snap off.

-Michael

SStupid

I have never messed with exhaust before, but I just got done installing a Random Tech dual-cat y-pipe on my car this weekend and I managed to break one of the studs off the lower part of the exhaust manifold and one of the bolts on the part of the manifold hooking to the head when removing the manifold to fix the first stud break. It took me only 30 minutes to drop the y-pipe another 45 minutes to pull the plugs and drop the exhaust manifold on the driver's side. I have air tools, so this probably explains both the quick removal and bolt breaking. Anyway, I'm trying to tell you that it is pretty easy to remove all the stuff you need to remove, so just do it. The bolt I broke at the head was broken a small distance from the head of the bolt, so there was enough bolt material left for me to get a pair of vice grips on and whala!...removed. Always fix your problems the right way, because it comes back to bit you later. You can do it. It's not rocket science.

QUICK305

Well, I've already been down this road and done it both ways.

The first time I repaired 2 broken bolts on my driverside head. My bolts were not the first and last, so I could not use the header solution on this side. I performed all the work myself (no labor) and by the time I had bought all the GM gaskets, sealants, and a new manifold, I spent about 250-300 dollars. (Actually I did pay a machine shop to install 2 helicoils on the head once it was off, which was about 30 dollars). So just to repair the leak with stock parts it cost me atleast $300, possibly a bit more. You also run the risk of screwing something up if you don't clean the head gasket surfaces well enough, don't torque the head bolts enough, don't adjust your rockers correctly, etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he can't do it...just throwing the possibility out there that it could happen.

About 6 months after I repaired the driverside, I noticed a leak on my passenger side that turned out to be only 1 broken exhaust manifold bolt. Luckily, it was one of the end bolts, so installing a set of headers would cure the problem.

If I could do it over again, I would've installed the headers the first time I had the driverside head off. Sure, I still would've had to pull the head, but atleast I wouldn't have wasted a hundred bucks on the replacement manifold that is now sitting on the garage floor. If you think you're ever going to want headers, I think now is a good opportunity to install them. You can kill 2 birds with one stone.

Of course, I'm not sure what was harder - pulling the intake and head or installing longtubes Shorties shouldn't be that bad at all. My $.02

SStupid

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention you need to soak all the bolts down with penetrating fluid at least an hour before trying to remove them. All that rust makes for more broken bolts.

TechCam97

Hey everyone, thanks for the responses!

HottZ4ME - Thanks for the offer on the old manifolds, but mine are fine. They just aren't touching the head anymore

94F1Z28 - I saw that stuff today actually. I'm going to prolly pick some up and try it out. It's not a big leak, just a small one, so I think it will at least help a little bit.

QUICK305 - Yeah, I'd probably go ahead and do the three month plan but I don't have any money.....like at all.....Ok, I have $5 in the bank (to keep the checking account open.) buuuut, that's it.

grendal - My friend has a set of bolts that he's going to give me in exchange for helping him route his plug wires. So that's at least one thing that I won't have to worry about.

SStupid - I'd love to be able to fix it correctly now, but it just can't be done yet. I'm so broke it's not funny. It's not one of the "cheap fixes" just a temporary solution.

94F1Z28

TechCam97,i have fixed things like this before and sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but when you don't have the money you have to try.Good luck

Bralgar

I have the exact same problem. Two driver's side exhaust manifold bolts are broke off. Both are on the ends (front/back) but my front leaks and the back doesn't
I'm going the header route though, since there are two bolt holes on each end and the headers use the ones the manifolds don't.
Besides I have an extra engine I will be building up to put in that has it's own set of heads, so I'm not going to worry about fixing these broken bolts, and the headers will work for either engine anyway. But still a problem persists.
HOW do you get the rest of the bolts out for a fix or header swap, without breaking off the others?