Exhaust Gaskets

[caminperth]

Hey all - am after a bit of advice here..

Am going to be undertaking the task of helping Zanda to change a set of exhaust manifold gaskets on a newly imported R33. It's a 95 (I think) and hasn't done a huge amount of kms.. somewhere around 80,000.

Any ideas of what problems may be faced? My plan of attack is as follows:

1. Take off all piping to turbo

2. Remove exhaust from turbo

3. Unbolt exhaust manifold from engine block

4. Replace gasket and bolt up again with new bolts

5. Replace all other bits..

I think the main problem we could face is that we won't be able to move the turbo because there will be no flexible lines attached to it, only fixed ones.. So we'd have to remove the turbo..

Any advice - however trivial - will be very much welcomed...

[drifta]

hi cam when i got my manifold replaced by sst the bolts broke in the head when removing he fixed this by spot welding a nut to the broken bolts no worrys but when putting back together a few more bolts broke when tighting .

[caminperth]

Thats what I feared.. I was hoping they wouldn't be prone to snapping..

hmmm could be worth getting it done somewhere then rather than in the backyard..

[GTS-t VSPEC]

The amount of heat around that area tends to make things quite brittle, and too much force will snap bolts, then it's a real pain if your half-way through the job.

See'ya:burnout:

[JUDGED]

Caminperth,

Besides all the heat shields and gear that hangs off it, you will have to disconnect the oil line to the turbo, there is not much oil loss here. You can leave the turbo on the mainifold but if you dont you will need a new turbo to dump pipe gaskets and manifold to turbo gasket. To make things easier, it will need you to undo the exhaust just before the cat, so the fornt pipe can be free, it is just easier to have this undone. When you change the engine to manifold gasket make sure that it is one piece and not the 'VL" six individual piece setup. These single piece setups seems to 'blow out' on a regualar basis. One other problem you might encounter is the manifold bolts, these might break and I would be amazed if you dont break at least one or two on a donk that has done 80K's, it just the bolts have cystalised and become bittle over time. Have a welder on hand to weld a nut to the broken end and undo it this way, if it snaps again have a helicoil kit on standby to deal with this problem.

Anyway, best of luck my people might give you other ideas here, Im just giving you my experience on this subject.

Have fun:)

[adam 32]

leave the turbo attached to the manifold, you dont have to lift it all up just across toward the strut. i did this a couple of weekends ago with no real dramas, other than i couldnt get the thing out but that cos its a hks setup which hits the chassis rails

ive heard as little as 2hrs for the job so i reckon you could do it yourself, its just a matter of unbolting and being methodical so you dont lose anything or drop any bolts into the manifold!

[caminperth]

Thanks all for the advice - from previous experience on my rb30 engine in my VL I know exactly how brittle these bolts can/will be.. and I'm quite scared.. it adds a whole new dimension, adding helicoils, using a welder and things like that.. not sure if Zanda will be too keen about letting me loose on it anymore..

Will have to see what $$ it's worth to get done. Sometimes it's better to employ someone else to do the work.

[adam 32]

its fairly expensive

were talking $3-$400 for the job done (including gasket, sealant and labour)

pretty expensive when you could do it yourself for the price of the gasket - $100

[caminperth]

I've just found out that it's the manifold/turbo gasket NOT the manifold/block gasket. Hopefully will be a hell of alot easier. Am going to drop off the turbo tonight.

Thanks again for the advice guys. Muchly appreciated.

[drifta]

i took my car in for gasket ended up with new manifold $$$

[bully]

ask strich9 or got boost we just did that gasket on his recently

[GOT BOOST]

just soak all the studs with CRC sit back and let it get in before you even put a spanner to it.

[ix9]

That's right.. and DON'T get to eager in twisting the bolts completely off... I did that to mine recently...

Thank god i had got boost and bully to help me (p.s. sean, i still owe you some JB's )

I successfully broke TWO bolts (which are still in my block, the first and last ones!) and it's fine.....

... still yet to get time to easy-out them i'll get there one day...

and tips: DON'T lay underneath the front pipe when your mates are pulling off the turbo! *smack!*

hehehe

[caminperth]

Bully, Got Boost & Strich9ine - will definitely be using a few cans of crc and some beer drinking/soaking in crc time before tackling the bolts to the turbo. Luckily from all info gathered - it should be a relatively easy job to losen off the turbo, slip in the gasket and tighten them up again..

There will be NO heavy-handedness with these I can assure you!

Thanks again for the info - muchly appreciated..

[macka]

No need to put any input in, sounds like uv got it sussed

Lucky its not the manifold, will cost u bugger all even keep the coolant in a bucket and reuse if u can when u undo the water lines from the turbo, oil is ok u wont lose much, T3 flange gasket >$10

[caminperth]

righto - update..

Got to the turbo (finally!) after pulling off all the piping & shite above it. After removing the heat shield - hey presto - there's the flange and it's four, oops, I mean 3?! nuts holding the turbo onto the manifold. These things have tab washers to lock the nuts in place and it wasn't bent back - how the hell did one of the nuts come off?!? The other 3 were finger tight too!?

So anyways, got the 3 nuts off and moved the turbo back a bit and DOH! A bit of the gasket falls into the turbo. Looks like the whole thing is comming off to remove this - though hopefully I can just get to the bit of gasket with some pliers or something.

So some more questions - how tight should the nuts be? That is, the one's holding the turbo to the manifold. Is there anything I could've forgotten to do that will cause the car terminal damage?

Hopefully putting it back together will be a straightforward and easy job for Saturday night.

Any advice/criticism/shit giving welcome.

[adam 32]

try and get the gasket out - this will screw the turbo if chewed up inside.

do the nuts up as tight as possible. theres no torque rating for them so just as tight as poss. maybe try getting some high tensile or copper nuts from bunnings when putting it back on

[zanda]

doh!

cam quote of the day:

"hey, look..you can see where its all cracked and ****ed up, no wonder its leaking......see, just there"

*points. prods*

"binga-ding"

*censored*

[zanda]

adam, re: getting the gasket out.

does this equate to pulling the manifold off??

[caminperth]

Originally posted by zanda

doh!

cam quote of the day:

"hey, look..you can see where its all cracked and ****ed up, no wonder its leaking......see, just there"

*points. prods*

"binga-ding"

*censored*

Hey - feck off..

We don't have to pull the manifold off - just drop off the oil supply hose and take the bolts out between the front pipe and the cat and we should be able to get to it.. trust me.. hehehe...