Exhaust manifold gasket

[patriots1]

I need to replace the exhaust manifold gasket in 2001 GP, 3.8, non supercharged. I was curious to see if anyone has tackled this job, and if there were any experience recommendations before I start tearing things apart!

[tod1d]

front or rear?

[dsmuts]

Why do you need to replace the gasket?

[machinegunsquid]

It's kind of rare for the exhaust manifold gaskets to go bad. Make absolute sure that is your problem before tearing into them.


Get the engine warm, and soak every single exhaust manifold bold/stud in rust penetrate (PB blaster or similar) and let that soak. Do that a few times, and that should ease the removal of them. Once the bolts are loose, slide the manifold off of the studs, and swap out the gasket.

*NOTE* The crossover bolts love to snap off. If you feel any resistance, STOP. Heat them up and use more penetrating fluid. You may not be able to remove them without breaking them. Be prepared to drill them out and put new bolts in.

[patriots1]

Why do you need to replace the gasket?

I really need to do the rear. It seems that I have a leak in the rear. loud ticking noise coming from the manifold on the closest side to the passenger side. It has gotten worse over the past couple of months, and the sound is starting to drive me nuts. I think it is also causing some hesitation, messing up the egr valve and map sensor.

I will get some pb blaster and soak them over the next few days. About how long per side do you estimate to do the job. I have read that some people seem to be removing a lot of parts to access the manifold, but it doesn't look that bad if you rock the engine forward. I have the gaskets. I have 160k on it, and am going to be replacing most of the gaskets over the next few months.

Thanks for the info so far, and any further directions will be appreciated.

JP

[dsmuts]

It's likely not the gasket if you're stock. Could be a cracked manifold

[patriots1]

I hope not, but there is one way to find out! If it is, I guess I will be putting on a new manifold and the new gasket! One of the reasons I thought it may be the gasket, was that the sound disappeared after it warmed up and was very loud in the winter when first starting. I just figured the gasket was probably cold and then expanding when heating up.
Does anyone know about how long I need to just do the rear? I am decent with repairs. Do most of the work myself on my cars.

[QUICKSILVER462]

Just had this exact issue with the rear manifold gasket leaking on the passenger side. It makes noise when cold and then quiets down as the engine warms up. The factory metal gasket was replaced with the Felpro graphite style gaskets and worked well. I unbolted the dogbones and used a ratchet strap to hold the motor forward as far as it would go to gain as much clearance as possible. It can be a pain in the back if you have back problems, just take your time. I unbolted the dipstick tube and lifted it up out of the way for more clearance. Some transmission fluid will come out, just re-insert afterwards to avoid the fluid loss until reinstall is complete. How long it take to do all depends on how easy your exhaust bolts come loose and if you run inot any problems. I ran into one problem and that was the manifold studs for the down pipe almost stripped out on me and spent an hour just filling and cleaning the threads to correct the issue.

[patriots1]

I hope that is my problem. It sounds like the exact same issue. How long total for the back gasket. I was planning to soak the bolts over the next few days, and I usually rock the engine forward. Is that all you removed was the dipstick tube? did you have to loosen the crossover bolts or were you able to do it with just removing the manifold bolts?

[dsmuts]

You could put headers on and it would be about the same amount of work.

[BillBoost37]

The bolts don't need to be soaked. They aren't rusty because they are heated super hot all the time when the car runs. Skip the future goopy mess and just pull them.

I agree you have a better chance of this being the downpipe or a cracked manifold than you do the exhaust gasket. The gasket is multi layer stainless. When I put on headers, I reuse the stock gaskets and don't have leak issues ever.