Exhaust Manifold Removal

[wix51085]

Any advice for removing the driver side exhaust manifold with the engine in/ cab on?? I got all the way to the very last bolt and am losing my mind.

Luckily I literally just did body mounts so they came back off easily and I jacked the cab up to get the heat shield nut off the last stud by the firewall. But now I find the heat shield won’t come off to access the bolt/stud due to two more fasteners on the back of the head/block.

There’s barely any room but I fished some allen and torx bits back there and nothing seems to fit. I can’t even tell what these fasteners are let alone attempt to get them off.

 

[franklin2]

This little set of "socket easy outs" saved my bacon when I did this job. The bolt heads are so disintegrated, no socket was going to fit them. One trick I found with these, if you use some sort of impact with them, they will not work. You have to use a wrench or ratchet, and slowly twist on them and they will eventually dig in and take them loose.

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[wix51085]

I had very good luck and all the bolts came loose without much difficulty. Even one that was missing the head.

I just can’t figure out these mystery fasteners holding the heat shield on the back of the driver side turbo to get to the last bolt

only two things i can come up with is try to tear the heat shield in half to get out of the way or drill holes through the firewall and put rubber plugs in the holes

 

[onetonjohn]

I use 1/4" drive flex head long handle with deep 6pt socket recently to pull the manifold to get the oil cooler out easily. Didn't seem that bad. Without a flex head, maybe it would have been PITA (not sure).

 

[wix51085]

not great photos but this is what i’m dealing with. I got the nut on the heat shield a little loose but eventually the socket couldnt stay on there due to the angle. The only way I could get it off was to take the body mounts off and jack the body up until that nut was below the fire wall.

There is another nut or a nut/bolt combo thing under the heat shield actually holding the manifold on. I can’t get to that unless I get the heat shield off. But in the pic with the red circle there are two of these bolts in to the back of the head against the firewall also holding the heat shield on.

No one dealt with this heat shield? I’ve been trying to search everything I can and can’t find any reference to a heat shield.

 

[wix51085]

SOLVED

Hopefully someone dealing with this same piece of crap heat shield will find this in the future and it will help them.

There are 3 fasteners holding the heat shield located between the driver side manifold and firewall. One is a 1/2" nut on the last manifold bolt/stud combo closest to the firewall. There is a notch in the firewall to allow for a socket. I could only barely get a socket to fit partially on the nut. Once I got it a few turns out, the firewall and heat shield were interfering with the socket and I could not get it off the rest of the way. My solution was to take the body mounts off and jack the body up until the nut was clear of the heat shield. This was easy as I had literally just finished doing S&B mounts the same day. Alternatively, you could probably take the driver side motor mount off and adjust the engine as needed that way.

There are also two 7/32" allen key bolts fastening the heat shield to the back of the head (5.5mm probably works too but mine is missing). It was not possible to pry the heat shield off of the manifold bolt/stud and take the manifold out with the heat shield still attached to the head. There is also not enough room to fit a full allen key in there. To remove these you must sacrifice a 7/32" allen key and cut it down to about 1/4" protruding. Then climb up on top of your engine bay and get comfortable. You will have to reach down behind the engine and slowly turn these bolts out. For the bolt closest to the tunnel I could only turn it about 30* at a time before having to reset. Took awhile and my fingies hurt.

Congrats. Now you can slide the heat shield out and remove the manifold.

Note: Once the heat shield was removed I could fit a socket in the firewall notch to remove the last stud without having to jack the body up again. That was only necessary to remove the nut.

 

[wix51085]

Also I appear to have found my exhaust leak... I had almost given up removing this manifold due to the heat shield and I'm sure glad I didn't! The heat shield was completely covering up all this soot and crack. When I was testing for leaks, I hooked up a shop vac backwards to the tail pipe to fill the system with air. The heat shield was also blowing all the air down from this crack to the cross over pipe joint so I really thought that's where my primary leak was when I was feeling around.

I'm tempted to weld this up but I don't want to do this job again so I guess I'm in the market for a new manifold. Never even hooked up the EGT gauge after I installed that probe!

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[IDIBRONCO]

No one dealt with this heat shield? I’ve been trying to search everything I can and can’t find any reference to a heat shield.

Not with the engine in the truck.

One is a 1/2" nut on the last manifold bolt/stud combo closest to the firewall.

I had forgotten about that one until you mentioned it. I'd also forgotten that there is a heat shield on both heads.
If we were closer, I could help with a manifold, but it would cost more to ship you one than you could buy one from someone else.

 

[franklin2]

I see you can get the left or driver's side manifold now(double the price though). For awhile you could only get the pass side new.

 

[DirtyWood]

I recently replaced both exhaust manifolds with new Dorman models and they worked just fine, however, one package was missing the studs so I had to buy some. Also, the included Dorman exhaust manifold gaskets looked a bit different than the FelPro ones I already had so I just used the FelPros and zero problems.

 

[franklin2]

About a year ago I was panicking because they were out of stock on the driver's side. I did not need that side, but the pass side was pretty rough with a hole in it and I predict I will need the driver's side one day.

 

[Greenie]

A couple of years ago I took my pristine '93 7.3 IDI to Midas for a state inspection as I have done for years. This time they claimed the exhaust manifold gasket was leaking and had to be replaced. I looked for any sign of a leak and found nothing. Took it to another shop and got a sticker. Still no leak.
Why open that can of worms. The exhaust manifold has never been off and it would have been a lot of risk, time and money to solve a problem that didn't exist.
State inspections have been my primary exposure to fraud.