1996 80 Series Manafold Resurfacing?

[BookerHM]

I have a 1996 and I am slowly working through some maintenance issues since I bought it last year. One of the cats is bad, and the exhaust from cat back needs to be replaced. I also have leak in the manifold gasket. Plus, it just started throwing 3 O2 sensor codes related to channel bank 1.

I've decided to just redo the entire exhaust including repairing the leak in the manifold gasket. It is my understanding that I need to resurface the manifold if I am going to do it. I am being quoted $300-$400 for resurfacing. (When I say redo, I mean i am taking it to an exhaust shop)

Does anyone have any experience with this? Should I just buy a new manifold or resurface it?

-Booker

 

[scottryana]

You only need to resurface the manifold if it is not straight. The leak could be from bolts not being tight, bad gasket, etc. The stock manifolds are 2 separate pieces the front 3 cylinders and the rear 3 cylinders. I would make sure they need to be surfaced before I agreed to pay a shop $300-400. And even that price seems a little high. Most exhaust shops just have a large flat belt sander they run them on, not like they have a large surfacer.

 

[excessive]

When I rebuilt my engine I had .010 shaved off my exhaust manifolds just as peace of mind so I knew they were getting a good tight connection.
I had a bunch of stuff in the machine shop so it was only 30 bucks extra anyway