84 fj60 manifold woes

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Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Threads
6
Messages
132
Location
Pearland, TX
At that common crossroads: do I keep going and possibly make things worse or just put it back together and hope for the best? I sheared a bolt off trying to remove what I presume is the old egr j-pipe housing sealed off with a freeze plug. I was able to get the other nut off but can't seem to remove j-pipe housing. I whacked it on all sides with the back of a pipe wrench hard enough to slightly bend housing. I'm inclined to just machine the manifold, replace the horn springs, reinstall and pretend this never happened.

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When I had just a flat piece of metal sandwiching a regular gasket onto the bottom of my manifold, it took it about two years for the gasket to fail and turn into a fun exhaust leak whenever I accelerated on an on-ramp. Yours might be rusted in place enough to last that long with only one stud holding it in, or it might not.

I'd personally spend an afternoon with a propane torch and penetrating oil, going at that flange from above with a good-sized hammer and a brass drift. Manifolds are a pain to take off, and it's even worse trying to get the broken-off stud loose with the thing on the side of your engine (I had to do that for my main exhaust downpipe studs...survivable, but a PITA), so I'd say do your diligence this one time so you don't make a more annoying job for yourself later.

If you wanted to just buy a proper plug/gasket/new studs, you could probably just gently hacksaw through the pipe bit in the center so that flange can come off easily, then chisel/pry etc. the stub loose more easily, then deal with the broken stud at your leisure.
 
Thank for the quick reply! Isn't the proper plug simply a metal plate with a gasket? I'm going to try a propane torch heat directed at the J-pipe flange + wd40 and some more persuasion with a hammer. If that fails, are you saying to try a hacksaw perpendicular to the J-pipe so that it is cutting in line with where the gasket is?
 
I'm sort of leaning towards getting the J-pipe flange off one way or the other and then finding someone that can weld a coin in place as a more permanent block-off.
 
I got my j-pipe off but the stud was totally stuck. I just took it to a local machine shop and they had it out in no time. I’m in a smog county so couldn’t delete, but it’s probably worth getting it out and done correctly.
 
I had an exhaust stud break off in my manifold while I was prepping it for install. Luckily I had access to a milling machine so it was a non issue to drill it out and retap.
 
I managed to remove j-pipe collar with hammer and cold chisel. Didn't realize j-pipe was a good 3/4 inch in manifold. I then tried to remove the remaining good stud bolt and promptly sheared it as well. At least I'm consistent.
 
Finally thawed out and can return to this soon. The horns are locked in tight. I've used propane torch and a couple of plumber's wrenches and a bit of persuasion with a hammer and they won't even rotate. I feel like if I did get them to rotate a little I would still have like zero chance of actually pulling them out. I'm thinking of taping off all the passages, smoking it to check for leaks around the horns and then getting this project moving in the right direction if it checks out.
 
Finally thawed out and can return to this soon. The horns are locked in tight. I've used propane torch and a couple of plumber's wrenches and a bit of persuasion with a hammer and they won't even rotate. I feel like if I did get them to rotate a little I would still have like zero chance of actually pulling them out. I'm thinking of taping off all the passages, smoking it to check for leaks around the horns and then getting this project moving in the right direction if it checks out.

you want to get those apart otherwise reassembly could be a complete nightmare. It’s already tricky when everything is good.
 
Ok, I'll see if the machine shop can put an acetylene torch to it and gets it apart
 
I've been spraying the horns 2x a day with Gibbs penetrating oil for WEEKS. Practically used the whole can and still not even a slight budge! A guy who used to work on Land Cruisers back in Pakistan randomly stopped by my house and offered to get the horns off using a hydraulic wedge he has. We slipped some boards between the wedge and the manifold, pumped up the wedge and beat on the horn for awhile with a hammer and still no good. He left it under pressure of the wedge overnight and the next day he finally got it apart. The big freeze down here made propane scarce but finally got a canister yesterday and hopefully tonight we will get the other one off. I need to order new rings, springs, studs, bolts, who knows what else... progress!
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While the manifolds are off I am going address a non-working air compressor. I assumed it was frozen but after I took the back off, I realized that I could manually engage the clutch and move the pistons easily. There is a slight dragging between the clutch and whatever it grabs onto (drive shaft?) and I bet that is what was causing the compressor to freeze up and make the belt squeal like hell when engaged. But as I write this I realize that my belt had stretched to the point of being unable to turn the water pump and now that I have a new belt I wonder if I actually had a working compressor this whole time. Well now that I took the back of the compressor off and buggered up the gasket I'm in a bit of a quandary. I could either scratch off some more paint/oil off the compressor to figure out what model it is and look for a gasket or just go to the junkyard and try to find another GM compressor or a Sanden. Or, I could take the easy way out and just put a pulley there.

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The belt I have off the water pump is 5/8" but I can't seem to find a GM A-6 compressor with that size pulley. Can I use a 1/2" pulley with a 5/8" belt? It's the closest I can find
 
I was able to get a new rear gasket and got the special tool to remove the pulley from the A6 compressor. Got everything back together And now with a drip oiler, blow-off valve, oil collector and gauge. Won't know if it actually works until I get her running again
 
I got horns off and managed to remove the springs after considerable effort. I've sanded with 220 followed by 800. I want to machine the engine mating surfaces next. Do I assemble the horns with springs and rings in place before bringing it in? Or just dry fit without the hardware? Also, I have copper gasket seal I want to use. Do I include it before machining or take everything apart just before final assembly and add a thin layer of the goop?
 
Do I assemble the horns with springs and rings in place before bringing it in? Or just dry fit without the hardware? Also, I have copper gasket seal I want to use. Do I include it before machining or take everything apart just before final assembly and add a thin layer of the goop?
1. yes, assemble then machine.
2. no need..
3. which copper did you get? spray or bottle? if you are using the copper infused RTV, that stuff dries, and you wont want to move or rotate the horns after you assemble it all.. in which case you'd want to: assemble, machine, then disassemble, apply, reassemble and enjoy. hope that helps
 
Yes, greatly! I have the rtv in a tube. Really appreciate the response and the site. I'm over my head and need the help/support
 
When I put my manifold back together for assembly I just used some fine sandpaper to clean up the mating surfaces, installed the new rings and springs, put a little wd40 in there to ease install and put it together. Not leakage since install.
 
Thanks! Pretty much what I've done so far. I had a hard time getting the spring and ring to sit down in one of the valleys because I didn't get all the crud out. Used one of the old springs to gouge out remaining rust and with a little wd40 it went back together without too much trouble.
I need to order the 3 long bolts that hold the manifolds together. I'm guessing these are NLA from Toyota otherwise I would already have gotten them with my previous order of various nuts/bolts for this (never-ending) project
 
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