DIY: 1998 Volvo V70 Exhaust Manifold Replacement

[yamaboosh]

so I just replaced the manifold, it took me half a day. However, when I started the car after finishing the job, exhaust started coming out from under the gaskets on both sides of the manifold! should I have put some sort of grease on the gaskets? tighten them more? I'm not sure what to do and really not feeling like paying a mechanic. Thanks in advance!

[tryingbe]

Make sure the flange of the exhaust manifold is flat.

[yamaboosh]

flat how? every part of the manifold is in exactly the same position the old one was. On the old one three of the four lower bolts broke, but it did not damage the catalytic converter side, I don't think.

I've been reading that new exhaust manifolds smoke sometimes, might that be it? I really want to exclude the head gasket option, and I haven't had any symptoms of that, really.

[erikv11]

The exhaust attachment area almost always smokes some after work back there, if it hasn't had time for things to burn off then wait for that first, give it another look.

[tryingbe]

flat how?

If there is smoke after you touch the exhaust manifold, that is normal. Wait about 15 minutes and smoke should all cleared up.

If that doesn't solve your issue, flange often is warped after welding. I'd put the flange on a flat glass surface and then use feeler gauge between the glass and the flage and see how much warpage it has.

[yamaboosh]

I think it stopped now. Phew! Thanks everyone!

[greg850r]

I would suggest VICTOR REINZ MS19361, but Volvo 30777495, 8699467, 86994670 also works. For one thing, the gasket will stay in place when you bolt the exhaust manifold on, that can NOT be said about those stupid individual gaskets.

Cut the red part off before use.

I'm doing a 96 850R and IPD says that gasket won't fit my car. I think it will but I don't want to wait to find out. Probably order one and hang it on the wall. If it saves me from dealing with the worst exhaust manifold gaskets ever designed next time that will be great.

In the meantime I came up with a trick. I stripped some smaller gauge solid copper wire and formed the end around a stud and then backed the stud out so the end of it could be threaded into the circle once the bottom one is through the manifold and gasket thus holding everything together on the other side. I held the top stud in place the same way but instead of wrapping it 360 degrees I only went 180 and left it long enough to tie off somewhere. I did this on all five gaskets and then put the whole works up against the cylinder head threading each stud into the head a few turns. Then I was able to pull on each wire and the soft copper uncurled from the bottom stud and came out whole. then I just tightened them from the center out and had an exhaust manifold installation without fighting those gaskets.

IMG_2038.JPG (51.77 KiB) Viewed 1960 times

[erikv11]

That looks like a handy fix, nice.

The engine block in tryingbe's picture is the same one you have in your 96 R.