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The local Jeep dealership could replace my manifold for about $800, parts and labor. Ouch.
After further research, I elected to replace it myself with a Borla stainless steel header, for $360 in parts.
At left is the Borla header, still in the box.
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Here's the "before" shot.
You can see a bit of the old exhaust manifold - it's the light orange-colored thingy beside the forward end of the valve cover.
Clearly, it's not easy to get to.
The intake manifold must come out, because (1) it's in the way of the exhaust manifold, and (2) the same bolts hold both manifolds in.
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Here's an overhead shot of the engine, with the aluminum intake manifold in the foreground.
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A closer shot of the orange-colored exhaust manifold that's coming out.
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After marking and disconnecting all the wires and hoses, removing the power steering pump, and removing a variety of other small things, then removing 8 primary bolts, out comes the intake manifold, exposing the pale orange (from dirt and rust) exhaust manifold.
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The intake manifold. |
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Now that the intake manifold is out of the way, you can see where the exhaust manifold is cracked. It's there where the two pipes come into one.
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A rare view of two intake values.
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The engine compartment with the intake manifold out.
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Three more bolts at the head, and two where the manifold meets the exhaust pipe, and the exhaust manifold is out.
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The broken exhaust manifold.
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Close-up of the crack.
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The new header installed (bolts just finger tight). Don't it look perty?
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When I disconnected the exhaust pipe from the catalytic converter, the muffler kinda fell out of the tailpipe. Good time to clean it up with a wire brush.
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Here's the "heat riser" installed. I had to loosen it later to get to the header bolts.
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Note the nice, wide clamp provided, which clamps the header to the exhaust pipe.
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Here's the view from the other side, where the exhaust pipe will meet the cat.
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Silvery exhaust pipe on the right, orange tail pipe on the left, ready for the muffler and cat to fit between them. Note the jack holding up the transfer case. That's because the skidplate (that I removed to access the muffler and cat) normally holds up the transfer case.
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Here's the intake manifold back in, bolts finger tight. I had a bit of trouble getting the bolts on the underside to seat, until I discovered that the intake wasn't fully seated on the "dowel pins" that stick out from the head. Once I got the intake properly lined up, it dropped into place and the bolts fit fine. Next I started reconnecting all the wires, vacuum lines, and such.
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With the muffler and cat back in, all the underhood stuff re-connected, and no "spare" parts left over, it started up just fine! It sounds good, too, with a nice low-frequency "burble" at idle. Overall it's much quieter and smoother sounding that it was with the cracked manifold.
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Here's the old exhaust manifold and exhaust pipe. Make me an offer.
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The aftermath of tools and supplies, to include the obligatory hammer.
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All in all, this job was not easy. I started on Friday night, working from about 6pm 'til about 11pm. I started back again on Saturday morning at about 9am, and wasn't done until about 4pm. This was the first time I've done such work, and I did take my time, being careful to mark everything I disconnected along the way. About 11 hours total (not counting the all-important lunch break).
The fact that the old exhaust pipe was tack-welded (in addition to a u-bolt) to the cat slowed things down as well. Some time with a Dremel tool got the welds ground off without much damage to the cat's pipe.
Torqueing the bolts was a major pain. Of the 11 major manifold bolts that hold both manifolds in, 9 of them call for 24 foot-pounds of torque, and the other 23 foot-pounds. Go figure. The bolds underneath were a challenge to get a torque wrench on, as they were only accessable from underneath and behind a maze of pipes from the header. A couple of them I was never able to get the torque wrench on - I estimated the right amount with my "calibrated arm" and had to use a standard end-wrench.
