Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey guys,

Recently after completeing my first track day on my 130,000km r33, i blew the gasket between the turbo and the exhaust manifold. Car runs standard turbo, 200rwkw with fmic, 12psi of boost, and turbo back exhaust + exh cam gear, PFC

The car now makes a tractor like sound, but still goes very strong, but boost seems a little laggier & car is a way lot louder. I do have a new gasket to go on, but got my mechanic to also have a once over of the area.

What he noticed was that their was a stud head missing from one of the exhaust manifold bolts that hold it onto the block. Taking a closer look, it looks like the head of the bolt fell off, and the thread is still in there attathced to the manifold/head...

From having a quick geeze around, it looks like the gasket around that area between the block and manifold is starting to frey apart.

Question is:

Should I just replace my turbo to manifold gasket & not worry about the exh manifold gasket to block, or should I replace both gaskets,and get the rest of the screw thread out of the head, aswell as replacing all the studs that run from the manifold to the head?

From what I heard, its very hard to use "Easy out" on the broken stud, as alot of the "Easy outs" mainly fall apart, hence, having to take the head off, and getting the stud taken out..

So whats my best option here guys?

Has anyone had this happen before, and if so, whats the cost involved if I have the exhaust manifold taken off and replaced with a gasket? (Just trying to gauge some pricing)

Any info, help, tips would be most worthwhile :P

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/91547-exhaust-manifold-ex-gasket-issues/
Share on other sites

definately do both gaskets mate. particuarly if you have one nut missing. you realise that they are studs that the manifold sits on so it's possible that just the nut has fallen off and the stud is still there? you should probably replace the studs too.

this will certainly not get an better over time, bite the bullet and do them now.

grim32, did you do yours urself or did you get a shop to do it?? If you got a shop, how much did it cost? Did you have any broken studs in the head?

At the moment, it looks like ill be doing both of them, but not till I finish up uni exams (3 weeks)...

Yeah, its just the stud that is stuck in there I believe, so hopefully can get it out...

Take the manifold out and you may find that the stud ( not number 6 i hope ) sticks out and you can grab it with multigrips . If broken at the head level drill the centre and use an easyout , you should be able to get it out , i have done it before , its common on the rb25 engines .

Usualy number one or number 6 will snap , when you put the new ones on make sure you do them up with a torque rench .

Either way it has to came out you can leave it like that .

wrxhoon:

Its number 6 unfortunately (closest to the firewall)... Definately will have to use easyout to get it out, as there is no way you can get multigrips to remove it...

Well once taken out and replaced with new ones, probably wont ever need to change the gasket again (only plan on having the car till I finish uni)

Also replacing the turbo to exh manifold gasket, as thats the one with the biggest leak at the moment (sounds like tractor)

That makes it a bit hard but still doable on the car , after drilling it heating it up to 100 degrees will help .

Dont be surpriced to find the manifold bend and not fitting when you try to put it back , you may have to drill the first and last holes a little to make it easier to fit . Make sure its not cracked , as they are known to crac as well , they are so long.

Jerry, ive kicked in the stick cause i want my car fixed asap and dont really have the time to do the job for another 3 weeks (uni exams), so will be sending car off to get work done to it on Monday (Greg @ Autosport Kirrawee, just down from Chris @ sspi)

He quoted me roughly $500 in labour... I was prepared for 800 worth of labour, oh weel, its good enough for me if he can do it, plus I dont really wanna stuff it up as it sounds very tedious

grim32, did you do yours urself or did you get a shop to do it?? If you got a shop, how much did it cost? Did you have any broken studs in the head?

At the moment, it looks like ill be doing both of them, but not till I finish up uni exams (3 weeks)...

Yeah, its just the stud that is stuck in there I believe, so hopefully can get it out...

i paid about $70 for all the studs,washers and nuts. had to get a guy out from threadweld to remove 2 broken studs, i tried to get em out with an easy out but they wouldnt budge, think he charged me $100, cause i made a bit of a mess with them and he removed all the other studs for me while he was there. putting the new ones in was easy, just locked 2 nuts on the stud and screwed them in. the guys number is 0418246531, if you need him. hope this helps you out.

I hate to disagree with people I like but f**k that's a lot of money to fix something that's not really broken.

My girlfriends R31 has 4 broken studs in the same style as you have explained. It's a very common thing in Nissan engines. I haven't bothered replacing the studs that are broken because there is no exhaust leak. It's been like that for at least a year. Prior to that it had 2 missing with the stock exhaust manifold but I discovered the problem when putting some extractors on. I broke another 2 then and the car is fine.

Please do replace the turbo to manifold gasket. I did this at a track day on my R34 and that is necessary because the thing is leaking.

I suggest you save your money until (or for if) the manifold leaks and I bet it doesn't because it has a nice seal already. I just removed the exhaust manifold from my R34 a couple of hours ago and even with every nut and bolt removed it required some real effort to separate it from the head.

yeah i respect your opinion and somewhat agree, but in my case i had to take the manifold off anyway. so while it was off i wanted to fix any potential problems that i saw while i had the oppitunity. yeah sure i spent a few bucks, but on the other hand it doesnt leak. if i didnt change the studs would it have leaked, well maybe not but i didnt want to chance it. plus i hate working on that side of the engine bay, the turbo requires a 3/4 spacer to accept the t4 compressor,very tight fit. thanks.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • If as it's stalling, the fuel pressure rises, it's saying there's less vacuum in the intake manifold. This is pretty typical of an engine that is slowing down.   While typically is agree it sounds fuel related, it really sounds fuel/air mixture related. Since the whole system has been refurbished, including injectors, pump, etc, it's likely we've altered how well the system is delivering fuel. If someone before you has messed with the IACV because it needed fiddling with as the fuel system was dieing out, we need to readjust it back. Getting things back to factory spec everywhere, is what's going to help the entire system. So if it idles at 400rpm with no IACV, that needs raising. Getting factory air flow back to normal will help us get everything back in spec, and likely help chase down any other issues. Back on IACV, if the base idle (no IACV plugged in) is too far out, it's a lot harder for the ECU to control idle. The IACV duty cycle causes non linear variations in reality. When I've tuned the idle valves in the past, you need to keep it in a relatively narrow window on aftermarket ecus to stop them doing wild dances. It also means if your base idle is too low, the valve needs to open too much, and then the smallest % change ends up being a huge variation.
    • I guess one thing that might be wrong is the manifold pressure.  It is a constant -5.9 and never moves even under 100% throttle and load.  I would expect it to atleast go to 0 correct?  It's doing this with the OEM MAP as well as the ECU vacuum sensor. When trying to tune the base map under load the crosshairs only climb vertically with RPM, but always in the -5.9 column.
    • AHHHH gotchaa, I'll do that once I am home again. I tried doing the harness with the multimeter but it seems the car needed a jump, there was no power when it was in the "ON" position. Not sure if I should use car battery jump starter or if its because the stuff that has been disconnect the car just does send power.
    • As far as I can tell I have everything properly set in the Haltech software for engine size, injector data, all sensors seem to be reporting proper numbers.  If I change any injector details it doesnt run right.    Changing the base map is having the biggest change in response, im not sure how people are saying it doesnt really matter.  I'm guessing under normal conditions the ECU is able to self adjust and keep everything smooth.   Right now my best performance is happening by lowering the base map just enough to where the ECU us doing short term cut of about 45% to reach the target Lambda of 14.7.  That way when I start putting load on it still has high enough fuel map to not be so lean.  After 2500 rpm I raised the base map to what would be really rich at no load, but still helps with the lean spots on load.  I figure I don't have much reason to be above 2500rpm with no load.  When watching other videos it seems their target is reached much faster than mine.  Mine takes forever to adjust and reach the target. My next few days will be spent making sure timing is good, it was running fine before doing the ECU and DBW swap, but want to verify.  I'll also probably swap in the new injectors I bought as well as a walbro 255 pump.  
    • It would be different if the sealant hadn't started to peel up with gaps in the glue about ~6cm and bigger in some areas. I would much prefer not having to do the work take them off the car . However, the filler the owner put in the roof rack mount cavities has shrunk and begun to crack on the rail delete panels. I cant trust that to hold off moisture ingress especially where I live. Not only that but I have faded paint on as well as on either side of these panels, so they would need to come off to give the roofline a proper respray. My goal is to get in there and put a healthy amount of epoxy instead of panel filler/bog and potentially skin with carbon fiber. I have 2 spare rolls from an old motorcycle fairing project from a few years back and I think it'd be a nice touch on a black stag.  I've seen some threads where people replace their roof rack delete with a welded in sheet metal part. But has anyone re-worked the roof rails themselves? It seems like there is a lot of volume there to add in some threads and maybe a keyway for a quick(er) release roof rack system. Not afraid to mill something out if I have to. It would be cool to have a cross bar only setup. That way I can keep the sleek roofline that would accept a couple bolts to gain back that extra utility  3D print some snazzy covers to hide the threaded section to be thorough and keep things covered when not using the rack. 
×
×
  • Create New...