Must be exhaust manifold week. My exhaust manifold had been making noise for a couple years but wasn't too bad that it needed replacement yet. When Jade started squealing a bit, I thought it was an idler pulley and replaced both of them, since they were both worn. The squeal continued and was getting louder, so I had a friend help confirm that it was a faulty intake gasket. After a couple rounds of CRC Knock'er Loose, all the bolts easily came out. I also discovered that 2 of the bolts were missing and both of them were near the firewall on cylinder #1. When a shop had replaced the exhaust manifold and exhaust system (when my dad owned Jade), they broke the stud and just left it. Then they didn't replace the bolt on the other side for #1 exhaust. Just to make sure the exhaust system would fail sooner than later, they didn't install an exhaust manifold gasket. I'm surprised the exhaust wasn't noisier and that it took this long for the intake gasket to fail with no bolts attached the manifolds to cylinder #1. Since I had most of the top off, I am also replacing the leaky RTV on the valve cover with a Fel-Pro gasket.
I never have much luck using a bolt extractor and usually break the extractor, which is almost impossible to drill out. I tried using the Torx bit method by drilling the bolt and then pounding in a T-20 Torx bit. Having used a fair amount of CRC Knock'er Loose, it easily came out. It might require a little heat to remove the stud from the Torx bit, though.
With the intake and exhaust ports are a little gunked-up, I soaked paper towels in Sea-Foam and inserted them into the ports while cleaning around the valve cover. The intake will get a gentle cleaning, too. Anything else I should do while the intake and exhaust manifolds are off and I can easily get to the motor? Don't say to swap it out with the 4.0 in my driveway. As soon as I get this one back on the road, the 4.0 is going into my 2000 Sahara.
I never have much luck using a bolt extractor and usually break the extractor, which is almost impossible to drill out. I tried using the Torx bit method by drilling the bolt and then pounding in a T-20 Torx bit. Having used a fair amount of CRC Knock'er Loose, it easily came out. It might require a little heat to remove the stud from the Torx bit, though.
With the intake and exhaust ports are a little gunked-up, I soaked paper towels in Sea-Foam and inserted them into the ports while cleaning around the valve cover. The intake will get a gentle cleaning, too. Anything else I should do while the intake and exhaust manifolds are off and I can easily get to the motor? Don't say to swap it out with the 4.0 in my driveway. As soon as I get this one back on the road, the 4.0 is going into my 2000 Sahara.
