Will it leak without the rear manifold bolt?

[Ahoragi]

The shop attempted to tackle the 2.5's manifold gasket and the last bolt broke. They cannot extract it. They said I need another head OR bolt it back up and hope it don't leak.

Will it leak without that last one?

I told em to try to drill and extract before we decide on what to do.

 

[StG58]

It may or may not leak, but I bet it cracks eventually. Busting off a manifold stud / bolt is pretty common, and always sucks. Find an old school mechanic and have a talk with him about fixing it. You'll probably have to drill it out, tap it for a helicoil and put a new, high quality stud in. I've got a busted stud on the exhaust manifold of my 7.4 liter right now. It's getting fixed this winter over a weekend. It'll take all weekend to do it right. Sometimes, but rarely you get lucky and can weld a nut on and coax it. I've done probably two or three dozen in 40 years and it's always a pain in the ass.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

A good experienced mechanic should be able to get that bolt out as much of a PITA it will be for him. The shop's mechanic snapped the bolt, he should be able to extract it and not lay the decision on you to buy a new head or leave it unbolted.

I'd push back on the shop. Hard!

 

[Ahoragi]

I did. Told em to drill and extract and also emailed em about drilling it out, tapping, and using a helicoil.

This shop is actually a good one and the two owners are jeepers. The thing is recently they hired alot of new mechanics because business was booming and I'm betting one of them is working on it.

 

[StG58]

If it's a good one, they'll make it right. Good luck!

 

[Ahoragi]

Update: They still have the jeep. They were unable to drill out the bolt. I told em just bolt it up without the last bolt and I'll deal with it later. They are saying they cannot find a copper gasket anywhere. I believe they want to use a copper gasket cuz they are thicker and would help seal it better?

Anyone know where to get one for the 2.5?

All I see are Crown Automative gaskets for $4.

 

[Chris]

Update: They still have the jeep. They were unable to drill out the bolt. I told em just bolt it up without the last bolt and I'll deal with it later. They are saying they cannot find a copper gasket anywhere. I believe they want to use a copper gasket cuz they are thicker and would help seal it better?

Anyone know where to get one for the 2.5?

All I see are Crown Automative gaskets for $4.

Never seen a copper one, ever. Not for the 2.5 at least.

 

[Ahoragi]

Never seen a copper one, ever. Not for the 2.5 at least.

Yeah me too.

 

[Chris]

It may not exist, but the stock one should be just fine as long as it's installed correctly.

 

[TJ4Jim]

Get a Felpro Gasket for a few bucks more , I have never seen a copper gasket either.

 

[Stinger]

Now that is some kind of shitty shop---break your rig and not fix it.

At a minimum they should take it to a reputable shop, get it fixed and foot the bill!

 

[Ahoragi]

Now that is some kind of shitty shop---break your rig and not fix it.

At a minimum they should take it to a reputable shop, get it fixed and foot the bill!

Oh I'm beyond pissed about this. 7 days for an exhaust manifold gasket replacement? I know the bolts were rusty but...geez.....7 days? I was expecting a "hey it's ready to be picked up today" but no response so it's either they did not finish it or it leaked after another leak test that followed.

Unless they come up with some "hey it's our fault so we won't charge you" type of reply then I'm going to stop going there and recommend my family to do the same as well. (they all go there).

(end rant)

 

[TJ4Jim]

If you were on the right side of PA instead of the left side I would say bring it here and we'll get it fixed.

 

[Ahoragi]

If you were on the right side of PA instead of the left side I would say bring it here and we'll get it fixed.

Thanks man. I wanted to do it myself but I'm just strapped for time and got my fiance's sister's wedding this week. I wanted to have it fixed and ready for the traditional naked jeep entrance at the wedding and did not want it sounding the way it did.

I emailed them and said I'm coming to pick it up today, whether it's done or not. I will drag it home with the xj if I have to and work all night to fix it myself. 10 days is more than enough to fix a gasket.

 

[Ahoragi]

Deleted: will repost soon.

 

[Ahoragi]

Ok so here's what went down:

They bolted everything back up and I went in to pick it up today. I checked the manifold and it's the very last bolt right next to the firewall that broke. It's almost impossible, or is, to drill that out unless the head is removed. The firewall bends forward at that point and no ordinary drill will fit. They admitted that it snapped when they were removing it and tried everything they could to get it out but the head had to come off. I did not give them the Ok to do that so all they could do was put it back together and give it back to me.

I drove the jeep back to work and instantly noticed that the fluctuating rpms at idle/stop was gone. I been dealing with that since I bought in 2012 and seems the leaking gasket was the culprit. However, a new symptom appeared. When I upshift to 4th gear, and the rpms are at 2k or less, the jeep will start bucking until the rpms get over 2000. It only happens in 4th gear with rpms below 2k.

Any ideas what would cause that?

 

[billiebob]

Come on you guys. It is a used TJ... at least 10 years old. All the shop did was put a wrench on and the bolt broke. The Jeep Warranty on that part is long expired. It is a USED TJ. Why do you expect the local small business to do more than Chrysler Jeep will.

One of your opening comments..."This shop is actually a good one". So yeah, shit happens. As you state the head MUST come off to access the broken bolt. It appears that even tho "This shop is actually a good one". THIS is beyond their capabilities. Quit bad mouthing them. Look for a solution. It will not be free. You might have to go elsewhere. But it hardly means your past experience... "This shop is actually a good one".... was wrong.

 

[Ahoragi]

Come on you guys. It is a used TJ... at least 10 years old. All the shop did was put a wrench on and the bolt broke. The Jeep Warranty on that part is long expired. It is a USED TJ. Why do you expect the local small business to do more than Chrysler Jeep will.

One of your opening comments..."This shop is actually a good one". So yeah, shit happens. As you state the head MUST come off to access the broken bolt. It appears that even tho "This shop is actually a good one". THIS is beyond their capabilities. Quit bad mouthing them. Look for a solution. It will not be free. You might have to go elsewhere. But it hardly means your past experience... "This shop is actually a good one".... was wrong.

The only reason I bad mouthed them was because they said it was the top rear manifold bolt and that I brought the jeep in with the bolt already broken. No bolt on the manifold was broke when i delivered the vehicle (pictures to prove it) so I thought they were lying to cover their mistake. When I spoke to them face to face they admitted they broke the bolt and it was not the bolt they originally described. It was the "side" bolt against the firewall. They just described it wrong in the emails which lead to all this misunderstanding.

I'm still a little unsure about the whole situation cuz it should've went like "Hey Chris we're sorry but we broke a bolt on the head" but instead it went like this: "You brought the jeep in with a broken head bolt".........

Still a bit fishy with the emails but they admitted their mistake when I showed up.

 

[billiebob]

time to move on / ahead. it still needs to be fixed and nothing changes the fact that a factory part broke.

 

[Ahoragi]

time to move on / ahead. it still needs to be fixed and nothing changes the fact that a factory part broke.

Yup but one thing for sure, no one's touching my jeep ever again.

I gotta do another leak test with the leaf blower and see if the new gasket/copper sealant is leaking and perhaps that's causing my issue. If not then I gotta figure out what is.