A few months ago just after I bought my 67 Toronado, I took it to a shop to check out. They said there are some leaks in the exhaust gasket, but it closes when the engine heats up. Thought will just fix it later. Now yesterday I got another gift, as a piece of the exhaust gasket blew out. Now I can actually feel the gasses escaping. Know exactly where it is.

My question. What damage if any do I do to the engine by driving it a bit longer? The car runs fine, except for the bap bap bap at the manifold.

I dont drive the car a lot at all. Max maybe 50 miles a week, most weeks maybe 10. I have so many things on my list to fix. Things that I can do myself before I want to take the car to the shop for the manifolds. I am just too scared to break off a bolt, and then I am stuck.

 

The first problem is that Olds motors didn't use exhaust gaskets from the factory. The manifold-to-head joint is metal-to-metal (the exception to this is the 1985-1990 307 motors with 7A heads and the tubular stainless exhaust manifolds). If you car really does have gaskets, someone installed them previously. If the manifolds are flat and the flanges are not damaged, you should not need gaskets for a proper seal.

As for your original question, so long as the leak isn't blowing on something critical like wiring or a hose (which could be damaged by the hot gas), and assuming you're not getting exhaust in the passenger compartment, then there's no issue with driving the car with a leak, other than the noise.

 

X2

Now if the leak is at the donut where the manifold meets the exhaust (down pipe) start soaking bolts even a shop can snap these very common place to break .

 

Does a Toro use donunts? I know the 1967 Cutlii do not, but I'm not up to speed on that year Toro.

 

? Good question I thought they all did
Learn something every day

 

My 70 did, not sure about a 67

 

Heat and

Time and

either/or

1) Voodoo Juice = 1/2 ATF, 1/2 Acetone

2) Candle wax

Wax is exceedingly effective but somewhat flammable so preparations must be made and not too much heat used.

Also, an Impact will do things that a slow application of torque will not do, and they do have settings lower than maximum.... so you don't just snap it off immediately.

 

Can you explain candle wax ?
I ve never heard this one before its intreging !

 

Basically heat the area red hot (bolt or stud) and then apply candle wax (parafin wax) to it. It will obviously melt and be drawn into the space between the bolt/stud and whatever it's bolted into. In this case the exhaust manifold.

 

Acetone is flammable also, much more so than gasoline.

 

beeswax works better...


bill

 

Actually if you heat them cherry red, area around bolt and bolt with an acetylene torch you don't need wax they will come out like melted butter, if they start to get tight coming out it has cooled off to much and it's time to warm them up again. Been doing it this way for 30 years and it works almost every time. Make certain you run a tap in the holes before reinstalling to clean the crap out of the hole.

 

So got the one manifold out. Passenger side. All the bolts came out, except broke the ones going to the exhaust. There was a donut in there. Fell out.
So whats the next step? Take to a shop to have the manifold machined? Hopefully they can get the bolts out without too much trouble. I dont have sanders or anything. I did get some copper gaskets. Would it be better to use the copper gaskets? Or no gaskets?

 

Factory didn't use a gasket but I think either way is fine . I would take to a machine shop to drill and retap if you don't know how

 

So had the manifolds machined. The one side they did a good job. Other side they took off too much metal and it cracked within the first mile I drove.
Manifold looked pretty straight to me. Should have left it, and just put in a gasket. $200 later I now have less than I started out with.

 

What part cracked if it was just a mounting ear it can be welded up .

 

Sidenote .. PowerBlock did a quick segment on removing stuck bolts this weekend and showed the paraffin technique. Snapped the bolt off. Oops. Rather disappointed they only showed their sponsor's WD-40 and none of the other penetrants that we've all been using for decades ... particularly the 50%acetone/50%atf mix that's been proven tops forever.

If the manifold was straight, they shouldn't have had to take off any, let alone too much.

 

Unfortunately broke around one of the ports. Should have just bought a used belt sander and do it myself. The metal around the ports were almost paper thin at some points. They took off a LOT. My other manifold was a bit wobbly, and they did a great job. This one was straight and they ruined it.
Trust people to do a good job. I do probably 90% of the work on the car myself. I take my time and do a good job usually. Every time I have someone else touch my car, something like this happens.
Have a contact to see if I can get another set. Not sure what I will do this time.

 

Personally I'd contact the shop that did the work and see what they have to say. At worst, they'll say 'sorry, not our problem'. But it's likely they'll have someone that can weld it back up, add materiel to the face and re-true it. It's worth a shot.

 

Use copper rtv. Used it on all my racecars and never had a leak. I put the copper sealer on the head flanges then between the doubled up gaskets. Should be no different for mounting an exhaust manifold to a head and JB weld does wonders for cracks or broken off ears. Broke off my passenger #2 bolt hole and looks like it is holding fine with the JB weld.

 

JB weld in the crack?
Maybe it work, maybe it doesnt. Dont have much to loose by it anyway.

I guess it was my fault. They said it would take two weeks. I asked them please if they can do it in a week. Dropped it off on the Monday, came to pick it up on the Friday.
So they did a rush job. They have enough business.

 

I've used it on trans cases also. Cracks in the dowel pin area.