Exhaust manifold remove and stainless steel header install

Hi all,
My 1,6 1983 golf has had this sound as if the original cast manifold had a crack somewhere, quite loud. unable to find any other holes in the exhaust I decided to just bin the old system completely and go for a stainless system all the way. The cars quite low and the middle damper catches on sometimes so I’ll be going with a setup without this as well. Will it be less noisy than before? We’ll see but at least it will be as its supposed to be and I can install the extra damper if necessary.
My worries were mainly on removal of the 35+ years old original manifold, and unable to find so much information on the subject but with some pointers from Brianos posts (cheers mate ) I thought I’d give it a go.
Now the main concern doing this is avoiding to break any of the studs coming from the head of the engine. If this happens you’ll be forced to try and out-bore a broken hard steel stud from a much sorter aluminium head, which means if your drill slips… its just not a fun task to do while under your car anyway, which is why I prepared myself for removing the engine from the car if it should happen. Also I will not recommend doing this job at home on the ground at all. You’ll need the car on a lift to be able to remove and fit the parts from underneath, and to reach the manifold etc.
Anyway why dont I tell you what I did rather than ranting on about what not to do.

Car on the lift, lets crack on



Start by removing the air filter box for better access to the 4 upper bolts on the manifold



The 4 upper bolts can be taken from above you can see my wrench in the picture
Problem here is that the space between the intake and exhaust manifolds are so narrow that I could only fit 1/4” 12mm sockets in there, and the bolts were on there really good, so trouble can be expected here..



This started happening



Because this old stubborn bolt just wouldnt let go..



Oh and remember to remove the bracket thats Holding the intake and exhaust manifolds together. Its 3 bolts to remove.

Impact air gun with wobble extension was used, ended up breaking the wobble extension..
Heating by starting the engine didnt work, nor did heating the bolt with a torch..
Managed to get a 3/8” modified socket in there and which helped in the end but..
I ended up rounding one of the bolts… great!
I was unable to get a small cutting tool in there and cut the bolt, there simply wasnt enough space.
So I had to sacrifice my 3/8” 12mm socket, making a cut in it so that I could put in on the bolt and with the welding machine make a weld so that the socket was on there solid.
It actually worked after a couple attempts



After I got it turned some more I was able to put more welding spots in.



Finally the thing was of



3 studs came out but I had a full set of new stainless studs and bolts



In with the new studs and the new gasket after a proper clean



Put the new manifold on there and bolt it on with the new bolts



From there its just fitting the new exhaust or make a joint to the old one. I’m going 2,5” all the way out.





I’m really happy with the end result, its hearable of course but its a much better sound than before





Hope this might help someone in the future

Never-Seizing the studs Helps more as an after thought so if you ever have to drop it again it is way easier to get out, well at least the nuts are.

I have a short pneumatic butterfly impact, it actually fits the gap between the firewall and the area nicely.  A couple of flips zipz that is after soaking the nuts in PB-Blaster for a week, before every day made short work.

Went back with Stainless Steel Studly's and the copper nuts….

Looks and probably sounds nice, and you gained about 15 SOP HP.

I soaked all the bolts in wd40 in a week before attempting to removing any of them, but breaking them loose is clearly the biggest issue. Once they’ve moved its just back and forth with more wd40 to remove the loosening rust and prevent they snap because of the touque.
Yeah sure I used copper grease on the studs prior to fitting the new one, always apply on new stainless steel items to prevent them making a bond.
Also BTW I can only recommend the use of a gearbox lifter when dissembling the manifold from the downpipe-thing thats sitting on the manifold with 2 solid C-clamps, its easier to get those of if you’re able to lift the downpipe slightly to release tension from the clamps..



nice with the compact butterfly impact, I couldnt fit neither air or 18v impact in there directly without wobble.
Cheers for top advise as always!

I'm just about to do this and having no end of issues trying to figure out how this thing goes in. Right now engine is back in car all drive shafts are connected and sway bar is also on the car. Pic of headers attached. Im working without a lift, but I just can't seem to get any right angle to get this header in / on. Do I need a lift for this or possibly just use the car jack stand on full height? Seems awfully tight. How did you get the manifold thru the gap where the drive shaft is? right now I'm thinking I should have done this sh1t while the engine was out!! Doh!!!

Few pics attached. Any help or ideas appreciated.

The sway bar will definitely need to be removed.
Possibly the drive shaft but not sure as when I fitted mine I had the engine out so the manifold went in before the engine and gearbox.

Mark1gls, yep, sevaral sore knuckles and some choice words later……the sway bar had to come off and so did the drive shaft. No way to shoe horn those headers in from Jack stands just don't have the height. A ramp might have helped but don't have one. Anyway…..seems like there are in now!!! Looks good, haven't tightened anything up yet, need some antisieze for the slip joints first. But getting there slowly!

Think I'll use this stuff for the antisieze……looks like it's good to 2400F / 1315C. Don't see exhaust being hotter than that.

Be sure that you use some tin, or heat shield tape to place between your down pipes and your power steering rack.  You would hate to bake the seals and gaters.

Briano1234, oh yeah, that's a great tip! Thanks. Do you think I should probably get the exhaust heat shields for the Webber's too maybe since they are sitting right above that?

possibly, I only know about the headers as a when I installed mine it was after replacing the Power steeering rack for a leaky seal, and I said now would be placing tin for a heat shield would be a good thing.  I used a left over license plate (aluminum) I had laying about, and I secured it to the down pipes with Stainless Steel Wire ties.

Did the same thing on my dial down pipe on my next Cabriolet, I used left over sheet aluminum. Some folks over here use that exhaust heat shield tape, but being the Cost effective person that I am, I used what I had laying about, and if my header cracked I wanted to see it.

an OBTW on all 3 of my Cabbies with the OEM exhaust manifold they all cracked, I suspect that it was from poor design, and broken mounts.



My old Toilet Bowl on my diesel never cracked in the 20 years of ownership.
 

Briano1234, again thanks for the info man, some top tips there! appreciate it! 

so after some homework on exhaust heat shield wrap apparently its not the best idea to wrap your headers? Does anybody on here have any experience of that? i was just planning to wrap them but it sounds like the exhaust heat shield method might be better for the longevity of the headers? 

I've wrapped my manifold (header as you call over the pond) the whole length of it when I fitted it 7 years ago and it seems to be ok.
My cars a daily drive so don't know if that makes much difference?
Also wrapped my steering rack boot with a plumbs soldering mat as it's right next to it on left hand drive cars.
Picture on page 1 in the link to my build thread.

https://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=projects%2Fyour-mk1-golfs_2%2Fmy-daily-drive-1988-gti

Thanks for the info mark1gls, yeah I'm planning on using mine not necessarily as a daily but using it pretty often. So it's interesting yours has been ok for last 7 years as a daily.  Maybe the wrap isn't so bad after all. I read that it's can overheat the headers and causes early breakdown in the material which oxidizes over time anyway. Thanks for the real world use scenario let's me gauge kinda what works and doesn't. Appreciate that! Think the wrap option is easier to install that getting/making heat shields. But yeah briano also mentioned the steering rack needs some sort of heat shield so I will certainly do that also!

And totally love the build thread. Was thinking about publishing mine when she's done.

Shubbs said

Thanks for the info mark1gls, yeah I'm planning on using mine not necessarily as a daily but using it pretty often. So it's interesting yours has been ok for last 7 years as a daily.  Maybe the wrap isn't so bad after all. I read that it's can overheat the headers and causes early breakdown in the material which oxidizes over time anyway. Thanks for the real world use scenario let's me gauge kinda what works and doesn't. Appreciate that! Think the wrap option is easier to install that getting/making heat shields. But yeah briano also mentioned the steering rack needs some sort of heat shield so I will certainly do that also!

And totally love the build thread. Was thinking about publishing mine when she's done.

Hj,

Did you decide to wrap this after all? Currently doing the same thing and was going to wrap it, just seeing what you decided to do in the end.

In my Case, being a Automatic, I had to worry about excessive heat for the Starter and as well as keeping it away from the Power steering rack.  But I didn't bother on my 90 with anything other than making a heat shield out of a old scrap of aluminum that I had laying about.

What make of manifold are being used? Any recommendations on best manifold to clear the steering rack?

AM12 , In the end I actually half wrapped my headers with exhaust wrap. I do not like that stuff and it's a pain to put on and strap down. In addition I also put the original exhaust heat shield on the header downpipes, had to make few tweeks and modifications here and there but I got it on. Also, I purchased some additional flexi heat shield material and wrapped the CV boot and joint and the power steering rack so I don't cook either of those. I wouldn't bother with the exhaust wrap if I did it again as I prefer the shiny stainless look vs the wrap look. Kinda hard to see from the photo but you get the idea.

Shubbs
"some additional flexi heat shield material"

You mean tin foil?!  

paceman actually it was this stuff. It's more like a fabric rather than tin foil and then some tin foil stuff.