Exhaust Repairs

White Horse has had an exhaust leak for the past year or so. Finally I reached under there to feel where it was coming from, only to discover that it was coming from the manifold and not a gasket. 

Much to my chagrin, the manifold was cracked. So we set out to weld it up.

The job was doable, just not very inviting. With some time back home, we took it on. 

Standing on your head is about the only way to get a grip on the plug wires and break the bolts loose. Thankfully, that threaded out of the head pretty good. 

Underneath too, the nuts came right of the manifold flange.

With a little finagling, she came out. 

There she be. The last port is going to run the hottest, collecting the exhaust of the three cylinders that proceeded it. 

After we took off the heat shield,

the fullness of the crack was revealed to us. 

It almost broke all the way around. 

So we cleaned up it good with a wire brush. 

Changed the tip on our cutting torch to a welding tip and grabbed some brazing rod.

Big flame or little flame. Only one way to find out. Bring the blue flame before you start. 

Brazing works best if the whole surface is hot. Makes the melting point of the rod closer.

Tough weld. We'll take it. 

This project revealed that the spark plug wire were melting by being too close to the exhaust heat. 

So we got new wires and slipped some heat shield over the part to connects to the spark plug. Hopefully it works. 

Back together, we go. 

Big job. Glad it's done. I'm glad to not hear the leak anymore. But I'm pretty excited by the extra power not having the spark plugs misfire. On to the next one.