98 GTP Exhaust Leak Story

[eippermx]

Took my loud GTP to the muffler shop due to the previous owner/bonehead's crummy weld job on deleting the U-bend. Went to pick up the car and was told its quieter but there is an exhaust leak on the right/firewall side exhaust manifold. The next day, with the engine cool I fired it for a few moments and felt hot air by number 4 exhaust tube on the e-manifold.
I found an inch crack along the weld between number 2 and 4 exhaust ports on the e-manifold. In the junk yard I found two that had cracks that travelled around the weld on number 4's exhaust tube.
A few things that I found out removing/replacing the e-manifold.
1. Remove the dogbones and roll the engine forward for max space to remove the rear e-manifold as your first step to access the backside of the manifold.
2. Remove the engine cover, move plastic vacuum lines from the top of the engine and place a soft foam pad for elbow / arm while you lean over to work on the manifold. That pad willl keep your arms from getting scratched up and will keep you from cracking those plastic vacuum lines.
3. Remove 10mm bolt from the dipstick tube bracket, and move the tube back (don't pull it out) to gain more room behind the cross-over pipe for removing the e-manifold.
4. Remove the manifold with its covers.
4. And the BEST advice? What ever you do, don't put that e-manifold back in the engine without having its covers buckled in place. OOOOh boy what fun it was putting that stuff on with the manifold bolted in place. It added a good 30-40 mins that was not necessary and causing scraped knuckles getting those covers manuevered in/around the manifold.