Sunday December 15, 2013 Guerneville CA.
Replacing the van’s exhaust manifold
Today was the day to replace the exhaust manifold, as it was likely about as warm out as it was going to get for awhile for this time of year.
I got up and put the small electric heater in the van and turned it on to hopefully warm it up enough to work on it.
Then I went back in the house and cooked some buns I had put out to rise last night. I think I’m getting better at this. Hummmmmmmmmmm, Good.
The pull apart buns I made this morning.
I ate one right away and then puttered at this and that while waiting for the van to warm up and the sun to get on it.
A big redwood tree blocks the sun for a bit at this time of year, so I had to wait until just after noon for it to shine on the van and dry things out a bit.
The sun is just starting to hit on the van in this picture.
By now, the heater had also warmed up the inside nicely and I started the process of removing all the stuff to replace the manifold.
This is the inside of the van looking down into the engine compartment where I have to work.
I got it off ok, but had some trouble getting the manifolds to mate back up and stripped a thread out of the aluminum intake manifold, where it joins the exhaust manifold. Oh, oh, not good.
The bolt does tighten, but just barely, but if I don’t fix this now, it will show up later down the road the next time I need to work on the manifolds, or maybe sooner, so I need to repair this.
So, it looks like I need to get a Helicoil kit and repair the threads. I was about to go down to the local parts house and get one and realized it was Sunday and they were closed, so that’s as far as I got on this project.
I have the job done enough now, that maybe I can work on it a little in the evenings after kayaking, as it will be a little warmer than mornings, we’ll see.
At any rate, tomorrow, after kayaking, I’ll go by and see about getting the repair kit.
I didn’t get done as much as I wanted to, today, but I did get a good start on the project so all was good, just the same.
I had forgotten about the buns I had baked this morning when I came back in the house this evening. There they were on the counter. Yummmmm. :O)