Exhaust Manifolds, cracked need to replace?

[dimat]

Hey all I'm new to this site but have already learned a great deal. Thanks to all who contribute. I do have another question though that I have not been able to find the answer to... I have a 1994 J30t with 164K miles on her, I've had her for about a year now. The problem I have is that there is a small crack in both of the exhaust manifolds so there for they have to be replaced, I live in Iowa and have been to most of the muffler/exhaust shops around the area and I get pretty much the same answer from all of them. Either they don't even want to look at it, they say that it is not worth it and would cost more then the car is worth or quote me outrages prices (one shop quoted me $1200) because they say there is no way to do it without pulling the whole engine out...Does anyone know about this? Has anyone had their manifolds replaced? And if so what did it cost? Thank you for all your help.

[alex61089]

im sure you could just patch the crack? does anyone have any experience with this? BUMPPP

[yodawill2000]

Suppose it depend on where the crack is.

I welded shut a crack on my 63 truck and its fine. But there's TONS of room in the engine bay.The J30 is pretty cramped.

[alex61089]

yeah you arent kidding i dont even have big hands like that and it's very hard for me to do things in the engine bay.I.e changing the pcv valves. it took me almost 3 hours. I believe that if you do have a crack and it is in a reachable area you should try to patch it. But be prepared for a lot of beer, time, and cursing. oh and some bloody knuckles

[yodawill2000]

lolI still have scars from the freakin' Fuel filter replacement !!

Told my wife I'm gonna start wearing my "past the elbow" welding gloves I use when working the Foundry furnace anytime I need to work on something that's not on top of the J engine !! LOL

[alex61089]

lol i think the J should of came with a set of those gloves

[GerryO]

Picked up a '94 VG30DE last weekend. The passenger side exhaust manifold had what looked like liquid metal patch material on it.

...those razor-sharp edges on so many plenum locations...

[dimat]

Yeah I wanted to try and patch them up myself, but can't seem to get any tools in there to take off the heat shield... I got an appointment to see a guy who is supposedly a wizard with exhaust, he works on race cars I guess. So we'll see how it goes...

[yodawill2000]

Hope he can sort it out.Generally race cars have a LOT of room around the engine for ease of repair.The J is the exact opposite.