Well, we got a nice weekend day and nobody was sick so I got a chance to work on Roxy a bit. I figured that I should tackle the exhaust leak since it was not only noisy but unhealthy. There is nothing like riding in a car for long periods of time with exhaust leaking into the cabin. Not only do you come out smelling like hydrocarbons and such, but you killed off enough brain cells to make illicit drugs unnecessary.
I wasn’t sure whether the leak was coming from the manifold gasket or the manifold to exhaust flange gasket, but I had a hunch it was the flange gasket. Since I would have to take that one loose to replace the manifold gasket anyway, I figured that was the best place to start. Sure enough, the flange gasket was burned through. As you can see by the picture below, it had really seen its better days.
Of course, the one pictured on top is the new one just there for comparison. Once I replaced it and put it all back together the difference was amazing. The car seems entirely different. I know that it is really the same car, but without the fumes and noise she really is a different creature.
Amazingly, one of the harder parts of the job was getting the wheel off. To get at the flange nuts I had to approach them from underneath the car. And to do that I had to jack the car up and take the wheel off. Simple, right? Well not when someone has put the lug nuts on with an air-wrench. Just because you can put a nut on with an air-wrench and tighten it down to a million foot-pounds doesn’t mean you should. It is one of those things that rookie’s do that has ticked me off since I was young. Guess it is one of those things that I picked up from the old mechanics that I used to hang around with. All it does is make the next guys job harder and, if you aren’t lucky, you run the risk of stripping the bolts and those can be a real pain to replace. Guess I should now go around the entire car and check them all. Fun!
Well, I am about to go out for a drive and enjoy both my fume free car and the nice 78% January weather. Tomorrow I will probably tackle the shift bolts and mount that still need replacing.
