I'm going to replace the front manifold gasket on my 2.8. The Haynes manual says to remove the decklid. Looks like Jetman did it all (or mostly) from below. https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum9/HTML/000016.html
Is it worth taking the decklid off? If I go to the trouble of removing it, are there other things I should get at the same time? I'm thinking rocker cover gasket maybe...
What do I need to do about fasteners? If I get those nuts off, should I replace only the nuts? Or should I try to get the studs out too? Or is that asking for trouble?
You may find that the manifold gasket is not the problem. Could be a cracked or warped manifold, broken bolts or a combination of all the above. Some of the bolts have a stud on them near the A/C compressor / bracket. If your one of the few fortunate souls that are able to get those bolts out without snapping them off consider yourself very lucky.
Rodney Dickman use to sell a stud kit so the next time around you have less risk of snapping something off. Either the nut will come loose or the stud. If Rodney no longer has these kits you may have to seek out an automotive supply for the proper size, etc.
An incident like yours cropped up some years ago when I thought I'd blown an exhaust manifold gasket. By the time it was all done I had pulled both heads, purchased a right angle drill, a Tap, a standalone drill press and some other odds & ends to get the job done. I even had a spark plug snap off in one of the heads. And no I didn't pull the deck lid.
Let us know how you made out and hope this isn't your daily driver.
Spoon
------------------ "Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne." - Kurt Vonnegut
I love this warning. It's like "I hope you have life insurance." This is not my daily driver. Some day I will drive it for fun. Right now I just work on it.
Anyway, I decided to practice by doing the rear one first. I did great until I broke off the top bolt of cyl. 1. Sounds like the next step is a right-angle drill? I think the hardware store has one I can borrow.
------------------ "Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne." - Kurt Vonnegut
There are a lot of threads relating to those damn bolts. Some common themes are 1) to soak the bolts n' nuts with PB Blaster as long as you can; some have even drilled small holes through the manifold flange into the flange bolt holes to allow the PB Blaster to enter directly to the head and 2) SLIGHTLY tighten the bolts 1st before trying to loosen them . The PB & tightening sequence has worked for me. Never tried drilling the holes though.
It really depends on where you live in the country, back east sucks because of all the salt , im lucky to have a fiero from the nv desert that has no salt an little rain, my bolts were actually loose , it all depends on how the car was keep etc, use heat , i use flux to get sucked into the threds , it works great an go slow n easy. good luck
I was spooked about the potential for galling (though not having personally experienced it), so when I purchased ARP bolts for my exhaust, I got the chromoly rather than their stainless bolts.
I was spooked about the potential for galling (though not having personally experienced it), so when I purchased ARP bolts for my exhaust, I got the chromoly rather than their stainless bolts.
Anti-seize is a must on reassembly.
I've had plenty of experience in stainless galling. Here's how it works. I'm turning a 1-1/2" stainless pipe nipple into a stainless elbow. About 5 turns in and everything stops. I can't turn forward and I can't turn backwards. I'm literally $crewed. A professional welder couldn't of done a better job. Now that the chinese jumped on the band wagon with their off-grid spec's ,,,, Don't get me started
Spoon
------------------ "Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne." - Kurt Vonnegut
Well I took a few months off for skiing and hockey. But before I did that I soaked those bolts with penetrating oil. And then I sprayed them again a few times over the past months. I got all 6 bolts out without breaking any of them. This was also a good excuse to buy a 3/8" impact driver--that helped to loosen one of the stud bolts that was stuck in there really good.
What do I replace these bolts with? 5 of them look like I can use the same studs that I used on the rear manifold. But the bottom passenger side bolt (by the AC compressor) looks like a stud might not fit. The bolt that was in there barely fit. If I put a stud in there will I be able to get the manifold over it? I was sort of thinking about putting in 5 studs, then the heat shield, then the gasket, then the manifold, then put that 6th stud in behind the AC compressor.
