P38A V8 (4.6) rattly under acceleration and a bit lacking in ‘oomph’

Down pipe gasket or cats

The prize goes to @pete12345.

fearing the worst, I was speaking to a really fabulous bunch of guys at GEMM 4x4 in Larbert and they said to bring her along and someone would have a nosey.

so next day I did and the exhaust, while ‘patina’d’ was solid except it was blowing at the joint where the manifolds meet the down pipes. (They’d predicted the issue must be pre lambda if it were to affect the performance).

Turns out the garage who fitted the transfer box had removed this section of exhaust and had been a bit lazy putting it back. 5 different types of bolt/nut/stud arrangement and this is what I found on the LHS pipe (one bolt to get the other one off)…

I mean come on, the gaskets are only 60p

Oh, and if anyone has any tips on screwing new studs into a rusty manifold I’d be most grateful !

I did my own I remember one bolt was a proper **** to remove I think I had to re tap it and put in a new size bolt

Same on one of mine. Ran a tap through the manifold & used the two-nut trick to install the new studs.

pwood999 said:

Same on one of mine. Ran a tap through the manifold & used the two-nut trick to install the new studs.

Click to expand...

what is this two nut magic you speak
Of ?

awkwardbob said:

what is this two nut magic you speak
Of ?

Click to expand...

You lock 2 nuts against each-other to allow you to screw the stud in (just like a bolt). Then undo the 2 nuts from each-other and just leave the stud.

DanClarke said:

You lock 2 nuts against each-other to allow you to screw the stud in (just like a bolt). Then undo the 2 nuts from each-other and just leave the stud.

Click to expand...

d’oh ! That’s sooo obvious

So 6 nuts, 2 gaskets and 3 studs. Total cost: less than a tenner and some skin off my knuckles but it’s like I’ve got a new engine. Responsive, powerful, eager -and fuel economy up about 20% too.

well worth doing.