Knee Deep in the Dead...Jeep.

Such is life, for a DIY (aka not paying some <REDACTED> chump) mechanic

 

That does not look like as much fun as the SBC or FE Fords in the days of yore. Of course when we HAD to work on them they were not fun either.

 

Almost no room in there.. I spent three hours getting a single 10mm nut off the far back corner of the exhaust manifold cover. Oof.

 

Looks fun!

What do you need to do?

 

V8 what capacity is it?

 

Mopar 4.7L (JTEC). It was consuming a little coolant for several years and we would just top it up every other month or so.. a few weeks ago it started consuming A LOT of coolant, exhaust was smoky/steamy AF and smelled of coolant, AND refused to re-start once warmed up. Likely culprit is blown head gasket. Engine has ~170k miles, so will likely replace the cam chains/guides/tensioners/etc too ($$$).

After finally getting that 10mm nut off the exhaust manifold heat shield, next was removing the manifold/exhaust connector bolts (2 on each bank). Not going well...Another 4-5 hours yesterday & got ONE off.. the 2nd started to back out then seized up at the end of the threads and the nut now just spins.. Used the Oxy torch to make a 90° bend in a small needle nose vice grip to hold the nut.. still no dice, vice grip just pops off as soon as I start torquing.

This morning I ran to the HW store and got some Dremel cut-off wheels, & of <REDACTED> course, the new cutoff wheels require a fancy quick release mandrel, and the new mandrel needs a collet size I don't have... FFS! So far, I've spent more in specialty tools for this job than actual replacement parts. There is VERY little space to work and not even sure I can get the dremmel up there. As an insurance policy I also went to harbor freight and picked up this tiny 3" bench grinder with a flex-hose style die grinder attachment.. much smaller than the dremmel and hopefully that works if the dremel wont fit.

 

8+ hours of <REDACTED> around.

 

Rusted bolts and difficult access to it a right pain it can be. You will get it sorted @slackard been there .

 

I've had the unfortunate experience of working on vehicles where it was easier and quicker to simply drop the lump and box out for any major engine work.
I say 'unfortunate', because the best teacher is experience and next time I knew better.

 

The times l wish l had a car lift.