1966 Buick Skylark Crackd Exhaust Manifold

I mig'ed a crack in the exhaust of my Geo Storm three years ago and it's still holding. Run the car for about five minutes before trying to do the weld. This pre-heats the cast iron. I used plain old flux cored wire to seal mine. Tain't pretty but the smog guy hasn't said anything about an exhaust leak. :-)

Jim Chandler

fwiw, exhaust manifold on my 51 dodge cracked - this is a very common failure on that car and there is a standard place where it cracks ... removed it, had local welder weld it (I can weld, but I don't have a spare manifold if I mess up), and it's held since - but I don't drive the car daily - nickle rich welding rod is appropriate for cast iron - and I think the manifold on teh skylark is cast

Given your constraints, I recommend taking it to someone with TIG. MIG might work if everything is set just right, but you don't have a "practice piece". TIG allows use of nickel rod, which is more compatible with cast iron than steel wire, and it allows the welder to work with the puddle and adapt in real time while MIG pretty much just goes according to how the machine is set up.

Another option might be to get a trashed skylark manifold to practice on before going for the money on yours.

Cast iron varies a lot. I've had some jobs go easy as can be but I had one old Toyota exhaust manifold that whupped me. Even with preheating, I'd hear "tics" as a weld cooled and the damned thing cracked somewhere else near the weld. Weld that crack successfully...tic. And so on. Another reason to get one to practice on.

another person i talked to told me to braze a washer on the top to act like a new hole. How does that sound to you and what rod should i use?

i will post a picture on my car domain with a link later on tonight

And if it is a heat resistant steel, it drives you crazy! BTDT

Nick

I made a flange last summer for my neighbor's John Deere A to fix a similar problem. Both of the bolt holes were broken off. Without seeing what you got I can only guess you have a similar problem. If so...

Think about using a large washer/flange that has a hole the same diameter as the exhaust manifold outside dimensions. Cut a slot in one side that is the same size as the outside diameter of the manifold. You will probably have to put two holes through it 180 degrees apart even though you really need one.

Some crappy ASCII art showing the "clip". Holes the size of your bolts drilled through where there is an "X". Use a fixed font to view this too or it will look even worse than it already is :)

• * * * * * * * * * * * * * manifold * * * X * inside * X * * * here * * ***** *****

Slip this flange over your manifold and let it rest against what is left of your manifold flange.

The one I made was out of 1/4 inch steel plate. It worked out really well and even look halfway decent. Sure beats trying to change out the exhaust manifold. No welding required. Just some drilling and sawing.

Brazing doesn't work on exhausts for air cooled engines because the exhaust parts run too hot. I don't know how hot the exhaust manifold gets on a Skylark.

You can do that with the standard "white" brazing rod, but the bleu flux rods will likely work better.

Think headers and a hot cam and a new carb and....

oops - a slippery slope.

Mark

Check out the picture i drew in microsoft paint.

Leon is this what you mean?

Picture? I don't see no steenkin picture!

I didn't see/find any picture either. Then again my own post never came through for me but I can find if via google groups (shrug).

From what I could understand I think Joe just lost part of an ear on the flange where the exhaust pipe bolts up. My idea/fix is to make a "C" shaped part with two holes in it that would slip over the manifold above the flange and rest against it. I made up a pattern out of cardboard first and got all my measurements right. Then I used it to trace out the real part on a suitable piece of 1/4 inch steel plate.

I would have taken some pictures but I didn't think it was anything special. It seemed to be an obvious solution/fix...

Ah-ha! I found the image you made:

Tit-for-tat, this is what I had in mind:

You need to use both holes, other wise there won't be anything to keep in place.

leon it sounds good to me great suggestion thankx

I modified your drawing in a bit of a rush. The one I actually made used a nice half-circle that nestled up against the manifold pipe. The outside corners were trimmed off at ~45 degree angles too.

I just wanted to express my idea/plan quickly, which you seem to have understood from the crude drawing :)

Best of luck with your repair!

I took few minutes and tweaked my example to look a bit more like the part I had in mind. See:

It gave me a chance to fool around with the new IrfanPaint add-on for IrfanView v4.10. It doesn't work too bad for simple stuff, like adding some lines and pointers. See:

and the price is definitely right (free for non-commercial use).

There is a newer beta version for the Paint add-on too available here: