Exhaust Manifold Removal

[Lemur6]

Hey guys, bear with me, I'm a complete noob with it comes to doing anything in a car. I've got a D15 head from a 91 CRX DX with the exhaust manifold stuck to it. I got the shield/cover off, but I can't get the nuts for the actual manifold off with my socket wrench (small one). Nuts looks like they're the self locking kind, and my socket keeps slipping off or I just can't exert enough torque on the nuts to get them off. How do I get these dang nuts off? Do I just use a bigger wrench?

Why am I doing this? Oh, for fun. The head is actually pretty shot, it's warped and corroded up like crazy around the oil/coolant channels (I think that's what they are). I kinda wanted to clean it up and have it as a coffee table ornamet or something (the valve cams and rockers are all in decent condition and look kinda cool). The pistons make awesome coasters too!

 

[oopma]

try a bigger socket wrench the real big ones form like autozone you dont have to buy it you can rent it but a bigger socket wrench will work

 

[tunedhonda-ata]

use a air gun.. make sure you have the right size.

 

[Lemur6]

Uhh... sorry if this sounds completely naive, but what's a breaker bar?

 

[ltboarder]

A breaker bar is a pipe that you put on the end of your wrench to make it longer for more leverage

 

[reikoshea]

those nuts are hard to get off (especially if you have the same clearance problem an h22 has). I had to use the elbow socket (some call em wabble sockets) on 3 of my h22 bolts to get those bitches off.

 

[tunedhonda-ata]

if he cant get it off with a regular socket at 16lbs he might as well use air its lazy mans way..

 

[eg6sir]

well.. not everyone has access to air tools...

 

[engineswap]

or if you dont have a steel/metal tube.use a box end wrench that fits over the socket wrench handle and pretty much common sense from there

 

[big22]

HFT-USA
this is a breaker bar, u can put a pipe over your wrench "cheater bar" but I have broke a couple of wrenches like that so be carefull. Also spray it down with some pb blaster and let it soak for a bit.

 

[Periculum]

Just use some sort of breaker bar as described here and some rust killer (pb, wd-40, etc) and it should be no time before the nuts are free.

I actually had a situation where a breaker bar worked better than an air wrench. The air wrench couldnt take off the crankshaft pulley, but a breaker bar did it in only a few body-weight jumps (much much more power than most air wrenches. If you dont believe me, go do the math.) And NO the air didnt loosen it for me, we tried turning it back the other way to see if it would come off that way and of course it didnt. Then we moved to the TWO FEET + BREAKER BAR= BOLT OFF equation. Dont think youll need two feet for your problem here, but one foot might be enough.

 

[Andrew]

Like Periculum said, Make sure your not torque'ing them "dry". Spray something on them- PB Blaster works great for penetrating tuff bolts.

 

[Turbo&Auto]

Use PB Blaster, WD40 works like shit compared to the PB!

If that doesnt do the trick, a blow torch will help crack them loose. If you dont have something to use as a breaker bar, get a big sledge and try that