Broken exhaust manifold bolt

rav3 · April 14, 2023

Good afternoon guys. As a retired Jarhead, I began watching YouTube videos during COID as a past time. One of my Youtubers, Eric at South Main Auto Repair, recently posted a video on the common 5.3 V8 broken exhaust manifold bolt issue. I wasn't aware of it until watching one of his videos and several other videos. Well, I went out today & inspected mine and sure enough, I have a broken bolt on the Passengers side, rear most bolt. Wouldn't you know it. Eric would weld a nut onto the broken stud that was remaining and with lots of heat, get it off. Well, I'm a shade tree mechanic & wrench on all my cars/trucks & started viewing lots of these fixes.

I ran across a couple that did a hack fix by installing a special bracket to the back of the head & uses a jacking screw to push against the manifold to make it seal. Seems like a cheap fix and was wondering if any on the forum guys have ever done this & how it worked out.

Would love to hear your feedback.

Below are a couple videos showing it.

Edited April 14, 2023 by rav3

BO TIE 1 · April 14, 2023

Thanks for posting this RAV3 never saw this before. Nice find.

CamGTP · April 14, 2023

They work alright for what they are for, a few shops around here stock them for their work trucks. Easier to slap that on real quick to stop the noise and check engine light than to do the full repair. They've probably been around for several years now.

rav3 · April 14, 2023

2 minutes ago, CamGTP said:

They work alright for what they are for, a few shops around here stock them for their work trucks. Easier to slap that on real quick to stop the noise and check engine light than to do the full repair. They've probably been around for several years now.

Thanks for the reply. One question.....why would it set the 'check engine light'?

CamGTP · April 15, 2023

Big exhaust leaks can let oxygen into the exhaust and trip a lean code.

These are in a sense log manifolds, sure they have their own mini runner but they all end at the same point. Extra oxygen can be brought into the exhaust through scavenging. It can pull oxygen through the leak area when a different cylinder fires, the exhaust pulse can pull it through as it passes by. Not a super great explanation but I think you get what I mean.