Yesterday I was tearing down my engine to replace the proverbial 0331 cracked cylinder head. When I unbolted the exhaust manifold, I pulled it away from the head and the exhaust pipe snapped in two right behind the first flange.


Now, I've worked on many an engine and I never had to disconnect the exhaust manifolds from the exhaust pipe. Nothing ever broke.

My XJ has just over 100,000 miles and appears to have the factory exhaust. Is the factory exhaust delicate and, therefore, I was a bonehead for not disconnecting the exhaust manifold from the exhaust pipe? Or, is the exhaust just likely rusted and required replacement anyway?

 

Probably a combination of the two. If you think of it as a lever, that crossover pipe is routed in a weird way so that the weight of the manifold is way out on the end of the lever, with the fulcrum back up under the Jeep. If it was weakened at all from rust, the load would be too great, and it would want to buckle right where you said it did.

You can probably find one at a junk yard in decent shape for cheap, but it'll have to come from an '00 or '01 to be a direct fit. Walker makes a new replacement ( ). Or you can probably get a local muffler shop to make you one for the same price or less.

 

Yeah, I should have known better.


I know a guy who owns a great muffler shop. He hooks me up with a discount because we're both members of a Mustang club. Once I get my Jeep put back together, I'll bring it by his shop. But it sure is a bummer that yet again there's something else to fix on my XJ. I've owned it less than a month and I've been working on it almost non-stop.

 

LOL. Get used to that. It's a teenage vehicle, so it's going to have issues.

 

.

 

I expected some issues, but SHEESH! I owned a 1997 XJ for 14 years. It was a good, solid, reliable vehicle for well over 100,000 miles. That's why I bought this one. It's really clean and has just over 100,000. But so far I've:


- Drained and filled the rear diff, transfer case, transmission and engine oil
- Replaced a tie rod end and drag link
- Had the front suspension aligned
- Replaced the front washer pump
- Flushed the cooling system and replaced the radiator
- Installed a new tilt steering cable


Then I found out I have a cracked cylinder head. When I went to fix that, I saw the power steering pump reservoir is leaking, so I'm replacing that. And now the exhaust pipe breaks.


Oh well. Men plan. God laughs.

 

Yeah they crack pretty easily

 

You can find a brand new manifold on Ebay for less than $100. So it's not terrible on the wallet to replace.

 

That's a completely different manifold than whats on a 2000 or 2001.

 

Thanks, guys.

It's not the manifold that broke. The exhaust pipe that bolts to the manifold broke. It snapped very cleanly off the flange where it bolts. After looking at it, I think it was about ready to break anyway. It didn't even bend or pinch; just snapped off.

Oh, and I also replaced the spark plugs and front brake pads and had the rotors turned. All normal maintenance, but my XJ needed it all at once. I actually expected everything but the cylinder head and power steering pump.

 

Yeah its from a 99

 

Last night I rolled under the Jeep with a drop light and took a hard and close look at the exhaust. Strangely, it appears the exhaust pipe was pressed into the flange behind the exhaust manifold. It appears nothing broke and the exhaust pipe just pulled out of the flange.

I'm going to unbolt the flange and see how this is supposed to go together. Does anyone have experience with this fitting on a 2000 XJ?

 

Some more fuel on your fire...

Worn or broken motor/trans mounts can *maybe* cause the exhaust to fail like yours did. Could possibly put the flange in a bind. Or, your exhaust had some severe damage at some point.

I had a '72 Charger that had one side of the exhaust flange bust out all the time due to the engine twisting under load. Great fun at stoplights. Oh to be 20 again.....

 

Haha I hear ya brotha, I had to chain the motor to the frame in my '66 Malibu to stop the motor mounts from breaking all the time.