Hey guys,

I spent the afternoon afternoon enjoying the 60+ degree weather here in West "By God" Virginia and replacing my cracked exhaust manifold. I had purchased the Jeep with the understanding that I would need to replace it in the future due to it being cracked prior to my ownership. I found a killer deal on EBAY that came with the e-manifold, new exhaust/ intake gasket, new circle gasket and hardware. I decided to tackle it today and take pics along the way.

I have a Haynes manual and I decided to read up on this process. I quickly was blown away at how much you had to remove to replace the e-manifold. I have done this once before on the 1st 95 XJ and I did not remember removing all of the stuff the book mentioned. So, with high hopes, a good friend and enough tools I decided to tackle it and see what happenes!

I started by removing the El' Cheapo CAI I got off of EBAY and un-hooking all of the small vacuum lines and electrical pulgs, then the two fuel lines, which by the way, make sure you have a rag or somthing under them when you unhook because there is A LOT of fuel in the fuel rail. I then unhooked all the fuel injector plugs from the injectors, disconnected the linkages for the throttle and then unbolted the throttle linkage housing and set it aside. The black plastic covering that the electric lines for the fuel injectors resides in pops off of 3 bolts on the top of the head and that gets set aside as well. Now, all that is left is to unscrew all the nuts and bolts for the intake manifold and then you have access to the e-manifold. There are 5 bolts that hold the intake manifold on the top and 4 bolts underneath of it. The 5 on top are not bad, it is the 4 underneath that are REALLY fun. As long as you have about 8" of extensions and a 9/16" socket and someone to lay under the Jeep and visually guide you onto them, you willl be in good shape!!

You can't forget the 2 bolts that are on the power steering pump. There is one on top that is not bad, but there is one that is located behind the pulley and you have to loosen the pump, remove the belt and rotate the entire pump out of the way to get to it and you still need a universal flex joint to access it. Fun fun fun!! Once those are off, you should be good to remove the intake manifold, exposing the e-manifold.

The e-manifold is held in place by 2 nuts, one on either end and then the 2 bolts and nuts where the manifold and down pipe meet. Once off, clean the side of the motor with a gasket scrapper and remount everything! Well at this point I noticed that my motor mount was shot and we had broken off my coolant temp sending unit. So, off to the store we went. Came back, installed the new motor mount and sending unit and went back to putting everything nack together.

Everything went back together great until we were ready to fire it up. Once I turned the key, I realized somthing was VERY wrong. My rig was sputtering and kicking HORRIBLY and smoking baddly and the Check Engine light was on. I turned it off and went back to the motor to see what the hell could be wrong. I went back through, tracing my steps, trying to figure out what I had missed. I found a tiny, vacuum hose that connects next to the MAP sensor on the firewall that had not been plugged back in. I re-connected and fired it back up and I had Success!!! She ran like a champ!!

So far, everything is good to go. I have to go back and retighten the bottom 2 bolts and nut at the bottom of the e-manifold where is mates to the down pipe. I have a slight exhaust leak and I think it is leaking from there. I will let you know later on how it proves to be.


LCFRJEEP

 

Good job im glad it's running better!!!!!

Did you feel any performance out of it or is it just a OE replacement?!?!??!

 

One of my old buddies was poking around under the hood and broke my temp switch and the replacement actually shows that it is running at 230 when the head and block are around 202... does your sensor work correctly and if so, where did you purchase? I have changed twice with the same results. I changed the water pump, thermostat, hoses, new belt, fan clutch, etc as precaution (also fact that it was due to be done anyway) and it still has no physical cooling problems but the gauge is still wrong. It was fine until I had to change the temp switch

 

Brother, I had the same issue on my last 95 and I replaced everything you did and I also replaced my radiator with a 3 core all metal one from RadiatorBarn.com and it was still reading high!! I added a mechanical temp gauge that I got from AutoZone and I quickly realized the gauge had gone **** up. It ws not my sending unit or any of the other things I had replaced. It was simply the gauge in the cluster. With the new mechanical gauge, once it was warmed up and running, I was showing anywhere between 180-195. I suggest the new mechanical temp gauge. Good Luck!!

 

Thanks!
The website I purchased it off of said a 10-15 HP increase but I think the only thing so far is it seems to idle smoother and the better MPG's. I will let you know for sure though. Thanks again!

 

i bought the same exact one off of ebay and it worked out really good. took a couple of hours but it got put in. nice write up!

 

Thanks brother. I appreciate it!!