elimorton

Going to be driving from northern Michigan to southern Florida soon. My jeep is a 98 grand cherokee with the 4.0. Everything runs good and she has 160,000 miles and I don't doubt she wouldn't make it, but it does have a slight exhaust manifold leak. It's not too bad but diffenitly louder than usual. Could I make this trip with the leak. It's been like that for over a year and hasn't gotten any worse. Also what are some things I can do to make sure it does good on this long road trip ?

Kingfisher

Fix the leak!

Carbon monoxide!

elimorton

I mean will it do any damage to the engine. ?

Kingfisher

It might only kill you and not harm the engine!

salad

With the cracked manifold you're doing two things:

1. Blowing raw exhaust in your face. No bueno.
2. Computer doesn't see the full exhaust at the O2 sensor and so you wind up running rich.

On a long drive like that replacing the manifold is definitely worth it. You'll save fuel and your health.

Also make sure your fluids are in good shape prior to takeoff. Particularly coolant and ATF

elimorton

How much would a shop cost to replace a exhaust manifold? and how hard is it to do yourself

BillyBoy

Mine is currently undergoing an exhaust manifold operation...

You have to take off the fuel rail and intake to get to the exhaust manifold... took about an hour to get it all apart.
A few of the bolts are hard to reach.

elimorton

Okay well i will try to do it myself and see how it goes. I heard it is easy to break off the bolts so I will try to soak them good in wd40 or pb blaster. let me know how it goes

Kingfisher

Use PB Blaster, not WD40