Jeepwalker

What's the prevailing "best method" for welding up XJ exhaust manifolds so they don't crack again? Mine's cracked in a couple places down around the base of the rear exh runner and EGR port. I was planning on re-welding but want to see your thoughts if there are best ways to go about it. It's the original exh manifold. Looks like the pic below.

Reason I ask is I've welded ZJ exh manifolds and they didn't last ...or cracked next to my welds in fairly short order. And new manifolds I bought were pieces of crap, didn't fit well, and cracked fairly quick anyway (money and time wasted!). Yes, they were ZJ and slightly different. OR.... would I be better off cutting out a section of the rear leg and weld in a bellow as shown below? I only put a couple thousand miles a yr on this snow plow rig so I don't want to stick any more money than I need, and it's not worth it to to me to buy a $200 manifold unless it were a guaranteed problem-solver. A stainless bellow is like $20 and should solve the problem for good I would think. Other than that one location, the rest of the exh manifold is good.

What I don't want to do is buy a new exh manifold, it fits like crap ....and low-and-behold it cracks in 6-mo!! What's the best approach to re-welding an exhausts manifold?

Thanks!!

4.3L XJ

You are right. Weld it and it will crack again right next to the weld. They all do, except the split manifolds that go to a Y pipe. If I was doing this, I would use that one, get a Y pipe to fit and put an O2 sensor bung in the right place and weld up the others or put a dummy sensor in the holes.