BA XR6 Turbo Exhaust Manifold

[Bawwxay]

G’day

I have a exhaust manifold gasket that’s leaking obviously on My BA XR6 Turbo and I was wondering whether I could unbolt the 12 manifold bolts and slightly pull the manifold away and remove the gasket and then slide the new one back in and bolt the manifold back up without having to remove the whole thing with the turbo? 
 

an answer would be mint, cheers 

[k31th]

No, you can't do it the way you're describing, you need to at least unbolt every bolt as the gasket goes in with the bolts themselves... you might be able to wiggle it in there a few bolts at a time, but it wouldn't be worth the effort, just remove the manifold from the head, put the gasket in, bolt the manifold & gasket back to the head  

[Bawwxay]

Thanks for the reply, maybe I didn’t describe it properly, I was thinking of unbolting all the bolts to the head and sliding it out that way without actually taking the turbo off the bottom of the manifold. 
the way your describing, do I have to unbolt the turbo at all or can the manifold wiggle free enough to put a new gasket on there? 
also, are the Permaseal gaskets good enough to run without much issue? Only running 8psi at 243kw.

Edited 20/01/24 01:56 AM by Bawwxay
Added some info

[k31th]

oh, you can definitely change the gasket without removing the turbo from the manifold. I'm sure the permaseal will be fine in your scenario.

[Bawwxay]

Would it be possible to do in the engine bay? Quite a simple job? Just want to get it done so I can drive the vehicle “safely” without everyone staring wondering what the noise is lol

[k31th]

yes, it's a simple enough job.

[Bawwxay]

So as I was trying to put the bolts back in after fitting the new gasket, I totally threaded about four of them and can’t get them tight enough now to even keep the manifold close enough to get some exhaust gasses in there. What are my options? Where do I go from here? 😵‍💫🤕

[k31th]

thread repair and/or helicoil

[Nizzy]

On 20/01/2024 at 1:14 PM, k31th said:

oh, you can definitely change the gasket without removing the turbo from the manifold. I'm sure the permaseal will be fine in your scenario.

Just wanna add that this is not realistically possible. 

I read this thinking I was gonna be able to just unbold the manifold , slip out the old gasket and slip in the new one

which is exactly what I did - the problem isnt in the new / old gasket, its that the weight of the exhaust and turbo will pull the manifold down by a few mm when you unbolt it which means once you get youe new gasket in its impossible to thread it up correctly without cross threading as the fella  above did. I even tried jacking up the exhaust from below which pushed up the turbo and manifold but it was to no avail.

 

Unbolting ONLY the exhaust manifold to replace the exhaust manifold gasket is not possible for 99% of people. - it will in most cases become a turbo off job 

 

[k31th]

what? not realistic? I've done it a few times, no worries... no cross-threading.