Replacing Exhaust Donut Gasket

Fellow Jeepers,

I've been told by a trustworhy mechanic that I have a leaking donut gasket where the exhaust manifold connects to the exhaust pipe headed to the catalytic convertor on my 97 Sahara. The exhuast from the catalytic convertor back is also shot. So, time for a new exhaust system.

I've ordered the Banks Stinger Cat-Back system and purchased the donut gasket from my local Jeep dealer. I couldn't spring for the Banks Torque-Tube header just now, but plan on it down the road.

Anyone every changed the donut gasket without replacing the stock exhaust manifold? I've found several posts about replacing the stock manifold with a header, but haven't found any that talk about just replacing the donut gasket. Am I in for a hard time? I've started treating the bolts with penetrating oil. Is there anything else I should do beforehand? Any advice from someone who has been down this road would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help and for all the entertaining and informative posts.

Brad Fuqua

97 Sahara Edition
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Brad Fuqua
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Three bolts (usually rusted). Air impact wrench works well but it can be done with a breaker bar. Watch your knuckles. Plan where they will go if the wrench cuts loose.

Reply to
DougW

Just a note on penetrating oils. I'm not sure what you are using, but get a can of PB Blaster if you don't have it already. This has got to be the best stuff out there.

Chris

Reply to
c

The bolts on the manifold / downpipe flange aren't nearly as bad as the ones for the cat and muffler. I used Liquid wrench and alot of cursing to get the manifold/pipe bolts on my '92 YJ off. I ended up using the same technique plus a reciprocating saw to "remove" the muffler and cat. As for the donut gasket, be careful. I ordered an OEM (hah) replacement manifold that came with its own gasket and it wouldn't even fit right!

Getting the old one off... I'd recommend attempting to twist the gasket off rather than pry. There isn't a whole lot of room where that flange is, and getting a pry-bar in there is going to be tough. Since it's a

97 you *might* be able to use a large screwdriver and pry it off by twisting. If not, get some heavy duty gloves and a butane torch (careful for wires) and try heating it up then twisting. Chances are using a penetrant isn't going to help you as much as some heat will. The good thing is that it's a throw-away part. If worst comes to worst and you still want to do it yourself you can always Dremel it off.

The gasket needs to be pushed down onto the manifold flange prior to bolting on the downpipe. If it doesn't fit right up to the manifold flange then you need to either lube it up, get another one, or heat it up with a torch and try again. I eventually gave up and had a local muffler shop put a new gasket on and tighten everything down. Service cost me about $15. Hopefully you shouldn't run into this since you bought it from a dealer...

Finally, you might want to consider removing the exhaust pipe from the cat to make working on the manifold/exhaust flange easier. If it's like mine, there's a rubber insulator mounted on the transmission housing that the cat plugs into via a bracket that bolts on with the exhaust pipe. This means there's enough play in the pipe to move it a little out of the way, but probably not enough to work on the gasket.

Best of luck!

Brad Fuqua wrote:

Reply to
Trevor Watt

Thanks for all the good advice. I plan on tackling this job on Saturday and will let you all know how it turns out. Can't wait to get the Banks Stinger in place.

Brad Fuqua

97 TJ Sahara
Reply to
Brad Fuqua

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