1946 Chrysler New Yorker: disassembly of manifold

Hi,

I am looking for the secret to disassemble the intake and exhaust manifold from the engine block of my 1946 Chrysler New Yorker with a straight eight 323 engine. I can remove most of the nuts with regular tools, but two of them are inaccessible. These nuts cannot be reached because of the difficult location and/or I have no space to move the tool to get the nuts loose. I have attached some pictures for more clarification.

Does anybody know the trick?

Thanks.

Ed

The Netherlands

My only guess would be to remove the two bolts in front of it first.

Thanks, i tried ... but still the same problem

Next guess would be a long, sharp chisel. Then figure out later how to get the new nut on there. It looks to me like someone has put a weld on the left side of the nut in question.

No, there is no weld. Everything looks original. I can get the tool on the nut, but there is no way to move it due to the tiny space. I hope there are some other ideas before i use a chisel

1/4" drive socket and ratchet?

Just a word of caution when removing the exhaust manifold on these 8 cylinder engines

Use EXTREME care because they tend to break/crack very easily and they are nearly

impossible to find. IF you can find one the cost is astronomical.

As far as removing those nuts try separating the exhaust and intake manifolds from each other - they don't need to be completely apart -

but by moving them apart you can gain a little more room. I think I used a box wrench and it went very slowly

but I got them off.

One other thing - the exhaust manifolds tend to stick to the engine block. This makes it tricky to get them off. Again, have patience

and don't force it. It WILL crack.

Pull the four vertical intake to exhaust bolts out.

You then use a short 9/16" 3/8" drive socket and a wobbly extension or even a regular extension and only half engage the extension into the socket-just enough to start trning the brass nuts-lubeb of course.. I have also just used a snap-on 9/16" swivel socket that works too. Have done many 323's.

The really hard part is pulling the manifolds off the block studs if the manifold is rusted to them.

As mentioned don't force em!

Thanks for the valuable input.

Looks like you can just reach up from underneath with a box end wrench.

Hi,

Thanks to the input from this forum, I eventually got the intake manifold off. Now I learned that not the gasket is broken, but there is a hole in the back of the intake manifold.

Now I have my next challenge. All the nuts of the exhaust manifold are loose, but I still can’t get the manifold off. When I use the crowbar to put some force on it, I see that the problem is not at the radiator side (where the manifold comes loose), but at the other end (dashboard side). It seems that the manifold is not only mounted with bolts and nuts, but also with something else (see added pictures).

I never removed the manifold before, so I am a little nervous to use more force.

Any ideas?

Ed

That is the old gaskets showing.

Some of The rear mounting studs are most likely rusted to the manifold stud holes preventing the manifold from coming loose as I mentioned above in post#8. Lube, carefully pry.. lube ,pry.. lube-carefully so as to not break the manifold.

I just did another one of these jobs yesterday.

Are you sure? When i scratch it with a screwdriver it is as hard as metal and it has the (silver) colour of metal.

Yes I am sure.

Have a manifold if needed.

You were right ... i eventually got it loose. Thanks for all the input!

One more question: does anybody know what the original paint colour is of the manifold (intake / exhaust)?

Again, many thanks,

Ed

Silver was the original color of the complete engine less all accessories-IE generator,starter, air cleaner and bracket ect.

I have finished the job. Everything looks great now. I repaired the hole with a stainless steel plate (see picture). And I removed the heat valve because it was stuck. Thanks again for the input.