how to get clearance for oil pan removal; how to remove exhaust pipe "A"

[batever]

Hi,

I'm onto stage 2 of my work on my car (after water pump, timing belt etc) which is to replace the gasket on my oil pan as it is shot and leaking. I have the ambitious goal of having a car that runs great and doesn't leak ANY fluids. (got my fingers crossed).

I have the all the bolts off the pan, but now I need to either remove the "A" pipe (or shift it down a little to gain clearance to pull the oil pan out and down or remove the left radius rod.

Which would be better in people's opinion?

Mycurrent plan is to remove the three nuts holding the A pipe to the exhaust manifold. The nuts are not super corroded. Then I should be able to lower the pipe a little (1/2 inch is all I need)

I have at my disposal:

A sears 1/2 air impact wrench (doubt that will help)
a butane torch
a manual impact wrench (the kind you hit and it spins c-cl)
lots of sockets and extensions
a 4' cheater bar.

I am thinking that I will try putting PB Blast on the bolts for 12 hours or so, then see if they will move.

When they don't (LOL) , I will heat up the nuts with a butane torch till their as hot as it will get them. 400 deg or so is my aim. I might put paraffin wax on them at that point, as I've heard that will work.

hopefully they will move then, with the cheater bar.

I may try to use a nutcracker if that fails.

I don't have welding equipment, fyi.

Do people think this will work? Or do you have some other tips?

Do people think it safe to try the manual impact wrench on those bolts, or would the hammering mess with the exhaust manifold?

[close2classic]

That's your engine pipe between the header and cat, at least that's what I call it anyway. All you need is PB Blaster, a 14mm socket, and some extensions. Maybe some replacement bolts too.

Pay attention to the bolts which connect to the header when you put it back on. Thread the bolts through, then torgue the nuts.

[H22Artman]

whoa!! calm down man.
you wont need torches and wax and all that other shit.

just do like others have said.
pb it for a while then just pop the nuts off.

DO NOT impact!!!
that will almost guarantee a broken stud.

just use a ratchet or a small breaker bar. 4 feet is too big.

be gentle.

you will need more than half an inch in order to drop the pan.
you may have to remove the downpipe entirely. also not a big deal.
just make sure you have new gaskets.

[batever]

whoa!! calm down man.
you wont need torches and wax and all that other shit.

[....]

just use a ratchet or a small breaker bar. 4 feet is too big.

be gentle.

I loved that comment--it made me laugh!

I'm glad to know someone has had luck with exhaust bolts, it will keep me optimistic.

thank god I don't need a torch and wax. I've had some hellish times taking off exhaust fasteners in the past so I'm a little paranoid about them.

I had a feeling the manual impact would be a bad idea, thanks for helping me nix that idea.

thanks for your input, guys.

[batever]

Update:

I was able to get the exhaust pipe off of the header of the intake manifold, but the fasteners at the cat. converter were like hellish and it looked like too much work. So I sprayed the intermediate pipe hangers with silicone spray and let the whole exhaust system down about 5 inches at the oil pan total and pushed it maybe 5 inches toward the passenger side (supported the exhaust syst. with 2 jackstands).

That gave me my clearance to drop and swivel the pan. and I got the pan out.

Yay!

Thanks for your advice.

The oil pan has a stripped drain plug hole that was tapped slightly oversize and is therefore a little loose (I've been using a center drain with teflon tape for like 5 years now and it's worked OK) and I cleaned it out and put high temp permatex thread sealant on it and installed the same Fran Sure Drain. I thought about putting a helicoil in but wasn't sure how it'd seal and I figured this will probably work.

I also considered one of those epoxy thread repair kits, but I just decided to use what was on hand.