05 Exhaust Manifold

[jelag]

I've got the exhaust manifold off my 05... it was whistling and found 2 broken bolts and a warped manifold.....

As we pulled the bolts the manifold had grown so much that the edge of the manifold rounded off the threads of the bolts as they came out... so new bolts will be acquired..

I've now got the manifold flat, we must have removed .060-.080 to make it flat again... but I've noticed that on cyl 4 the bolt holes in the manifold are close to .420" diameter and the other 10 are about .525" in diameter...

IT was like a banana touching at 3,4 and loose at 2,5 and really loose at 1,6..

It's like they want the 2 small holes to be the reference point for the exhaust manifold and the rest to sort of line up and expand and contract... to bare this out the slug or spacer will serve as a clamp to allow the manifold to move as it heats and cools......

So the real problem now is that if you line up the two reference holes on #4 and than install the bolts in 3,5 than 6,2, when you get to 1&2 the bolts don't want to thread in... as the manifold is so far out of shape it won't go...

If I loosened all the bolts, and drew them all in... I'm sure you could suck up the manifold and draw it in.... but I'm fearful of that...

What comes to mind is to open the holes on cyl 6 and cyl 1&2 from the .525" to just about 9/16" (.565-.595"), this would allow the slugs (sleeves) to press into the manifold and should hold it...

It seems that it should thread down finger tight, than be torqued... BTW - all the bolts thread in with your fingers without the manifold in place....

So if I've explained this so you understand... your thoughts...