am looking at a possible need for head gasket replacement. my 94 940 is leaking her life's blood from the pass side somewhere behind the exhaust manifold. (she's been dripping for about four days steady now). timing belt is off, crank pulley etc. What i am looking at now is getting the exhaust manifold off since the heater pipe is suspect but i doubt it. question is how to do it with egr line etc. Currently all eight nuts are off but that is all. There are alot of folks on this site that know exactly what to do and I value it more than any repair manual.
Also looking for tips on the intake side as i have not touched it yet. thanks

Maybe a bit late by now?

I had a oil leak from the cylinder / head area. When I tore everything down to replace the head gasket one of the head bolts were significantly easier to loose than the others. It was the bolt that shares the oil feed to the head. There was no visible damage to the old gasket when I inspected it.

In hindsight I should have tried to only retorque the head bolts. OK I got a new gasket and the opportunity to lap all the valves, but it could have saved me some work.

Cheers,
mila

I'm not saying it is impossible, but are you SURE?

Head gasket replacements are not common, at least where the car hasn't been overheated. It could be, but not very likely. The heater pipe, that's more likely. I could be wrong but never actually saw a bad head gasket that wasn't caused by overheating or abuse.

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Chris Herbst
Scottsdale, AZ

Hey Chris,

No am not sure yet but thought I saw coolant sheeting down the side of the block. This is why I'm going after the exhaust side first since pressure could be shooting coolant against the block when it was warmed up. Added suspicion is that
the car is still slowly dripping five days later indicating perhaps a lower source for the leak keeping the heater pipe as a suspect and that would definitely make me happy. My email is lhipple@fuse.net. Drop me a line if you want and when I get to the bottom of it I'll let you know. Larry

What is abuse? Factory coolant recomendations on interval changing? I have changed plenty where the headgasket fails from expansion and contraction. I have several I keep in my shop that I show what can happen. Yes most are abuse, but there are those that suffer from no falt of the owner/owners. Pauli

Turbo?
Check the oil cooler water lines.

NO it is not a turbo but thanks for your input.

On the exhaust side just unscrew the nut that holds the EGR pipe tight to the fitting in the back of the exhaust manifold. Spray it with some penetrant if you have some and then give it a good whack with a big beefy screwdriver and it should pop right out of the fitting. With it out of the fitting and the manifold nuts removed from both the side of the head and at the headpipe below, the manifold should just about fall off in your hands.

Mark

Thanks Mark. That was the direction I was looking at but just wasn't sure