I bought one of the Alden Wrenches with hope that it would do the trick in
removing the manifolds from my 1980 Spitfire. The cooling channel of the
intake manifold prevents getting a wrench on the inner stud nuts from below.
The wrench is quite nice and seems to perform as advertised. However, the
angle of attack is still too extreme to get to the nuts from above, between
the 2nd and 3rd intake ports in the middle. Removing both of the upper
middle studs may create enough clearance to get an open-end wrench like the
Alden Wrench on the nuts. Has anyone ever tried this approach? Anyone have
any other ideas? All ideas are appreciated - I hope I do not have to bend
this Alden Wrench to make an offset wrench.
I did discover in the process of prepping for this manifold gasket removal
project that the exhaust flange gasket is leaking too (thanks to all for
earlier posts regarding the gasket). After loosening the nuts attaching the
exhaust manifold to the catalytic converter, leaving them finger tight, I
started the engine to test the effect of a bad joint. No question - the
lack of back pressure creates major power loss. The engine will not even
stay running unless I run it in the 3K range and pulse the gas. Fun fun!
Cheers,
Ron Deaver
Seattle, WA
1980 Russet Brown Spitfire (TFVDW6AT006878 - FM135124UCE)
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