Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) ATS Manifold assembly questions

[JGheen]

Ok, so I was assembliing my ATS manifold last night and had some issues. I had the two outer pieces in the freezer for the past couple of days and had put the center piece in the oven for about 20 minutes. But the middle piece was only in the oven at 250* F which I found out was not hot enough to make the installation easy.

So, tried one side first after I pulled the middle out of the oven and one piece out of the freezer. Coated the ends in some good anti-sieze and went ahead and hammered it in there with my rubber mallet. Well, it didn't go in very easy like I thought it would, but I got it in about 3/4 of the way with some serious hammering.

Before I put the other piece on, I stuck the whole assembly back in the oven @400* F for 30 minutes. This time it really went together easy! Just a couple of good hard hits with the mallet and it was in there. Also was able to hammer the other end that didn't go in so easy.

So, here in my question. I wasn't able to get the end piece flanges to line up with the middle piece flanges. I had the manifold on flat ground, but after hammering for about 10 minutes I still could not get the flanges to be flat and straight with each other. So, for a solution to getting the flanges straight I was thinking about bolting it up to the stock manifold flanges when I removed it and putting 12 bolts through the holes and tightening until the ATS is flat with the stocker? How does that sound or is it a bad idea?

I was thinking about trying it on the head when bolting it up but I didn't want to crack an ear on the head from torqueing it down to get it flat with the head flanges.

Sorry for the long explaination, but just wanted to fill you guys in on this. Thanks in advance for your experienced advice!



Joe

 

[fishjack1]

That sounds like a good idea to me... .



When I assembled mine I padded a large vice with a piece of leather, lightly clamped on the center section then tapped (with a rubber mallet) mine around till they were straight.

Sounds like yours fits so tight that the vice trick may not work. .



Good luck.

 

[JGheen]

Well, I was going to heat the ball joints up with a torch a bit to get them to expand and then bolt it up to the stock manifold and when I tighten them together they should line up a lot easier then if it was cold. Ya think?

 

[Willie G]

I put my center section in a furnace in my lab and heated it to 300 deg C (575 deg F). I cooled the outboard sections in our freezer. No matter how hard I hit them with a large rubber mallet, (even my friend Big Dan tried it) we could not get them together. My only solution was to put the center and one the outer sections in a large hydraulic press. Next I bolted the old manifold to that assembly. Then I hammered the other outboard section in as far as I could with a hammer. The next step was to lay a piece of wood on the floor and carefully drop the assembly on it to slowly poud the two pieces together, using the old manifold as a guide. By the way the old manifold did not have any obvious warpage after 286,000 hard miles.



Hope this helps.



Willie

 

[hsmith]

Originally posted by JGheen

Ok, so I was assembliing my ATS manifold last night and had some issues. I had the two outer pieces in the freezer for the past couple of days and had put the center piece in the oven for about 20 minutes. But the middle piece was only in the oven at 250* F which I found out was not hot enough to make the installation easy.

So, tried one side first after I pulled the middle out of the oven and one piece out of the freezer. Coated the ends in some good anti-sieze and went ahead and hammered it in there with my rubber mallet. Well, it didn't go in very easy like I thought it would, but I got it in about 3/4 of the way with some serious hammering.

Before I put the other piece on, I stuck the whole assembly back in the oven @400* F for 30 minutes. This time it really went together easy! Just a couple of good hard hits with the mallet and it was in there. Also was able to hammer the other end that didn't go in so easy.

So, here in my question. I wasn't able to get the end piece flanges to line up with the middle piece flanges. I had the manifold on flat ground, but after hammering for about 10 minutes I still could not get the flanges to be flat and straight with each other. So, for a solution to getting the flanges straight I was thinking about bolting it up to the stock manifold flanges when I removed it and putting 12 bolts through the holes and tightening until the ATS is flat with the stocker? How does that sound or is it a bad idea?

I was thinking about trying it on the head when bolting it up but I didn't want to crack an ear on the head from torqueing it down to get it flat with the head flanges.

Sorry for the long explaination, but just wanted to fill you guys in on this. Thanks in advance for your experienced advice!



Joe

Did mine cold. Anti-sieze and a soft mallet worked fine. Used this process three times with good results.

 

[JGheen]

Well, I guess I'll try to bolt the stock manifold to it and see what happens. Try to get to it this weekend but we'll see, the honey-do-list kills my truck time!

 

[RT66DOC]

"... the honey-do-list kills my truck time!"



JG - It usualy starts on Thursday or Friday when she-who-must-be-obeyed (Thanks, Boortz) says something like, "Well, whaddya want to do this weekend?" Sound familiar?

 

[braible]

did mine cold to with Anti-sieze and a soft mallet and the vise.

took about 20 mins. to put together.

 

[1dslram]

I used a 3# & 5# dead blow hammer and laid the manifold on a 2 X 6 on my driveway to get is straight. My manifold was so shrunk it was of no use for the bolt holes, I used a tape ruler an measured the head studs and matched that dimension to the manifold. The first time it took about 40 minutes but the last couple took about 15 minutes without heating or freezing.

Bruce