2002 Honda Civic LX auto - repair & modding

[Daox]

I didn't get nearly as much done this weekend as I hoped, but there was some progress made.

First off, the ball joints are in. That was a bigger pain than I thought it would be, but its done. I rented a ball joint un/install tool and used the impact to press the new ones back in. It really helps to have someone else hold all the tool pieces, alas I didn't have any help. Also, be careful not to drop it on your leg, it hurts.

The other thing I got done this weekend was fixing up the manifold. The crack was much worse than I initially thought after I got the manifold removed and cleaned up. Here are some pictures. Ignore the ugly welds. I very rarely weld stainless and it shows.

Here is the front side of the manifold. Doesn't look too bad...




Here is the back side, it was pretty bad. I'm glad I remove the manifold to repair it.




Here is the front side cleaned up. As you can see, the crack is much longer than it first appeared!






And, here is the rear side. Again it looks worse after its cleaned up with a wire brush.




Woohoo, ugly welds.

[mbolton1990]

Not bad!

Function > form anyways

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by mbolton1990

Not bad!

Function > form anyways

Agreed. Good job OP you saved yourself a good chunk of money fixing it yourself.

[California98Civic]

Nice write-up Daox. Thanks. How did you learn welding? (I'm hoping you just got the equipment, did some readings, watched a vid, and started at it.)

[Daox]

It wasn't a ton more than that. I was friends with a welder where I worked about 10 years ago. He showed me briefly (seriously like 10 minutes maybe) on the MIG welding machine we had at work (and later on the TIG machine). I spent a few hours after work welding scrap together on their weld bench for a while until I got the hang of it. Its not real difficult, but some reading and teaching does help. The main thing is to practice. I eventually bought my own small 110V MIG welder for random metal work. Its more than paid for itself in exhaust work alone.

[darcane]

Originally Posted by Daox

It wasn't a ton more than that. I was friends with a welder where I worked about 10 years ago. He showed me briefly (seriously like 10 minutes maybe) on the MIG welding machine we had at work (and later on the TIG machine). I spent a few hours after work welding scrap together on their weld bench for a while until I got the hang of it. Its not real difficult, but some reading and teaching does help. The main thing is to practice. I eventually bought my own small 110V MIG welder for random metal work. Its more than paid for itself in exhaust work alone.

Did you confirm that the manifold is stainless? I've seen some thing claiming it is and others claiming it isn't.

Did you use stainless welding wire?

[Daox]

Its not a cast manifold. So, in my non expert opinion it is stainless. Its stamped sheet metal that is welded from the factory. It welded just fine. Yeah, I did use SS wire.

I'm really not sure why it cracked though. Its quite adequately braced, so its not like an exhaust weight stress thing (the cracks aren't in a logical place where stress would be an issue). It must have to do with the heat cycling and fatiguing of the material over the years. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be interested to hear them.

[Daox]

I got an hour to work on it last night. That was enough to get it back on all fours (tires that is), and rollable. I got the ball joints all back into the control arms, and what not.

So, now all that is left is reassembling the engine! Progress, yay.

[MetroMPG]

Your idea of bad welding looks like my idea of perfectly acceptable welding.

The trick is definitely practice. I weld so infrequently, I always suck. The welds just start to look OK by the time I'm finishing the project, then I forget for next time!

[sarguy01]

Originally Posted by Daox

Its not a cast manifold. So, in my non expert opinion it is stainless. Its stamped sheet metal that is welded from the factory. It welded just fine. Yeah, I did use SS wire.

I'm really not sure why it cracked though. Its quite adequately braced, so its not like an exhaust weight stress thing (the cracks aren't in a logical place where stress would be an issue). It must have to do with the heat cycling and fatiguing of the material over the years. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be interested to hear them.

I'd bet it is from heat cycling. Or, once some nice cool puddle water gets splashed on the hot manifold over and over, it is bound to crack. Parts will cool rapidly and shrink while other parts stay hot and expanded.

Don't sweat the welds. It's an exhaust manifold that will be mostly hidden under the heat shield!