4.3 vortec exhaust leak

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Messages
1,426
Location
Golden Meadow, LA
friend of mine has a 2007 1500 Chevy, bought brand new, but now in its current state with 154k hard, hard miles. He and his family have to be the worst when it comes to maintaining a vehicle. Anyway, its no surprise that its developed an exhaust leak on the passenger side, I told him to buy the gasket and i will replace it on my next hitch off. My only question is, where the manifold meets the exhaust pipe, is there a donut gasket there, or metal to metal? I dont see black stains there, or where the manifold bolts to the head. could it possibly be a cracked manifold?
 
its probably where the 2 pipes from the engine connect and go to the muffler. that would be a flat gasket. the bolts pretty much always break and the gasket surface is usually difficult to clean.
if its from the manifold to the "y" pipe those are donuts if i remember right.
 
Pretty sure that, no matter how unmaintained the vehicle is, that this is not a maintance item. Dumb luck perhaps.
 
The majority of cracked manifolds or failed bolts come from places with road salt, does this truck often get exposed to road salt?
 
GM had a bad batch of bolts for a few years, if I remember correctly they even have an updated part number for the newer design. Also like typical GM there are tons of good aftermarket parts.

This is typical GM [censored], they had a problem and decided to not fix it letting owners eat it. Like the steering shaft, and a few others to name a few.

I can name two other parts your friends will have problems with in that truck if they have not already. The intermediate steering shaft will clunk, and the plug on the harness for the blower motor will melt.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: mobilaltima
was it common on the 4.3? i thought it was just the vortec v8s


I know it was on early 1990's Chevy 4.3's. At one time, my dad's 1990 Chevy w/t 4.3L had two cracked exhaust manifolds. They were so hard to come by at the time given the rate they were cracking, a reputable shop we used at the time was only able to locate one new one, so they replaced the other with a good used manifold. The replacements lasted the rest of the life of the truck.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom