I also had much trouble with the manifold bolts. At first I just needed to detach the cat from the manifold to work on it away from the car. The right side bolt head spun off. This is of course the one that is more difficult to reach without removing the sub-frame. I attempted to drill it out but broke the drill bit. Then I had to drill out the drill bit and the bolt with a hardened cobalt bit. That was unsuccessful until I torched the bolt and basically annealed it down to a level that could be drilled. It was extremely challenging to drill straight on that bolt and equally challenging to cut it off.
I also thought about removing the manifold, but stopped short of risking what I had read about too many others stripping the manifold bolts and having to basically remove the whole engine to drill out the broken bolt and tap the block with a repair helicoil.
I would be careful with using those flexible shafts (usually meant for drill driving or screwing) as a cutoff wheel shaft. They aren’t really designed to take high speed cutting loads especially when bent tightly. I have a flexible Dremel shaft that I was able to use with some success to get in there, but even still it was challenging.
Eventually I got the cat off, cleaned up, repaired, and I was able to retap the drilled out manifold hole and use a larger screw. I also pulled a manifold off of a junked element and have it on a shelf in case I need it. Given that you can usually find a junked E in a U-pull yard, I would try to go OEM over something new.
I also thought about removing the manifold, but stopped short of risking what I had read about too many others stripping the manifold bolts and having to basically remove the whole engine to drill out the broken bolt and tap the block with a repair helicoil.
I would be careful with using those flexible shafts (usually meant for drill driving or screwing) as a cutoff wheel shaft. They aren’t really designed to take high speed cutting loads especially when bent tightly. I have a flexible Dremel shaft that I was able to use with some success to get in there, but even still it was challenging.
Eventually I got the cat off, cleaned up, repaired, and I was able to retap the drilled out manifold hole and use a larger screw. I also pulled a manifold off of a junked element and have it on a shelf in case I need it. Given that you can usually find a junked E in a U-pull yard, I would try to go OEM over something new.
