BradHend

Has anyone used the Remflex gaskets for their manifold, and if so, how has your experience been with them? Since Ill be in need of them shortly, I feel inclined to try them out over the OEM gaskets solely for the crush/rebound factor to provide a good seal and hopefully never experience a God Blessed broken manifold bolt ever again. When I originally had my manifold leak, I had purchased a flat sheet of the stuff to literally jam into the space where the leak was, followed by some high heat exhaust putty and some stainless zip ties to hold it all in. I noticed when I removed my manifold, the Remflex gasket material had not deteriorated, burnt or shown any other signs of failure. Be about 60 bucks Canadian for all 6 gaskets, they are 1/8” thick and are designed to be crushed to about 50% when installed, can handle temps up to 3000 degrees, which will never be seen on a diesel engine. They claim 100% no leaks, no burn outs, and no re-torquing required. Just seems odd that if they are that good, why I don’t hear more of them.

I would agree with a sensor or a leak somewhere, but strange that the ECM isn’t picking this up and turning on a warning light. Have you hooked up a code reader by chance?

@Gweedo I don’t think I have the skill to weld a bolt to it. I may weld a washer with a Centre hole a touch smaller than the bolt and then weld a nut to that. See what happens. Otherwise left hand drill bits and extractors it is. @lotosrggp1 It’s gonna get real interesting.😐

The manifold finally gave up its fight today. Elated would be an understatement. Those bolts were rusted to the manifold pretty bad. Ended up drilling pilot holes in most of the ears and then an air chisel to open them up. I wasn’t able to get the EGR or the turbo apart so I ended up cutting it into three pieces once it was removed from the head. What a process. Had to take a lot of stuff out just for the access. Two more bolts broke off flush with the head in the process. I had made a little slide hammer tool out of some old elevator belts and wedge shackles. Worked out pretty good. Pardon the obscenity in the picture, it deserved it. Re-Man turbo, reman EGR and all the other stuff I broke in the process and other parts will be getting ordered hopefully this week. Got some bolts to remove from the head now, but at least I can get to them.

@Agpopp I can’t say that option hasn’t crossed my mind, and I for sure have not seen them listed anywhere near the price range you’re talking. Be interested to see them. It may not look the best, but the engine does run quite nice otherwise, hopefully some good TLC and needed replacements will buy me enough time with it.

@HappycarzWith those extractors, the first one says 1/4”, is that to be used in a 1/4” hole pilot hole? @Gweedo Expecting that to show up this week. 👍. Thanks.

This manifold I tell ya. Look at how rusted in these bolts are. 😂. I laugh but I’m actually crying. This is very painstakingly taking way longer than I was hoping. Been working away freeing the studs up with various shop items - screwdrivers, needle de-scaler, dental picks etc. I’ve now got a wedge hammered in between the head and the manifold, tap away on it once and while as I’m trying to free the manifold. What a pain. Pretty sure I’m just gonna cut the thing into pieces and work away section at a time. Crazy. I have also decided, since I’m this deep, I’m gonna replace the turbo and the EGR valve among some other much needed replacements. Wife isn’t happy, but I think it’s best.

That’s the one I got. Lots of options and ideas come to mind. The one long electrode they are saying is for heating bearings and the long u-shaped one is meant to be field bent around anything the standard round coils can’t quite conform nicely to.

@Frank McElroy How and where does one go to obtain these wiring diagrams for their coach? Would love a hard copy to keep on board but I don’t see my coach listed in the downloads.

I’ve had a couple diesel shops straight up tell me there was never an EGR option on a 2005 5.9 Cummins. Never had it. Like clearly distraught about it and arguing with me. Im just like I don’t know what to tell ya man, it’s got it. 🤷‍♂️. This of course was in the stage of trying to delete it altogether and see what was available aftermarket. Never got anywhere with a legit delete, so unfortunately OEM it is. @AgpoppI don’t know if I had anything to with it since I had to pay and request an emergency part order from Cummins, but the 3955199 manifold (the larger, hard to find piece) is back in stock online at a reasonable price. Might not hurt to have one on standby so you don’t have to deal with the BS I did.

@Agpopp If you find a way to properly delete that EGR that a bunch of people say I don’t have, please let me know. 😉

Tell me about it, @Ivan K. I’m *Hoping* once I actually free the manifold from the head, the bolts won’t be that bad to get out. All of them except 1 at least is left with a 1” or so long stud sticking out of the head, hoping to grab onto them with some good vice grips and carefully wiggle ‘em out. If that don’t work I’ll grind them flat and use the left handed drill bit with a matching extractor if needed. I’ll keep posting progress if anyone cares.

@Ray Davis According to the manual it’s actually a step up transformer - high voltage, low current - which is then converted to a high frequency alternating magnetic field. I’m quite happy with it and I think it will come in quite handy. The element is just a coil basically, but it isn’t just copper in it as they are much too stiff to be just copper.

Bolts are all out/broken. Now to get the manifold/turbo/EGR out. Since I now have this fancy tool that I credit to getting 4 bolts cleanly removed, I may be be able to unfreeze the 4 nuts at the turbo to manifold flange and not have to remove it all in one piece. A picture speaks a thousand words. That includes curse words:

You checked the two wires on the magnet switch at the slam side (mine is very poorly hooked up) and the magnet never broke off the screen door?

Beauty coach you have there. Looks mint. Good luck with your sale. I’m a little jealous.

Definitely works best on nuts for obvious reasons, but It has got me 2 bolts out cleanly. I have 3 bolts left to get out, called it a day early in the afternoon as I had to cut the grass and take my folks out for supper. Tally so far is 3 cleanly removed, 2 snapped flush with the head and 4 broken off at the bolt head. Gotta take the alternator and some lines off to get to the last three. Save that for the weekend I suppose. Getting shipped out of town for the week. 👎

Nice work. On my list of things to eventually get to as well.

Little update, I realize it got off topic a bit, but people were asking and I’m in a really good mood right now. 😄. So I received my induction heater there yesterday and managed to get in the bad books with my wife about 15 minutes after receiving it. I had to try it out so I for whatever reason grabbed a butter knife to try it out. Had the thick handle RED HOT in about 7 seconds. Unbelievable. Wife didn’t approve as the knife is discolored now. Anyways, fast forward to today, while I’m waiting for my new socket extractor set to arrive I moved on to some other bolts that hadn’t really been attempted yet. Big Milwaukee impact wouldn’t break it, i gave it all I was comfortable giving with a breaker bar and still nothing. heated the mounting spacer up bright cherry red with the tool, but my socket and ratchet on it and it turned out immediately. I’m in shock a little right now to be honest. I hope this works on all the others as well. I’ll only need to drill 2 out if that’s the case. The whole time it was heating and a bit after all I could hear was popping/clicking noises, which I assume would be the rust bond breaking. Just an awesome tool so far.

I just did pressure drop. Figure that’s a pretty solid test.

@cbr046 Will do for sure. The bolt heads are now rounded and I have broken (2) 1/2” drive extractor sockets. The big Milwaukee would just sit there doing its thing. Broke out the breaker bar that I guess the impact rated extractors weren’t meant for. Things are in there good and I’m hesitant/not confident enough to get an acetylene torch up there to cut the heads off and work the manifold off the remaining studs. Been a nightmare to be honest. Gonna cost me quite a bit more than I expected, but things happen. @tmw188 Just crudely make an end cap with the tube and band clamp it for the one end, the other same idea but attach a small length of pipe to a quick connect fitting, get a piece of inner-tube that’s big enough to accept the air pipe and still act as an end cap. Just band clamp it all together. It’s only 30lbs. I’ll post a pic when I get back home.

@tmw188 I was concerned of that as well. I made up a simple end cap for the one side out of an old rubber tire inner-tube and a band clamp. Other end same idea just added in a quick connect for air. Set my regulator and pressurized it to 35PSI. May not be the legit way, but that’s basically all a shop is gonna do. Held pressure for 10 minutes so that’s a pass in my books. Gave it a good cleaning otherwise and it can fully breathe again. Light can be seen through all the fins now.

Doing some much needed maintenance and repairs on the coach and noticed the CAC was quite dirty while trying to break my manifold bolts off. Since it was raining and I’m waiting for a fancy magnetic induction heater to arrive I decided to change tasks and remove the CAC to clean it up. Check out how dirty it was. 🫢. Oddly the engine radiator is incredibly clean by comparison, I can see light throughout the entire thing and there is none of this thick buildup on it. I tried the simple green method several times with to no avail with in place, should be able to clean it better and easier now.

Last year we had an intense rain storm which took out the power to our little town for about half a day. I quickly realized the sump pit in the house was quickly filling, along with the neighbors on my street. I pulled the coach onto the road (dead end quiet street) and about 6 of my neighbors and myself were all running our sump pumps of the coach genny. I ensured all extension cords were plugged into a GFCI circuit of course, but boy was I the talk of the street for a while after that. Saved their basements and a huge headache. Neighbors down the way had a different outcome in their basements unfortunately. My Onan 5500 burns about 1 Gallon per hour under low to moderate load.

I’ve had that light come on for various issues. Coolant temp was one, other was an exhaust manifold leak causing the turbo to perform out of spec. Is the engine going into reduced power when this happens? Id be checking for codes.