I bought a set of caphead bolt removal tools, basically a 1/2â socket with fluted blades inside set to bite the bolt. Having chewed the bolt head because it wouldnât budge. Grrrrrrr. I took hold of the manifold on the left side, and gingerly lifted it. It moved about a centemetre, so I pushed it back and repeated.
My neighbour joined me just as I was removing the rocker cover. It was the cover that stopped the manifold from being lifted higher. My neighbour hammered an AF Allen key into the bolt to hold it steady while I worked the manifold up and down. We managed to work the bolt out so far but it was heavy going. Using a combination of oil and hard graft eventually we got the manifold off. The bolt was still attached, so we worked it out a little more before we sawed itâs little head off. Using a drift and hammer we removed the badly corroded bolt.
The rubber o ring didnât look too bad, but the leak was evident enough to start this mad episode in the first place.
TPS genuine parts in Blackburn had the bolts..... or so they informed me. But the two longer bolts had a fine spline head and was threaded the full length. Unlike the smaller bolts which had a 6mm hex head and had a smooth shoulder instead of being threaded all the way. I have a place in mind that will help me source the large bolts. Since I was told by TPS the original longer hex bolts had been made obsolete and replaced by spline bolts. Whatâs the point in having two different bolt designs... The VW on screen diagrams didnât help as they had errors in them.
Will order the longer bolts and hopefully I can put this sorry state of affairs behind me.
To be continued.......