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Is it common for Ecotech Exhaust manifolds to crack ?

vs-lover

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Pretty much says it all. How many have ever encountered this scenario on the passenger side exhaust manifold near No. 3 ?
 

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Not personally but my exhaust guy has mentioned it, first thing he did when doing an exhaust mod on our old VS was to check the passenger side casting for cracks.
 

Whiteshark68

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Never heard of an ecotech exhaust manifold cracking but the Buick ones on the vn through to vr always the passenger side.
 

woteva

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Yes have seen Buick cracked but not Ecotec.
 

commodore665

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the ecotec has been around 24 years , so probably yes , they will crack eventually .
 

vs-lover

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Firstly thanks to all who've responded but I guess I'm going to answer my own question after experiencing it first hand.

I ventured down to the infamous U-Pull-it yard this morning and ended up pulling 5 LH Exhaust manifolds off only to find every single one is .............................. you guessed it...........cracked between 3 and 5. Some more severely than others but it's a real PITA having to do it 6 times all up to find one that hasn't.

I'm wondering how long it's going to be before the welding of these manifolds becomes a standard practice as you can't use the later VY manifolds on a VS due to the EGR pipe being fitted into the later units. I guess they can always be plugged but welding should eliminate the issue pretty much for life. Welding of cast iron isn't a back yard operation and as such most people will have to pay for that to be done correctly.

Anyway I guess this topic has now been well documented for all future questions.
 

losh1971

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Yes have seen Buick cracked but not Ecotec.

Damn, wished I'd kept mine now, when fitting the Pacies. Mine weren't cracked. They just ended up in scrap steel for which I probably got 10c or less.
 

stick3

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mine have been sitting in the shed since when i put on pacies on nearly 10 years now and there fine no cracks
 

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Can't you just use the VT-VY ones and put a plug in the EGR port?
 
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