I recently bought a 2008 Dakota and it has an exhaust leak. I was thinking it might be the connection between the manifold and the cat, blowing by. Upon examination by an exhaust shop, he told me that the manifold bolt(s) had broken and it's leaking between the manifold and the head.... Is this a common thing? Is it going to be an ongoing issue? is there a fix that works? Has anyone experienced this too? Want to know my options before I decide if I want to fix it or etc.... Headers? Perhaps? I've seen that there are headers for the 3.7 liberty, do they make them for a dakota? Thanks for any input...

Rick...

 

It's common, and a fairly quick fix. I had a leak on both manifolds, and i think I paid $200 for that service at the time.

Aftermarket engine parts for the Dakota can be pretty hard to find, and it all comes down to fitment - making it happen sometimes takes some creative fenangling.

 

Definitely a pretty common issue. I had a cracked exhaust manifold, and there were a few broken bolts. Replaced the manifold, heat shield, gaskets, and of course bolts on both sides. There is a Dorman 03218 Exhaust Manifold Hardware Kit available on Ebay for about $30 for each side.

 

Thanks for the replies. I was just hoping instead of factory manifolds maybe there was a headder option for it... One can hope... right! More power!!! Anywho, I'll just have to take it to the shop and have them remove and replace the old with some new. It's winter time up here and snowy and cool, and I don't have a spot to work inside. GAH!

Rick...//

 

I just did this job on my buddy's '07 Dakota SLT QC 3.7L 4x4.There were no outwards signs of a leak but it was flagging a P2098,P0430.The front converter Y pipe and O2 sensors were all replaced recently due to a rotted front pipe so, all that stuff can be ruled out.No soot visible or exhaust noise could be seen or heard anywhere.

As a test I rigged up a shop vac backwards and attached the hose to the tailpipe and sealed it all up well.This pushes air back towards the engine.I jacked up and removed the rf wheel and inner fender so I could see what I was doing and sprayed soapy water around the manifold to cylinder head area.Sure enough the rear port flange area foamed up underneath and to the rear.This is common on Dakotas in general but I wanted to know for sure and not waste my time guessing.

When I finally removed the manifold the gasket around 90% of the rear exh port had all deteriorated away and there was black soot all around the port.Luckily none of the bolts broke but the heads were pretty deteriorated and I elected not to reuse them.This should only be done on a stone cold engine by the way.The heat shield was still in decent shape but a new one is less than 6 bux.So the problem was actually the gasket and not the manifold per se.From what I've seen I don't think there is a need for headers to solve this issue.This truck has over 180,000 miles on the original manifold.It's just normal wear and tear.

I replaced with the Dorman 674-416 manifold kit and Dorman 03218 4.7L exh manifold bolt kit and the rh heat shield if you need it is Mopar 53032674AE.

He'll likely never have to do this again.YMMV

 

I just dropped mine off at the shop to have that done...