Exhaust manifold... cracked help!

[Corik]

Today I was poking around under the hood and I was putting new clamps on some hoses. I drove the truck for a few minutes to let it warm up and came back. I popped the hood open with the car still on to make sure the clamps sealed well, when I noticed a lot of fumes coming out from the exhaust manifold, I couldn't quite see the crack but I could tell where it must be.

It was on the driver side, and the very back end of the manifold. steam/fumes were coming out and I would like to know what I should do about it?
Should I replace the manifold? I'm light on money right now and probably cant afford new stuff, so is there a easy way to patch this up until I can fix it properly?
Also I don't know if its OK to drive it right now or not.

 

[Delta_1980]

sure you can drive it but the excess heat will eventually damage other things close to the leak. um, i don't know of any products that would seal up the hole under such adverse conditions. probably hard to weld (not impossible)........ just put aside some cash from a couple of pay checks- skip a beer or 2 and buy a new or a good used one.

 

[FIND]

If it is cracked, it will have a large effect on fuel economy. If the fumes coming out are exhaust, you should have already been experiencing lower than normal mileage. Outside of that, the likelihood of much damage to anything is low.

Determine whether it is a cracked manifold, a bad manifold gasket or something else. You don't want to spend money where you don't need to. If it is just a bad gasket, then you can do all the repairs for under 15 bucks including buying penetrating lubricant and a wrench if you don't have the right size.

 

[atxexplorer94]

When I thought I had a cracked manifold my dad said that you could melt like a copper wire hanger into the crack,Im sure somebody knows more about this method.