Stopping a leaking exhaust manifold from entering the cabin air

I have an '11 Vic that's leaking exhaust right where the exhaust manifold connects and the problem is it's getting into the cabin by way of the air heat / vent system. When the cars moving I get no exhaust in the vents at all. It only happens when I'm sitting still. For the time being (cold weather), instead of fixing the exhaust I'd just like to block the outside cabin air intake. Here's a pic taken through the outside air vents on the pass side right above the blower motor..



Is the wire mesh opening seen under the vent fins the only intake for the cabin air? My best idea is to cut some kind of hard plastic to match the shape and attach it with plastic epoxy resin. Exhaust smell in the cabin is fairly strong. Are there any other openings into the vent system I should be concerned about?

The best and ONLY fix is to repair the exhaust leak!!! It is not that hard of a repair and hopefully your life and the person that you hit after you pass out at the wheel from carbon monoxide poisoning is worth the cost of the repair. Just fix it!

I agree, but time, money and outside conditions are all against me right now.

I assumed it would be a difficult repair. What happens when an exhaust manifold leaks at the engine interface? What needs to be replaced...only a gasket possibly?

#2 is your exhaust manifold gasket

A certain amount of care has to be taken not to break the studs in the heads. Other than that its strait forward, I would think the manifol needs to be tŕued.

The mechanics that used to service the fleet of vehicles this one used to belong to were really reluctant to fix this type of exhaust leak so I always assumed it was a difficult job. Glad to know it probably won't be so bad. I'll probably have a professional mechanic break those bolts loose though. I'll give it a quick shot but I don't have the heat to do it.

Unfortunately I've been told elsewhere I shouldn't do the intake mod because the exterior intake is the only way air gets into the car from the heater and AC coils. Is this true? Best I can tell there's an air re-circulation intake vent in the pass floorboard. I was just planning on wiring that permanently open.

I do remember one of the mechanics one time mentioning there's no way to cut off the outside air intake flow, so I dunno.

Years ago I'd heard that MAX AC made the system go into recirc mode but I'm not sure about this vehicle. I'll definitely try it though and see if it works.

Well the vent twidling part went well. It seems that my internal intake door wasn't opening at all so I disconnected it and wired it open. I would imagine that since everything blowing through the vents was coming from the outside that this probably exascerbated the exhaust smell problem a good deal. After wiring it open the overall airflow was a lot better.

For the external intake I just covered it with a zip lock bag and a big tile grout sponge. The reinstalled cowl holds the sponge in place, should work well and it'll be easy to undo.

Unfortunately the exhaust wasn't leaking so I wasn't able to do any effective testing. There's some duct work that runs from the fan to the center of the firewall. I wonder if a break somewhere in that could be the cause.

I pull a 30' camper with my Expedition and on one trip I blew out one exhaust gasket, I was surprised that I was able to remove all hardware without breaking anything, I did use heat and let it cool before removing and I did have the manifold resurfaced. I have done several Chevy truck LS manifolds at work and the bolts often are broke before repairs are even made. But I highly recommend repairing the exhaust leak!

If your manifold is cracked (forgive me if this ain’t the problem), you could always put some high heat JB weld on it as a temporary fix.