Help! Me and another rx owner this weekend installed a RB header, and 3 of the 4 studs busted when taking off the old manifold. We tried to remove 1 of them using heat, and vise grips, repeatedly. NO luck. Right now I am running with an exhaust leak at the headers.... anyone have any ideas on how to remove this.... I know the drill and tap method is somethign to consider... but it makes me a little nervous. Help Please!

 

drilling the studs are a bear....the steel they use on the exhaust is almost as hard as tungston-carbide and they snap easy. you can try this: take a hammer aroung the 2lb. range and smack the stud pretty hard....don't try to force it through the housing though.....smack the stud a few times, this will help loosen the stud some. then get a GOOD stud removing socket and try to back the stud out. If the stud is still stubborn try it all over again. You can also try heating the stud and then smacking it but usually the heat isn't needed. usually when using heat to remove broken hardware you'll need to heat the surrounding metal but you gotta be really careful of the water o-rings they don't like the heat too much.
What happens on the studs is the aluminum from the housing sticks to the stud by either a electrical or chemical reaction between the dissimiler metals and the shock of smacking the stud breaks the bond between the aluminum and the steel. The reason that the heat didn't work well is the "bonding" usually happens at the bottom of the threads and heat is being pulled away from the parts by the aluminum and the coolant.

 

OK Thanks... Will give that a shot. Heating even made me abit nervous... with good reason I guess. I am going to try to bring it somewhere and see what they tell me, and if they are unreasonable about it, I will hammer the bugger, and try to find a stud removal socket.

 

Also get a good penetrating lubricant. "Nutcracker" is the best I've ever used. WD40 is pretty lame, but would still probably help some.

 

Aren't the studs pressed in? I was thinking that even after you got the stud out, you would still have to find someplace with the proper tools to press it back in. Unless, of course, you had the tools to do it yourself.

 

nope, they are threaded in.. you can buy the studs at your local hardware store, and they work for TII manifolds too! i get them for free at the local AZ

i am making longer studs of my own, just bought a long threaded sticked and cut to lenth and add some locktight, and good to go.

carl

p.s. for you that have rebuilt a rotary, is it possible to screw the studs in too far and brake a water jacket or somthing, or will they bottom out. im only screwing them in about 1/2 with the red loctite.

 

for a stud to have maximum strenght it should be threaded all the way.
you may want to remove the header, so you can work. but use a cut-off wheel and cut off whats left of the old stud, cut it flush with the housing and drill out the rest. measure the depth to drill using a new stud. if theres an exhuast leak at the flange a new stud(s) would be good.

 

I used a stud remover socket from sears it worked great I loved how easy my stud came out. Oh and the studs are grade 8 sttainless steel.

 

I just used two of the exhaust manifold nuts and put them together and took 'er off like any other bolt. But use PB Blaster its the best **** ive ever seen to remove old bolts and nuts.

 

Well the way it sounds you have at least a 1/2 to 3/4" of stud remaining? Take two nuts like Marek said and tighten the back one up to the front. Then take your hammer and tap on the end of the stud. You don't want to mangle the threads before you put the nuts on. Then take your wrench and spin the back one out. Oh and then buy an impact wrench, oh how much agony you save with an impact Zip!

 

say the stud broke off to where you can't get anything on it...like in the hole....how would i go about getting that out?

 

lets just say that sucks, but i spose a cobalt drill bit and an ez out. oh and some spare time

 

Man... Ive never had an easy out NOT break. And once it breaks then you're toast because you can't do crap to it. Nothing will drill it out. If there's ANY other solution I would recommend that. Sorry I'm not any help, but I'll never use an easy out again.

 

Before you do anything else, soak it down with "JB Catalyst" (or whatever the hell its called). Then let it sit overnight. That stuff does amazing things!

 

If you break on off flush with the motor, the best thing to do is drill it out with cobalt bits. Start with a small hole and work your way up. Go very slow, don't run the drill too fast, and use lots of cutting oil to keep the bit cool. Remove 90% of the bolt before ever trying a ez out. You would be better off to drill the bolts out all the way, and use a helicoil insert. They "fix" the aluminum/ steel woes, cause both sets of threads are now steel. Just use patience.
And in the future, use an impact wrench to remove these bolts. It tends to break them alot less.
If you put new studs in, I DO NOT reccomend using locktite. Actually, use a moly lube on them. If they are tightened to the correct torque, threadlock is not needed. It will just make your life harder in the future if you need to remove your bolts or studs.
it's just like spark plugs; you don't use thread locker on them, do you? No, you lube the threads any torque them in to the correct torque.
After the exhaust is put on, retighten your bolts/studs a couple of times over the next week after heating up and cooling. This will set them after the gasket sets. I have used this approach on all of my piston engines, and it works.

 

Yup I concur completely with ranger. Esspecially on the helicoil inserts. It'll be more work but the LAST thing you want to do is break an ez out in there. With the cobalt bits the drilling won't actually be all that difficult.

 

Bill, I will try and get a stud remover to help you out.

 

i'll try that somtime, thanks

 

I have had some luck by making a groove in the stud (for a screwdriver)with my cutoff tool. Then use my impact driver, it helps if you heat it up a little.

 

If you get an impact wrench, I would be VERY careful if I were you. Those things eat fingers like no bodies business. They've got a strong *** bite.