Just Broke a stud off removing dp
 

Well last night i was removing the dp and one of the studs on the bottom broke clean off. It is broken off flush so there aren't any thread sticking out to get ahole of. I have been reading and it looks like a lot of work, someone with the experiecnce that i have probably can't do it. i know i need to try an drill it out but what kind of drill do you guys use to get to it, it is so packed in there that there is barley enough room for a drill bit. Where can i pick up some PB Blaster? Please help, and make it as easy as possible without having to remove turbos. Thanks

Unfortunately you're going to have to pull the turbos because it will be nearly impossible to do in the car. The easiest thing to do is bring them to a machine shop where they can properly extract the stud and put in a helicoil.

how difficult is it going to be to remove the turbos?

^ummm... you probaly don't want to know the anwser to that, but I will give you a clue. Harder than removing the DP.

-josh

Actually it's not hard at all. If he can wrench, then it's really straight forward. Just 8 14mm and one 12mm nut and the two oil line. Plus coolant lines on top of the turbos. That's all. For me, the job is super easy when the downpipe is off, cause those nuts on the downpipe are the one that I usually stripped...

Luckily, I haven't had to deal with this.......yet. But I recently picked up one of these for the shop. I think they're also available in electric if you don't have a compressor. Would that be an option?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=40944

Good idea, but you wont be able to get in there with a drill like that. I thought about doing that years ago. There is VERY little room. Even if you get the drill in it will be almost impossible to see what you are doing and even ahrder to get a tap in there later to clean the hole out. Take take that drill and put it up against a downpipe and see. Remember to add the length of the drill bit. Pull the turbos and bring it to the machine shop. Its really not that bad. About 6-7 hours by the book, but I can do it in about an hour because I have done so many. If you were closer I'd offer to help.

WELL i will see what happens and let you guys know if there are any complications. Thanks for the offer Rotary Experiment Seven.

Good Fu*%ing luck, I just went thru the same crap with my turbo. Lucky for me I had it out of the car so it was a bit easier. I hate to tell you this but it is a huge PIA. I had to actually cut a relief cut in the side of the manifold in order to get the bolt out. I tried a screw extractor, drilling it out, heating it up, soaking it in penetrating oil; I even tried liquid nitrogen from my PC over clocking experiment. >>> NOTHING WORKED. :wallbash:

After I cut the grove, the bolt just unscrewed. I then welded the manifold back up. :squint:

GOOD LUCK. You will have to take it out of the car.
You might as well use this as an excuse to rebuild the motor and go single too :)


:balls: The green simile is my RX-7!

:dunno: Eh, it was a thought. I knew it was tight, but the drill would still require at least 6" of space to use. Hadn't thought of not being able to see either.
Here's hoping my turbos last a couple more years and I can junk everything while I have the inevitable rebuild done.

Well, the turbos have 8 studs and the downpipe only has 4. That's more studs to potentially strip, be stubborn, or require replacement at $10/ea.

The good news is, that once they are removed and reinstalled with anti-seize to the proper torque, doing it again is never bad.

Dave

Well I was using the theory that if his DP bolts were siezed up enough to snap one clean off, then I am figuring the bolts on the turbo manifold is not going to be easy to remove either.

-josh

That sucks, good luck

If the bolt and or bolts in your case do infact need to be drilled out there is hope. Roto-zip makes a bit that is used for cutting Marble tile that will cut right through the hardend studs used for the DP and for the manifold. I have foud the bit at Home Depot and it actually holds up to grinding hardend steel. The only down side is that you will need a die grinder to drive it fast enough to cut. It worked for me...

Well here's the situation i am in now. I got the pre-cat off (sorry said it was dp but it wasn't) the stud broke off at the end of the pre-cat so we loosened up the other stud and pulled the pre-cat right off. We tried Liquid wrench and let it sit and tried using vise grips to get it off and it wouldn't budge. Then we put the nut back on the stud and put some JB weld in there and let it sit over night, STILL didn't work. That stud will not come out. There is a little more than a 1/4 in. sticking out, plenty to grab hold of.

Well i was reading on here and there are some people that run 3 studs for a little while, so i just put the downpipe on with three bolts ( the dp came with bolts and i replaced the studs with the bolts). The top front bolt is in and the bottom rear bolt is in, the bottom front one is the one broke and the top rear one will only go in so far, it gets really tight but there is a little more than a 1/4 in. still sticking out. Well i put everything else back on it just to see how bad the exhaust leak would be, Very loud, but i have a dp and mp on right now but most of the noise is coming from the dp. Is that top rear hole not threaded in very far?? I was thinking of just putting the old stud back in and see how that works.

I decided to take it out anyway, i have a dp, mp and stock cat-back on, it spiked to 14psi and then held at 12-13hen the other turbo kicks on and it spikes again and then holds at 12-13, i let off right away, i am going to see if i can get the dp on good and then try to get the stock cat back in there for now. I have a tsudo dp from ebay, and another member said that it didn't work with the dp and stock cat but i will try.

Sorry for the long post but please help with that top rear bolt, any suggestions. If it is confusing let me know and i will rephrase some things Thanks

No one can help??

It's good you have some stud hanging out of the manifold. This shouldn't be TOO bad.

When you had the dp off, you can use a grinder or dremel to grind a couple of flats onto the stud. Carefully grind the flats so that it will fit closely to a wrench. Soak it some more with PB blaster, let it dry, then heat it up very hot with a MAPP gas torch. Then try to torque it off.

Worst case, take it to a shop. They'll weld something onto the stud, heat it up really hot, and twist it right out. Or something clever like that. It probably won't take them long at all.

Make SURE you verify the condition of the threads in the manifold - I bought an M10x1.5mm plug tap (and tap handle) and carefully run it through the threads. Stuck studs tend to leave metal in the threads and ruin the next fastener to go it. You really don't want that.

Dave

Update: My friend and I got the dp problem fixed good enough. We still have the broken stud in there but as for the bolt that wouldn't go in all the way we just put an oem stud in its place, tightened right up. It helped a lot when we removed the y-pipe. We have it all together and the only spot that the gasket was blown was were the bolt wasn't tightened so the area where the broken stud is seals up great. I now have the dp, mp and stock cat back and the car runs at 10 then spikes to 13 for a split second when the other turbo comes on but then holds at 10, i dont plan on getting on it a whole lot, I DO NOT want to pop the motor. i will leave it this way until i start getting some more mods done like boost controller, there isn't any creep so thats good.

Well, the stock ecu will usually cut off fuel in the case of boost creep, but a quick spike can sometimes sneak by it. In other words, either fill up with 94 octane for a little extra safety margin, or get a manual boost controller and it should eliminate the spike. I recommend the latter - it's less than $40.

Dave

Will do thanks. Whats the latter??

Manual boost controller.