whats the best way to loosen up the bolts on the stock exhaust manifolds? im trying to replace the heads, and im afraid of snaping a manifold bolt, WD40 or something??

 

Which bolts?

 

Liquid wrench.

I could never of gotten those bolts off if I didn't have engine out of the car..have fun

 

the bolts that go into the heads...sorry for not clarifying

 

Try PB Blaster.

 

I have never seen a problem with removing those bolts, from the original 283 in my '57 to the Camaro, with a couple of dozen SBC's and a few BBC's in between.

Removing the nuts on the exhaust pipe studs, and accessories that mounted to the exhaust manifolds - now that's a different story.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. I've never had a problem with the bolts not coming out. The only thing that I can think of is make sure you remove those bastard tabs on the bolts they used to keep them from backing out. If not, any penatrating oil should work fine.

Have fun and good luck.

Eric

 

Put in my vote for PB Blaster. Smelly, but effective.

I too have not experienced problems with exhaust manifold bolts. Nuts and studs ("Better NOCAR than MOPAR") is a different story.

 

my vote for PB blaster also just look what it does to styrafoam (sp)

 

i plan on using this stuff on my manifold bolts when i do my headers

 

Spray gasoline on styrofoam, it will look like that.

Doesn't mean it will break up rust.

 

Manifold bolts are made out of styrofoam??

Gasoline and styrofoam = some kind of napalm IIRC.

 

lol are we goin to have bomb making class now? lol justkidding

 

Mine didn't give me much of a problem, only one was really a bitch getting out. I just used WD40.

 

Spray paint does the same thing to styrofoam...

PB blaser is a very good penetrating 'oil' though and would be my choice just under Kroil.

 

zep twister worked pretty good...now if i can only get the head bolts under the manifold on the passenger side off...im sure thats gonna leave a few busted knuckles

 

Use some penetrating lube, and just make sure you don't yank on them too hard or they could shear right off. You can apply a good amount of pressure, just don't yank on it for all you're worth.

 

When we took the manifolds off my car during the engine swap, i just sprayed WD40 on them like mad and let it sit overnight. I wasn't there when my uncle pulled them off, but he said they came off fairly easy. Here is a shot of how much i used. You can see how much is there, because it all sunk into the rust, dirt and anything else growing on the pipe, lol.

 

:P Sorry to rain Adam, but when we took them off, I cut them with the angle grinder...lmao... which is why we made new bolts.

I recently removed the manifold to pipe bolts from my '52 Ford truck... they were solid. Use a real penetrating oil, WD40 is not a real penetrating oil. Coat it a few times because real penetrating oil turns invisible after a while. Wait till the oil is dried, then get a torch and heat up the nuts untill they are red hot... let it cool and use vise-grips, jerk the nut back and forth untill it moves fairly easy, then just thread it off with a socket.. you'll need to get new nuts, but that beats messing around making new bolts like we did with Adam.

To get them out of the heads, just use a real penetrating oil and heat them... but let them cool. I've never had problems removing bolts from heads....

 

Pb blaster is pretty good but I found some stuff at autozone called rust eater. I used it last weekend on an s 10 motor swap and it worked great. Kroil is probably the best but I believe you can only get it through a distibutor like mcmaster carr or j and l. Whatever you use just let it sit and work for a while. We let the rust eater sit for about an hour and after we got the bolts out you could see where the oil had creeped up the threads.

 

I just went to the hardware store and said I need some spray to remove a rusty bolt(for the susp) and I don't even remember what it was called. Try your lhs.

 

Information i could have used a little earlier

 

no angle grinder needed here,,,,,,,,,,, I sprayed them with wd40 then left them a day then when I went to remove them they weret in there all that hard at all....just make sure your using the proper size socket. And a pipe or breaking bar on the ratchet worked for me real good!!!! I distroyed my dipstick tube and had to pick up a new one at the dealer. All of the studs came right out of the head nice and slick even if it was a stud with a rusty nut or a bolt so actually rusted nuts helped me out.

the bolts on my ypipe to manifolds were a diffent stort,,,,I had to snap all 4 of them off......so yes youll have some busted nuckles hahaha

 

How do you get the studs out after you unscrew the nuts? A stud is just a length of threaded rod, right? A bolt without the head. So if it has no head, how do you get it out?

When I replaced my water pump, I had to reuse the pulley studs. I didn't like getting them out at all. I eventually had to hacksaw a groove in the middle so I could use a screwdriver. Yeah, this was after WD-40 and aerokroil.

And why do they say that studs are stronger than bolts?

 

I tend to not re use studs if I can find suitable replacements. To get them out i soak them in penetrating oil and use vise grips. If this fails and the situation permits i just weld a nut to the stud and turn it out.

 

If there is room it sometimes helps to take a punch and hit the center of the bolt head to loosen it as well. However with the manifold bolts this may be impossible for all of them.

 

my vote for pb blaster worked great on my exhaust manifold bolts.....but i have had exhaust manifold bolts that the head stripped so i took a 5lb hammer and beat the manifold till it crumbled....(in a junkyard that is) the bolts came out easy then

 

see sence all the nuts were rusted to the studs all my studs came right out of the head before the nut even moved cause its rusted on (hence rust is your friend) know what i mean.
BUT say your studs are in good shape and you can actullay turn your nuts off 1st (leaving studs behind)..... then all you do is put 2 nuts on one stud and use two wenches and tighten them together locking them... then you try to losen the inside nut and the whole stud should come with it.