I've got another exhaust manifold stud stud problem coming up. These things and me rarely get along together. The y-pipe flange on my 85 has rusted away causing a nasty exhaust leak. The only threads left on the stud are inside the nut. I have one of those stud extractor things but 9 times out of 10 the stud will break even after torching the damn maninfold red with map gas. A real torch would be better I suppose but I can't afford one of those right now. Then comes the fun of drilling it out. Broke off and ez out in one of them one time. Those are really hard to drill. Think I wrecked 20 drill bits and my arms hurt like hell.

Anybody have any tricks to remove these nasty studs?

 

i'd skip the easy out, they're pretty worthless. try jumping right to a left hand drill and retapping

 

I will never use an ez-out again as long as I live. Every time I have ever tried one it broke. It looks like I can defenately get a good angle for drilling on the front pass side stud. I'm not sure about the back one. Just hope I don't end up having to pull the manifold. Exhaust stuff always seems like it causes the biggest headaches for me. Always rusted together.

 

I've had good luck with patience.

Heat the affected area and stud. After a bit of cooling, but while the bolt/stud/nut is still hot to touch, apply a penetrating oil. Use some caution, since it may flare up.

Allow it to cool, then heat it again. Apply more penetraing oil after some cooling. Keep the area wet if possible. The thermal cycling of the joint seems to allow the penetrating oil to work into the joint deeper and faster than time alone.

If you have the time, simply keep the area wet with penetrating oil for about a week, or plan ahead and wet the suspected fasteners with penetrating oil ahead of time. Periodically apply more to keep it wet. When you begin your project, the incidence of frozen fasteners should be a lot lower.

I anticipated problems with my LT1 teardown a while back, since the 10mm studs were eroded to about nothing, much like what you describe. A liberal dose of Blaster! early and often actually allowed them to back out of the iron castings without snapping off. Needless to say, the new fasteners were 12.9 SHCS (bolts), not studs, and got a copious amount of high-nickel anti-seize compound.

If you get to the point were the stud snaps, you have had ample warning, and should heed ede's advice and already have a ¼" LH drill or two ready to go. It's not a bad idea to have some lying around anyway.

 

Theres a method I never heard of or tried. Heat cycle, penetrating oil and repeat a few times. I will be trying it. Car is way high in the air right now in the garage since I'm welding the floor back together so I have ample time to try. I can't seem to find that PB blaster stuff anywhere. Lately I've been using Releasall which seems better than wd-40. I still want to try that blaster stuff, might not be available in Canada. Well, even spit is better than WD-40.

Glad I asked or I would have never known this trick.

 

I haven't been especially impressed with Releasall. Moovit works pretty good though, should be able to find it back east.

 

Seen that moovit stuff somewhere but never tried it. Next time I eyeball it I'll pick up a can.

 

I'd take Door #3 - headers!

 

Haha!

Every time I have to go after one of these horrible studs that comes up about a billion times!!! Tho the 91 doesn't have any exhaust problems YET, it's getting a set of long tubes and a good stainless cat back in the spring. Since it's a 350 it's got potential. The other 305 boat anchors well.......

 

wait a sec, LH drill bit? 1/4"? Wouldn't you use a normal drill bit, and a left hand tap say? Then drill and tap the shell of the bolt, and put in a left hand thread bolt, and tighten the bolt into the stud until they both come out of the heads?
I've used a spiral screw extractor (same as ez-out?) with a tap wrench with some luck before...