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I have started the soaking process with liquid wrench on my exhaust studs. Just for fun, I tried a couple studs on the driver's side(easy to reach) I am already missing one stud on the top rear. The first one I tried turned pretty easily. After a full turn it fell out. It broke about 1/4" inside the head. The second one the wrench fell off, I thought. Well it broke off too. Flush with the manifold. Oh this is gonna be fun!!
I am pretty good with patience and have a mig welder, right angle drill. I have also read and read, and reread many post here on the subject. Time is what I seem to be lacking. I bought a used set of Thorleys a while ago so I will be installing those. Not my first V10 header rodeo. Installed a set of Borla's back in 2001 on my 99. Tight but no issues. Thanks for all the words of encouragement!
Santa gave me some days off this year so time to tackle the broken exhaust studs and get these Thorleys on. The passenger side came off will all but 3 studs coming out. 2 broke flush with the nut leaving about 5/8 to play with and the 3rd the nut came off so I just used a 5mm socket on the end of the stud and it came out. Welded nuts to the other studs and they came out. Yay!
I will try my luck on the drivers side Saturday. There are 5 broken studs here. 4 at the rear two cylinders, one being about 1/2" long the other 3 are 1/4" below the head. The last one is the front top below the head.
Day two. Things went pretty well considering. The short stud and 2 of the broken inside studs came out on the first try. The last 2 took some time. Had to weld nuts 5 different times. Kept twisting them off. It's a little scary welding inside a threaded aluminum hole then adding a nut to the little mound you just built. Not one thread was damaged. Amazing.
Being a 4x2 I cannot remove the shock tower like the 4x4 guys can. Honestly it really didn't matter. Enough room with the fender well liners out.(think I'd rather wrestle a crocodile) I used my 220V mig welder but with flux core .030 wire. Maybe the bubbling flux helped protect the threads?? The flux core let me remove the gas shield off the end of the gun allowing me to see the wire coming out the tip. Installing the bolts on the headers is quite the challenge. I used a combo of 1/4" drive extensions and swivels, to work in and around the header and a wrench where space was tight.
The truck has a grumble inside the cab. Kinda mild really. I like it, makes you feel like you're driving a truck. Going out quading tomorrow so I'll see how it tows.
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