Manifold Studs
FTE Leadership Emeritus
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 42,561
Likes: 421
From: Long Island USA
Originally Posted by mizzitch
Alright - I just thought that they would've known to use stainless if necessary, guess not.
Of course, that decision was made by someone who's never seen the underside of a vehicle after a few years of water and salt.
Senior User
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 241
Likes: 1
I posted a while back on the same topic. I have been busy and decided to get a quote from a couple of local exhaust shops. Much to my surprise, most of them will not touch the job. I have only found one guy in a town of about 50,000 who will do the job. His quote was right at $500 (400 labor, 75 parts and 25ish tax) Seems like a lot of $$$. One thing he said that he does is use a high temp RTV type sealant instead of reassembling with new gaskets. His theory is that the gaskets have a metal core which when starts to corrode, pushes the manifold out which breaks the studs. Any thoughts on this??
FTE Leadership Emeritus
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 42,561
Likes: 421
From: Long Island USA
One thing about stainless is that it'll stretch. Maybe it IS a load-related failure... and any corrosion of the stud can't help the situation.
I've used hi-temp RTV in exhaust stuff a lot. Never had it fail. I glued the header gaskets onto my '74 highboy's headers and it stayed there for 15 years. And that thing certainly got hot.
That guy sounds like a friend of mine who's a partner in a machine shop. Taught me a heck of a lot while I built my Triumph's and 390's in his shop. He'd get those kind of jobs no one else wanted. And then do it right. He's probably covering his butt in case he breaks studs off at the head surface, or the studs holding the exhaust pipe to the manifold.
I've used hi-temp RTV in exhaust stuff a lot. Never had it fail. I glued the header gaskets onto my '74 highboy's headers and it stayed there for 15 years. And that thing certainly got hot.
That guy sounds like a friend of mine who's a partner in a machine shop. Taught me a heck of a lot while I built my Triumph's and 390's in his shop. He'd get those kind of jobs no one else wanted. And then do it right. He's probably covering his butt in case he breaks studs off at the head surface, or the studs holding the exhaust pipe to the manifold.
