<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message -->Any tips for removing exhaust manifold bolts, especially ones that have been erroded by the exhaust because of a hole in the manifold?

My current plan it to get out the ones i can by soaking with a ATF - acetone mix for a few days. the ones that don't have a good bolt head i was going to cut or grind the head off and leave the stud, then soak that with the home brew and use vice grips to turn it and remove them. 6 good ones, two bad ones.

any other ideas? , can't drill them, not removing engine.

 

Sounds like your plan is good. Is there enough room to get the manifold off if the stud is intact with only its head off? You still have to pull the manifold past the stud and you many not have enough room? I bought a nice set of bolt extractors from sears a long time ago, they worked great on a tough manifold bolt I had to deal with...

I would maybe add that you might want to give the bolt a hit head on with a hammer... If there is room for a hammer in there... Not so hard that you crack the head or distort the bolt. Hitting the bolt sometimes jolts the bond of rust on the threads... Similar to an impact driver loosening screws.

You could also try heating the head a little bit. (Maybe someone could jump in here with an opinion on doing this?...) Can you heat it enough without distorting the head? Any heat in the area would expand the hole and help... Maybe you might want to save that option if nothing else works...?

Good luck.

 

Ya, I can get the manifold out, No ac condensor and lines in the way on this truck. I'm still a llittle concerned what I'm gonna do if i do break one or two....

 

remove the manifold and heat the stud/bolt and hokd a candel to melt and to penetrate try to move back and forward ,dont bracke the studs inside the heads.

 

Hold a candel to melt and penetrate??? Can you elaborate?

 

Well, I got two of them out on my own, no broken ones so far.

I ground off the head on two more, so that left 4 to go

I have a nice neighbor that works for a DOT contractor, has a torch in the back of his truck all the time. He came over and cut/melted the heads of the rest of the studs since they were rounded off by the PO who apparently had tried to get this manifold off before.

So now I'm left with 6 studs to remove. Looks like I will be buying some nuts to weld on to them with my $99 harbor freight MIG unit.

 

I've been working on getting my passenger side exhaust manifold off for a few weekends, and finally have all the bolts out, and i DIDN'T BREAK A ONE!!

Started 2 weekends ago, I jacked up the truck, took the tire off and started cutting out parts of the lower inner fender. I used a angle grinder with thin cutoff wheel to cut the plastic and expose the manifold bolts. I had to be very careful not to cut the fuel lines or the get into the shock tower or wire harness that runs from the cab to the upper inner fender.

The first weekend, I managed to get two bolts out with just a ratchet and socket.

Now the fun starts.

The second weekend, I had a neighbor that works in road construction come over. He always has an acetylene torch in the back of his truck, so I asked him if he would cut off the rest of the bolt heads and the collector bolts. He did and pulled the manifold off. It fell off in 4 pieces. I'll get some pics of the old manifold later and post them here too. He did a great job, burned nothing but the bolt heads, a real pro at using a cutting torch!

So now this weekend, I'm down to 6 headless bolts still frozen in the block. I know how to weld, and have my trusty harbor freight $99 special gasless MIG. So I get all dressed up, weld jacket, gloves, and auto darkening helmet and get settled on my knees in the wheel well of the truck. My son , Nick, is hepling me by turning off and on the welder as I need, and handing me tools and a hand to get back up after my knees and ankles fall asleep kneeling on cold concrete in our driveway. We start welding nuts that I picked up a my Local fastenal store. (the only place around me that had 3/8 -16 x 1 3/4 bolts to replace in the manifold also.) Welded the first one, Put a wrench on it, and backed right out!. Right now I'm thinking 'wow, this could be easy'. To be honest, not all that bad, Three I got welded solid enough to break the bolt free, and three it took multiple times. But I did figure out a secret to welding nuts on bolts. ( more on this later). That was Saturday. (yesterday).

I get up this morning, Knees aching from being on the aforementioned cold concrete, and decide I gonna get in there and get these stubborn ones out.

Getting all dressed to weld, I came up with an idea to help get a better weld on the nults and studs. I got out my angle grinder and got it to the stud and ground a flat on the side of the stud I could get to easily. The last try yesterday to weld this, after breaking the weld (for the thrid time), I left the nut on the stud. I pulled and turned the nut until it was half deep onto the flat spot I ground on the bolt stud. The I welded it on a pretty hot setting on the welder hitting that flat and the threads of the nut so that there was a wedge of metal in the nut. I then promptly shot it with home brew penetrator, hoping to break the rust that was locking the bolt in the head.

Do it this way, I got the last three studs out in an hour and a half.

Here's pics, the ones I had to weld. One stud fell out after I got it out of the head, so you just see the nut.



Here's another, backwards, Notice NO Broken ones! I know there's only six. I think a couple got thrown under the truck. ( the stubborn ones). Also, one failed attempt, You can see that sticking the nut on the end of the stud without a flat yields low penetration on the stud by the gasless mig.



I used 7/16 nuts so I could get over the shoulder on the studs. I ran out of those, so next up was 1/2 diamter. Pic of good manifold bolt and the nut I used on three of the studs.



And I got all of these all out with the engine in the truck! I don't have the tools to pull an engine, so wasn't even an option.

Maybe something I wrote here will help someone else.

 

Makes you feel good when a plan comes together.Good Job!