Dirk37
Mr. Resourceful
I have had some of the worst luck with exhaust studs, every time I take my Y-pipe off the damn things break and then I spend all day trying to remove them and repair the threads and so on....
Well today I finally had it with them. I was putting a new one into the manifold and the rusted threads in the manifold were so damaged they shaved the threads off the new stud. At that point I came up with a new solution to secure the y-pipe.
Instead of trying to retap the holes and put new studs in only to have them be a PITA in the future, I drilled out the threads and now am just using a nut and a bolt.
There's a number of advantages I see to doing this. First off, if anything breaks there's nothing to extract, just pull the pieces out of each side, throw them away and buy a new nut and bolt set. Second they're super easy to remove because they don't need anywhere near as much tightening at the exhaust studs did, plus there's not as many threads to traverse.
The only downsides to doing this are that getting the bolt started threading through the nut on the top is kind of tricky and the heat shields require a little bit of modification.
"Where'd my engine go???"
To do this I used a 7/16 inch drill bit to bore the holes out, then used some M10x50 bolts and some m10 nuts and washers. At Ace it came out to $6.88, then the drill bit was like $10 or so. You should be able to do this on the car, though I did mine on the work bench because I had the manifolds out to remove the broken studs.
In case anyone is wondering how to remove the manifolds, it's not too terribly complicated though it looks pretty intimidating at first. The front one is pretty easy:
1. Unbolt the CCRM and move it out of the way
2. Disconnect the alternator wires
3. Unbolt the radiator fan and pull it out of the car
4. Unbolt the 6 14mm nuts holding the manifold on (these are usually pretty tight and a cheater bar helps)
The rear one is a bit more complex but doable:
1. Disconnect the intake runner control vacuum line from the intake
2. Pull the little black cylinder vacuum reservoir out of the mount and move it to the side
3. Disconnect the vacuum solenoid connector
4. Unbolt the mounting bracket for the assembly and move it out of the way
5. Disconnect the ECU connector (10mm bolt)
6. Pull the huge vacuum line connected to the intake on the L shaped port
7. Take the nut off the end of the intake mounting bolt (where the engine ground also connects) then pull the wiring harness holder up (the ********* thing that has a littler cluster-f of wires and connectors on it)
8. Disconnect the connectors on it and pull them off of it (there's 4, two big ones and two small ones. I used a flathead screwdriver to bend the tabs holding them onto it)
8.5. (Optional) This wiring harness thing has always been a pain in the ass for me, so I removed the 6.5 mm bolt on it, pulled everything off it and got rid of it, then secured the wires up with zip ties.
9. Move all the wires out of the way (also disconnect the barometric pressure sensor)
10. You should now see the top of the manifold, use a small wrench to remove the two 12 mm bolts holding the top of the heat shield on, then go under the car and remove the bottom one and pull the heat shield off.
11. You should now be able to get a 14mm socket wrench in there and remove the 6 nuts holding the manifold on.
12. To put it back on go in reverse order, the manifold bolts should be pretty tight when putting back on. You'll feel them reach a point where they don't want to turn anymore and that should be fine. (Or if you have a torque wrench, 26-38 ft-lbs)
All of these steps are assuming you've removed the Y-pipe already. Feel free to try it with the Y-pipe still on but it probably won't work.
Well today I finally had it with them. I was putting a new one into the manifold and the rusted threads in the manifold were so damaged they shaved the threads off the new stud. At that point I came up with a new solution to secure the y-pipe.
Instead of trying to retap the holes and put new studs in only to have them be a PITA in the future, I drilled out the threads and now am just using a nut and a bolt.
There's a number of advantages I see to doing this. First off, if anything breaks there's nothing to extract, just pull the pieces out of each side, throw them away and buy a new nut and bolt set. Second they're super easy to remove because they don't need anywhere near as much tightening at the exhaust studs did, plus there's not as many threads to traverse.
The only downsides to doing this are that getting the bolt started threading through the nut on the top is kind of tricky and the heat shields require a little bit of modification.
"Where'd my engine go???"
To do this I used a 7/16 inch drill bit to bore the holes out, then used some M10x50 bolts and some m10 nuts and washers. At Ace it came out to $6.88, then the drill bit was like $10 or so. You should be able to do this on the car, though I did mine on the work bench because I had the manifolds out to remove the broken studs.
In case anyone is wondering how to remove the manifolds, it's not too terribly complicated though it looks pretty intimidating at first. The front one is pretty easy:
1. Unbolt the CCRM and move it out of the way
2. Disconnect the alternator wires
3. Unbolt the radiator fan and pull it out of the car
4. Unbolt the 6 14mm nuts holding the manifold on (these are usually pretty tight and a cheater bar helps)
The rear one is a bit more complex but doable:
1. Disconnect the intake runner control vacuum line from the intake
2. Pull the little black cylinder vacuum reservoir out of the mount and move it to the side
3. Disconnect the vacuum solenoid connector
4. Unbolt the mounting bracket for the assembly and move it out of the way
5. Disconnect the ECU connector (10mm bolt)
6. Pull the huge vacuum line connected to the intake on the L shaped port
7. Take the nut off the end of the intake mounting bolt (where the engine ground also connects) then pull the wiring harness holder up (the ********* thing that has a littler cluster-f of wires and connectors on it)
8. Disconnect the connectors on it and pull them off of it (there's 4, two big ones and two small ones. I used a flathead screwdriver to bend the tabs holding them onto it)
8.5. (Optional) This wiring harness thing has always been a pain in the ass for me, so I removed the 6.5 mm bolt on it, pulled everything off it and got rid of it, then secured the wires up with zip ties.
9. Move all the wires out of the way (also disconnect the barometric pressure sensor)
10. You should now see the top of the manifold, use a small wrench to remove the two 12 mm bolts holding the top of the heat shield on, then go under the car and remove the bottom one and pull the heat shield off.
11. You should now be able to get a 14mm socket wrench in there and remove the 6 nuts holding the manifold on.
12. To put it back on go in reverse order, the manifold bolts should be pretty tight when putting back on. You'll feel them reach a point where they don't want to turn anymore and that should be fine. (Or if you have a torque wrench, 26-38 ft-lbs)
All of these steps are assuming you've removed the Y-pipe already. Feel free to try it with the Y-pipe still on but it probably won't work.
Great job!!
