bl75vette

I have tried to soak these SOB's for the longest time and they still don't move. One of my friends said I should take the car to one of the muffler shops and have them burn them out. Has anyone resorted to this course of action? Does the steel bolts have a lower melting point than the cast iron manifolds? How much should it cost to have them replaced with stainless ones? :chevy

LT1driver

OK, I have the same problem. If the studs are showing, weld nut on them heat manifold and spray with wd40 and screw out stud, if not cutting out works if welder is really good, otherwise drill and tap, pain in the butt but works, I am going welded nut first then drill out. Good luck to you. I feel your pain. :D

Jvette73

If you have a torch you can heat them up till thier cherry red hot. Then sometimes they will back off. If your socket gets a good bite on them, sometimes they snap off. Then your off to pull the manifolds off the car to have them fitted with new studs. This is one of the reasons I dont like working on exaust. If you can start the motor and run it till the manifolds are good and hot, then jump down there before they cool down and give em a try. Good luck. :smash:

bl75vette

I don't think I can get a bite on the stud. Only one broke off so far. I have been afraid to try to put too much torque on the others that they will also snap. If they all snap then the pipe falls to the ground and I cannot drive it to a repair shop. I know I could just snap each and then pull the manifolds. I hate to think how hard that will be with the A/C connections.

Paul L

You can try a stud extraction tool with heat but realistically I recommend that you go to a muffler shop. A good tech knows what shade of red hot is appropriate to extract without damage.

jonny4523

Exact same thing happened to me. I ended up giving too much torque with the wrench and broke most of them out. The studs were useless to use again anyways. I just took the manifolds to the local steel working place and the took the out for me. No drilling or anything required.

Paul L

Yes, even with the stud extractor tool and acetylene heat I snapped three of the six off. Mind you they were in there for 21 years and were pretty thin in the middle. When you snap them there is not much to grab on to. This is a job for the pros.