I was assisting friend on an exhaust system install on his '06 vert, Borlas to stock h-pipe. When he was re-installing the h-pipe, the studs in one of the catalytic converter pipe assemblies that hold the h-pipe became splayed somehow. Weird. No obvious sign of what he did wrong. Anyway, they unscrewed easily enough (the h-pipe receiving ends fit an 8mm socket), and they were indeed bent. No problem, we thought, these have got to be commonly available fasteners if they bend so easily. So we called the local Chevy dealer to see if they were in stock and the parts person says that they're not separately orderable! Our natural conclusion was that there was a misunderstanding, so we went to a different Chevy dealer (not my favorite, but closer), taking the bent studs with us, and we got the same answer! You can't order them without a new cat assembly! Fred Beans says the same thing! The local dealer suggested we try a muffler shop, but the local high performance specialist had never seen anything like them. Either had Napa. Mcmaster-Carr has nothing like them on their website, nor do a few others we checked.

So we stuck the bent studs in a bench vise and straightened them, mostly, and made sure the threads were right with a die set, and we reinstalled them and made sure no splaying occurred. (We still don't know why that happened.) Be forewarned that if you damage those studs permanently, like snap them, you are going to be very annoyed.

 

I had this happen on my second exhaust change. I picked up a set of studs from NAPA. They had them in stock. They were about 1/2" longer, but it was no issue.

 

Excellent! Were they studs or bolts? Can you describe them a bit? Because I have a Kwiklift I end up helping quite a few people change their exhaust, and it would be nice to have some spares laying around.

 

The same happened to me. Go to your local muffer shop and they should have em.. good luck

 

I went to Lowes and bought bolts of the correct thread and pitch and just threaded them through from the side that faces the front of the car. This effectively created a new stud and worked just fine.

 

I like this idea best, because you can choose stainless steel to fight future corrosion, or Grade 8 to fight future stud bending. Choice is good, it's the American Way.

 

Cool. Thanks, everyone, for your advice. Apparently damaging those studs is pretty common. That'll make Roger feel better.

 

Do you happen to remember what the correct size, thread and pitch was. I'd like to have them on hand when I change out my exhaust.
Thanks!

 

Sorry, no I don't. I believe they were metric. What i did was take one of the good studs with me to Lowes to match up the threads. Mine didn't bend, I used an air ratchet on them when I took the nuts off and that bit twisted the threads. I was quite surprised at how easily they became damaged.

 

yes, just crank them out and replace with bolts. My car did the same thing!