easy way to take apart manifolds on a 91 pickup with out distroying the flange?

[91' burb]

is there any easy way to do this? ive thought about taking the y pipe out with them, but would that be just as much of a pain in the butt?
the flange has one broken stud on the drivers side and 2 on the passengers.. ive them soked in zebra pee, ( PB blaster)

any help? i really dont want to replace the manifolds or the y pipe on this truck...

thanx guys!

Matt #2

 

[chevyuser74]

heat and patience is the best way, but its more luck than anything, alot of the time u have to drill and tap.

 

[91' burb]

well, turns luck was not on my side today.... trying to take the bolts off the passanger side, the flange broke off the y pipe. ive seen y pipe repair kits, but they dont work well on new cars, so im just gonna bite the bullet and buy new manifolds and a y pipe from Robbins..

now this is a plow truck, ive got a dynomax muffler on it, and with the cat it was quiet but good sounding. if i leave the cat off the truck and just run the manifolds with the muffler, will the exhaust smell real bad? or only if its not running well? ive got the cat off the truck now, and had to back it out of the shop, ( wow just straight out of the heads its Fing Loud! lol) i really dont want to buy a cheap hi-flow cat for it, and have it rot off..... ( being a GM tech, inspection is not a problem.. but will the truck be too loud? its single exhaust with one pipe out the pass. side behind the mudflap.

suggestions?

thanx!

Matt #2

 

[sweetk30]

i would grab a cheep set of shorty headers off evilbay and then have local exaust shop fab up 2.5" ypipe and 3" collector to single muffler. good sound and 30hp at the rear wheels more than stock stuff. brian at tbichips has shown it on chassie dyno sheets. would be cloose to the same price of stock vary restrictive stuff . so why not .

 

[chevyuser74]

only problem with headers is they are sure to leak especially since they would be cheap

 

[pauly383]

I definitely don't miss midwest and east coast fasteners . One of the benefits to being out west is bolt and stud removal