exhaust bolts and mental health...

[BoondocK5]

So, on a whim, I go outside thinking I'll give the exhaust bolts a go, see how many I'm going to break, before storming off to get the torch.
Low and behold, every single one of them came out, not even a fight.
I've been anxious about those since I got the truck 5+ years ago. Just weird...

 

[diesel4me]

I've only had a few 350's have the exhaust manifold bolts bust off in the heads--and all but one or two broke where they go thru the casting,they were whittled away to nubs from rust,but there was plently of bolt left sticking out to get them out with vise grips and some torch heat..

I did have to drill 2 out I remember,on one engine I swapped into one of my trucks,I did it before I put the engine in though,because the car manifolds it had on it were not the same "dump" location..wasn't much fun trying to drill them with the engine on a chain hanging from a cherry picker,I had to lay it on the grass and lay it over to one side,those bolts got very hardened over time,had to keep changing the drill bits ,I used up 4 new 1/4" ones to get two bolts out..

Exhaust STUDS suck seriously ,I have very poor luck getting any of them to let me unscrew the nuts to get the pipes off without snapping off...and the "blind hole" on the manifold always seems to be the most likely one to bust off,because its the hardest one to extract one out of..

I've been known to just use 5/16" bolts in the flange holes that "pass thru",I just grind the head on the bolt off on one side till it'll slip thru..
Then next time the pipe needs to come off,I can just cut the bolts with the torch or sawsall..Mopar does it that way,it was the one idea they had that was good..

 

[BoondocK5]

So, on a whim, I go outside thinking I'll give the exhaust bolts a go, see how many I'm going to break, before storming off to get the torch.
Low and behold, every single one of them came out, not even a fight.
I've been anxious about those since I got the truck 5+ years ago. Just weird...

View attachment 347289

The bottom studs that hold the pipe to the manifolds, they were held on with brass nuts, hence, no rust, they turned right off.
I must be living right. That never happens.
In this heat, I have no patience for stubborn shit, either. So glad it all came off. Sand blaster, here I come...

 

[diesel4me]

I've tried new studs,brass "thick" nuts designed for this purpose,and still had them seize on and bust the stud off--or the brass strips out and just spins,and won't unscrew!..I was able to melt the brass off though,without harming the studs..

I thought I'd be clever and use stainless steel studs on one of my trucks exhaust manifolds...wrong!..two years later I had to replace the Y pipe,and the dam things snapped off like they were made of glass!..
None of my drills would touch them either--they turned orange and melted without making a scratch..
I had to pull the manifolds off and take them to a machine shop,they used an end mill on a Bridgeport to chew them out and re-tapped it--for $100.....wont make that mistake again!..

I now use "soft" grade 2 bolts,threaded rods,or brass bolts on my exhaust manifolds..at least those drill out a lot easier when they break..never-seize never seems to help in this area either,it must just burn off ?..