Ok, so everything was going good tonight on the header swap process... until we hit a huge snag. The left-most nut on the exhaust manifold is shot. All the rest were good 12mm and came off with a 12mm wrench and some TLC... but this, oh no. It was hard enough to get the 12mm to fit, but we quickly realized that it was not the same size nut as the rest... in short, after many different attempts to get it out, it's shot. Rounded corners and an attempted grind have left it and part of the stud in shambles... so now we have a major problem... can we get those studs out of the block? If so, what kind of tool do we need? I saw these Vise-Grip Nut Buster locking wrenches with a hex end, but I've never seen one in stores just online... and to be honest, the car can't sit up on stands for too much longer... is this whole thing screwed?

Hope and pray for us.

 

You need a Torx socket. It's like a 7 or 8. Just buy a set from Sears or something and you'll be able to take the studs out. It'll cost ya like $15.

Then just bring the stud to Home Depot / Lowes / whatever and buy a nut that'll fit it.

 

use vise grips, header studs can be a b**ch sometimes. and i know its hard to get that bottom left nut off cause of the alt. bracket being there. but yea, vise grips and some PB blaster you get from auto zone.

 

YES!!!

Ok, so it took a little more work than it was worth... we had to debelt and move the alternator over so as to get a 12mm socket in there and hammer it onto the nut... but it came out! And not only that, to give you an idea of what we were working with, the socket was on the NUT, but the entier STUD came out.

We're going to a hardware store to get 12mm aircraft quality bolts to replace all the header studs. Studs are wrong.

Should be done soon then, now that this major hurdle is over.

 

glad it worked out for ya

 

just FYI.

next time try to heat the bolt up with a little flame first. It will expand the metal just enough to loosen the bolt right off.

Comp.

 

heat.

 

you can use heat, but when you heat metal it expands, you dont want the nut to get tighter, so heat it up and let it cool. this will break the contact and free up the rust.
my advise is dont use heat unless you plan to cut it off.

try some penetrating lubricant first.
if your nut is rounded I now snapon makes some really bad@$$ sockets that will remove event the most rounded bolt heads ever. expensive but handy if your a mechanic like me.

also on the studs if you run into this problem agian instead of buying specialty tools take two nuts, put them on the stud and tighten them together leaving room between both ends of the stud. this will act like a lock nut and then simply turn your stud out using the two nuts.

 

We couldn't use the 2 nut trick 'cause the studs aren't long enough to put them on there... but thanks for your help, though. I really appreciate everyone's help.

No worries mates, it's all finally on. The car's still up on jack stands for the night (I'm beat... and it's too late to check for problems/leaks if need be) so I'll be cranking 'er over tomorrow. I'll be sure to let everyone know how it goes.

Again, thanks a bunch.

 

Just to warn you if you disconected the battery so the ecu can expect the upgrade, on initial start up it might fire one cylinder and then off. don't be freaked, it scared the crap out of me, its normal. or at least it does it to me everytime I disconect the battery.

 

PB Blaster is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Use it on everything. haha