Getting ready to replace the exhaust manifold studs, need advice.
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Getting ready to replace the exhaust manifold studs, need advice.
Last night I removed the fender liner on the driver's side to prepare to replace the Exhaust Manifold studs.
Wow, these things look difficult to get to. I can't even see the bottom ones through the wheel well. At this point, to avoid breaking anything off, I would love to be able to just cut the nuts off and leave the whole stud behind. Most of the nuts look so rusted they are round.
I also don't see how to get at the one in front behind the master cylinder.
I also want to replace the studs and nuts that bolt the manifold to the Y pipe. Is it a stud with a nut on each end? Again, lots of rust, so it's hard to tell.
I was quoted $650 at a dealer, and the parts are like $50. With that much difference, I really don't want to pay that much to have it done.
I sprayed penetrating oil on them last night. I'll do it again tonight.
Any advice? I haven't been able to find much info online about guys doing this repair themselves.
I replaced a set of studs along with a cracked manifold, y-pipe studs/nuts and rotted EGR tube on the driver side.....what a huge pain in the azz.
Some of the studs/nuts broke and some I welded another nut on for something to grab a hold of.
After the manifold was off the stud remnants were very hard to remove from the head. 3 needed a heli-coil thread repair. Next time I'll let them do it for the $500 they quoted. The parts I purchased were just over $150. IMHO, This is not a typical DIY'er project.
It technically wasn't a quote. To get a quote I'd have to take the vehicle there, which I don't want to do unless I know it's staying to get fixed (since the inspection is expired). One of the service guys pulled an invoice from May when he did the same job.
Replace 8 manifold studs and nuts
Replace gaskets
Replace studs and nuts at the collector
Replace EGR tube
6 hours labor.
I've worked at a shop for about a year and saw a lot of this same problem. $650.00 to have it done is not a bad price. What we would do if they broke off when slowly trying to unbolt everything is to weld a washer to what is left of the broken stud, then weld a new bolt to that and again slowly loosen and slowly tighten until they came out. If it was too stubborn we would just move on. At times we have had to leave broken studs in and hoped with a new gasket and the manifold properly installed it wouldn't leak. Which most of the time it would not leak and was like new again.
Hope that gives some insight on how to go about this. Good luck, be patient, and set aside a whole weekend to accomplish this. At the shop it took a good five hours easily with all the right tools and a guy knowing how to go about doing it.
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Getting ready to replace the exhaust manifold studs, need advice. 
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