Snapped an exhaust stud.....

[n5926g]

Evening guy,s...While removing the exhaust pipe to gain access to the rear master cylinder,I broke a stud....Still have about 1/2 inch exposed...I figure perhaps some PB blaster,and a good vice grip will remove the rest of it....Can In use a standard metric bolt to put the manifold back on? or should I find a stud?.....anyone else had this problem? The rest of the retaining nuts came off fine

[brettchallenger]

Well you are fortunate to have some stud left to play with.

Lots of penetrating oil over several days, gentle tapping sideways of the offending stud to try and loosen it some and to allow the penetrating oil to do its work. Do you have enough of the stud left to allow two nuts, locked together to be screwed on, so you can grip these when trying to move it? Whatever you use to try and extract it, heating the stud up will help.

Good luck

[Happytrails]

Don't feel alone, I did the same thing too. The advice I got at the time was to use some penetrating oil and tap on the end of what was left of the broken stud. Then attach a nice sized set of vice grips as tight and as close to the cylinder head as possible. Make sure the teeth bite in good then loosen it out. Worked perfectly. I ordered OEM exhaust stud and new nuts all the way thru. Mine were pretty corroded. I only did one header like you did. I did ceramic coat the header as mine was getting rusty. And also painted up the rest of the pieces with high temp paint. Took me maybe 4 times longer doing it that way but it made me feel better.

Busted stud

Loosened stud

[n5926g]

Don't feel alone, I did the same thing too. The advice I got at the time was to use some penetrating oil and tap on the end of what was left of the broken stud. Then attach a nice sized set of vice grips as tight and as close to the cylinder head as possible. Make sure the teeth bite in good then loosen it out. Worked perfectly. I ordered OEM exhaust stud and new nuts all the way thru. Mine were pretty corroded. I only did one header like you did. I did ceramic coat the header as mine was getting rusty. And also painted up the rest of the pieces with high temp paint. Took me maybe 4 times longer doing it that way but it made me feel better.

Busted stud

bustedstud_zps21c2e8b0.jpg

Loosened stud

studout01_zps21e7f8d1.jpg

Thanks!......Figure I was lucky...only snapped one!

[Mh434]

If you had access to a MIG welder, the best way would be to start a new nut onto the stud to about 1/2 of the nut's depth, then fill in the rest of the nut's hole with weld (plug-welding it to the stud). The combination of a brand new bolt head to work with, plus the heat-soak from the welding, would no doubt allow it to be turned out without trouble.

Of course, not all of us have such equipment. One thing I would caution about is direct heat (as in, torch flame onto the stud right at the head) - it's an aluminum head, and it doesn't take all that much heat to melt or deform it.

An alternative to heat is...cold. Extreme cold, that is. It's easy & cheap to do, and will not cause any harm if it doesn't work. Get a can of "Dust-Off" or similar canned-air (for blowing off computer keyboards, etc.). It's not actually air inside, but (IIRC) a butane derivative. Put the red plastic straw on the can, INVERT the can, and spray the stud with it. What comes out of the can will be a liquid, and cold beyond belief. To put this in perspective, I had to shrink a hardened-steel roller bearing by about 5% to fit it into the end of a crankshaft. That bearing was far to tight to even start into the pocket. I did the above trick, spraying thoroughly for several seconds until the bearing was uniformly solid white, and it literally plopped into the hole. IIRC, that 3/4" diameter bearing shrunk .017".

Now, I've used that trick for removing broken studs before, too. Cool that stud down really cold, and it will shrink in its hole. A lot. Once the cold penetrates the stud, you should be able to unscrew it with ease.

Unlike with heat, there's no danger of damaging the head with this method.

Just my $.02...

[n5926g]

If you had access to a MIG welder, the best way would be to start a new nut onto the stud to about 1/2 of the nut's depth, then fill in the rest of the nut's hole with weld (plug-welding it to the stud). The combination of a brand new bolt head to work with, plus the heat-soak from the welding, would no doubt allow it to be turned out without trouble.

Of course, not all of us have such equipment. One thing I would caution about is direct heat (as in, torch flame onto the stud right at the head) - it's an aluminum head, and it doesn't take all that much heat to melt or deform it.

An alternative to heat is...cold. Extreme cold, that is. It's easy & cheap to do, and will not cause any harm if it doesn't work. Get a can of "Dust-Off" or similar canned-air (for blowing off computer keyboards, etc.). It's not actually air inside, but (IIRC) a butane derivative. Put the red plastic straw on the can, INVERT the can, and spray the stud with it. What comes out of the can will be a liquid, and cold beyond belief. To put this in perspective, I had to shrink a hardened-steel roller bearing by about 5% to fit it into the end of a crankshaft. That bearing was far to tight to even start into the pocket. I did the above trick, spraying thoroughly for several seconds until the bearing was uniformly solid white, and it literally plopped into the hole. IIRC, that 3/4" diameter bearing shrunk .017".

Now, I've used that trick for removing broken studs before, too. Cool that stud down really cold, and it will shrink in its hole. A lot. Once the cold penetrates the stud, you should be able to unscrew it with ease.

Unlike with heat, there's no danger of damaging the head with this method.

Just my $.02...

We have "Freeze Spray" at the shop we use to isolate shorted electronic components....Will give that a shot! Thanks

[Happytrails]

I bought some CRC freezing spray for when I was working on my truck and the bolts were pretty tight. Ended up not trying it but it makes sense how it works. Good luck I'm sure you'll get it just fine.

[jonesg]

Went through this twice in the past month, first was exh stud on my volvo, I used a Titon stud extractor and it worked great. $20 at auto store.


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Second we broke a 1/2 inch bolt off in a Jaguar steering knuckle, had to drill through the bolt to use an ez out, I would not recommend them as they are brittle and will break off but we got away with it by working slow, using map gas and freeze out spray.