Exhaust manifold studs?, Now what Options

[catsltd]

Pulling tranny.decided to change out heat exchangers while at it.
Fou;ld lots of black soot,so leaking pretty bad.

The problem is when I was pulling off the passenger side 3 of the studs came out.

What should I do.??.

[McMark]

Some tips on exhaust.

* You don't need to file both pipes at once. They flex a lot. Just make sure each one is filed flat on its own.

* Use a tiny amount of copper antisieze to stick the copper rings into the head during installation. Keeping those bugger in place is a pain sometimes.

* When installing the pipes, it's not uncommon for the pipe edge to catch on the head slightly. Use a flashlight to spend a lot of time looking around the pipe. You should be able to see a small amount of copper around the pipe when it's installed. You can carefully pry the pipe into place with a screwdriver if it's stubborn.

* Stainless steel headers are the most difficult to line up.

* Don't tighten any of the nuts all the way first. You will get the pipe cocked a bit and it won't seal. Run all four nuts on part way, and then just go around and around tightening a little bit at a time. The best is to use a torque wrench set to a very low number. That way if one nut starts getting tight before the others you can skip it until the other nuts match torque.

* Use a 1/4" drive ratchet. You don't need any more leverage than that and it makes it much harder to over tighten the nuts. You don't need to tighten these hard to make them seal.

* You'll need to go back and retighten the nuts after a little run time.

That's it off the top of my head.

[BeatNavy]

Some tips on exhaust.

* You don't need to file both pipes at once. They flex a lot. Just make sure each one is filed flat on its own.

* Use a tiny amount of copper antisieze to stick the copper rings into the head during installation. Keeping those bugger in place is a pain sometimes.

* When installing the pipes, it's not uncommon for the pipe edge to catch on the head slightly. Use a flashlight to spend a lot of time looking around the pipe. You should be able to see a small amount of copper around the pipe when it's installed. You can carefully pry the pipe into place with a screwdriver if it's stubborn.

* Stainless steel headers are the most difficult to line up.

* Don't tighten any of the nuts all the way first. You will get the pipe cocked a bit and it won't seal. Run all four nuts on part way, and then just go around and around tightening a little bit at a time. The best is to use a torque wrench set to a very low number. That way if one nut starts getting tight before the others you can skip it until the other nuts match torque.

* Use a 1/4" drive ratchet. You don't need any more leverage than that and it makes it much harder to over tighten the nuts. You don't need to tighten these hard to make them seal.

* You'll need to go back and retighten the nuts after a little run time.

That's it off the top of my head.

Follow Mark's advice. That's what I did the first time, and it made an otherwise unpleasant (and somewhat risky) effort easier and more successful. One other tip that Mark or someone else suggested: yes, use the 1/4" ratchet and a flexible extension can be helpful too.