a spinning exhaust stud!!!!

ok, so i need one of those step down studs right?

my questions are:

1) can i rethread the head with the engine still in the car?

2) what size step down stud do i need?

3) where can i quickly find said step down stud?


i wanna be ready for the ecr in a few weeks so i gotta get moving!

thanks,

Scott

this can be done with the engine in the car but you'll need to pull the h.e. first make sure that it hasn't already recieved the next size up. try a vw shop in your area, or check with one of our favorite vendors. when you drill it out mark the depth on the drill bit with a piece of tape before you start, so you don't go too deep. retap for the correct size "step up" stud and you should be good to go. get new cooper he to head gaskets and new nuts for the studs. don't reuse the old ones. remove the h.e. before you order. you might have to get more than one stud. get a new set of h.e. to muffler gaskets as you will want to pull the muffler to do this. there is no better time to replace those too. soak the nuts with pb blaster or areokroil before you try to remove them.

kevin

That truley does suck. When it happened to me I heli-coiled it with the engine in the car. Here the problem: unless you have an early exhaust j-tube you either have to try to make a guide for the tap, or you eyeball it. I tried to make a guide but it didn't work. So I eyeballed it. It worked. But if you botch it - let the head banging begin!!! It is tight fit between the studs and the j--tube. I had to do a fair amount of filing on the j-tube to get the 4 studs through it. Good luck!

thanks for the input guys.

i have all new gaskets etc since i put on the new stainless exchangers. made certain i didn't over torque the nuts and everything has been peachy until this week.

would really appreciate the name of a vendor so i can order the new step down stud.

by the way, the spinning stud is an original....

thanks again....