exhaust studs

[charger72]

I was wondering whats the easiest way to get a couple broken exhaust studs(front 2 on a 71 383) without having to take the head off? Im finally getting around to fixing the leak since I bought the car 2 years ago.

[71charger_fan]

Easy and broken stud don't belong in the same sentence. When I had a head in the machine shop in June they finally gave up and drilled it out and heli-coiled the hole.

[Blown70]

Easy and broken stud don't belong in the same sentence.

Yep.  I have to agree there.

[8WHEELER]

THEY SHOULD USE A THREAD CERT, I have two Heli-coils on my heads and they leak no matter what I try.
A thread cert will not allow water to go around the threads like a heli-coil. My machine shop told me
they saw mine and should have put in thread certs but forgot.

Dan

[Ghoste]

What's a thread cert?  I've never heard of one.

[8WHEELER]

Its like a solid sleeve with threads on the inside and the outside, so you need to drill
a larger hole but it will seal the hole better in the long run.

Dan

[71charger_fan]

I don't know if they used a helicoil or a thread cert. I just assumed it was a helicoil as, until now, I too had never heard of a thread cert. It doesn't leak coolant so maybe it is a thread cert. The bottom line is that getting that broken stud out was a b#$%h even for the machine shop with the head on a bench. I've had a broken stud in the passenger side head for years. I just can't bring myself to deal with it.

[1970440RT]

     Try to weld (mig) on a nut to the broken stud.  If you can fill the nut enough with welding wire and get a good strong bond, you should be able to back it out after hosing it down with penetrating fluid.  Don't put a breaker bar on it and go to town, take it easy and go back and forth.  If this doesn't work, drill and tap.  I've sealed helicoils with high temp sealant and they have held with no leaks.  Never done a thread cert.

[andy74]

ive had good luck by heating them up red hot with a torch,then pushing a candle on to em,they will smoke like hell,but the wax should suck into the threads,and allow you to break em loose.we get a lot of rusty stuff and stuck fastners here in salty new york,try it out.

[Ghoste]

Do you wait for the wax to cool or hit it with the wrench while everything is still hot?

[andy74]

get it while the wax is still hot if you can-usually works better that way

[cudaken]

 Thanks for the tip Andy, that was a new one to me.

                                     Cuda Ken

[haueter66]

Never heard of that, but it sounds like something to try next time!

[zstalker]

Easy and broken stud don't belong in the same sentence.

couldn't agree more.   when I rebuild my old 383 I sheared off a stud (only one, thankfully) while pulling them all out to replace.   I spent about a week (of auto shop class) drilling it out, and a lot of material from the head around it too.   I tried heli-coil, but as mentioned, it will NOT hold the cooland behind it at all.   tried different sealants, high-temp RTV, everything...nothing could do it.   eventually had a stud custom cut at a machine shop with the prodruding side the original thread size, and the threaded-in side 2 sizes loversize. looked really funny till I got it in the block. but it did the trick...didn't cost too terribly much, if I recall...