Hit a water jacket will trying to fix an exhaust stud... Now what?

[2Gunz]

I have a broken exhaust stud.

No luck with an easy out or other non destructive method.


No Im drilling it out it try to tap it or helicoil it.

But in the process I managed to drill to far...... DOH!!

So now I have engine coolant all over the place.

Anybody have a decent repair method?

Im thinking steel putty in the hole and putting Some hi temp rtv on the bolt as I put it in.

However if its a crapshot as to if it will last I just want to bite the bullet and get new heads now.


Ideas?

[RD]

exhaust studs run into the water jackets, that is the way they are made.  just drill it out, and when you put in a new exhaust stud, just put some high temp silicone around the threads.

[Chargerguy74]

I just experienced this. But I stopped myself from drilling and causing more potential damage (especially to threads) and had a nut welded to the remainder of the stud....worked like a charm. Wasted two good easy outs prior to this though.

[2Gunz]

Ya I tried everything I could think.

And not enough stud to weld a nut on.

Im still fighting this thing..... guess Ill see what happens

[Chargerguy74]

I didn't have enough stud to weld either...atleast I didn't think so, it broke fairly deep inside. A nut was held over the hole and the hole filled with a mig. Fused to the cleanly broken stud with zero bonding to the cast head. Good luck. It can be very frustrating.

[1969chargerrtse]

Unreal, this is the same issue I had and I have a fix that worked perfect.  The last stud on the driver side head was this big threaded thing?  I pulled it out and now had a huge hole into my water jacket.    Being of such a large thread I couldn't put on the factory manifold?  What to do?  I noticed it had a "lip" after the threads and new I saw this type of stud before.  Yes, It was a wheel stud.  What someone did was tap a wheel stud into the head.  What I did next was pull it out, stick it into a drill and run the side that would be used for the exhaust stud along side a bench grinder, I ground it down by eye site to just the size on the factory nut I needed to use.  When I got it there, I mounted it in a vise and threaded the correct size threads.  Put on some high temp sealer and threaded it back in the head until the lip bottomed out, and WA LA!!  Worked great on my 440 high performance manifolds.  I kid you not.  You can PM me and I'll explain it better if needed, but nothing leaks and it really was easy to do, and didn't take that long.    So you would need to get a wheel stud because the lip is what bottoms out for a good seal, and thread that into your head, then grind down the other side to the size and thread you need.

[Steve P.]

I have had to drill out a few of these. The BIG trick is making sure you drill in the DEAD CENTER of the stud. A very good center punch is a must for this.

I center punch the stud first. (If the stud broke off on an angle you can grind it flat if enough stud is sticking out).

Then I drill it with a 1/8th bit. (Plenty of oil and drill it slowly). (Make sure you pull the bit out often to clean out the bit).

I then drill the stud out again and again with progressively bigger bits until I see nothing but threads left inside the hole.

Then I use a pick to remove the original threads from the stud.

Once cleaned out I run a tap into the hole a few times to make sure the threads are good and clean.

Then just install the new stud or bolt with a good high temp thread sealer and finish out your build.



Good luck......