Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2011 12:38:40 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Exhaust fun never ends
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="UTF-8"; reply-type=original
it's stock-original for each head to have exhaust studs on one end, and use
bolts at the other exhaust port.
on the engine, that means studs and bolts are opposite of each other..
so one pipe goes on studs on say the left side, and uses bolts on the other.
The big advantage of studs is you can heat the nut to get it off, and never
mess with threads in the head.
And advantage of bolts, is you can remove them to sneak in a new exhaust
port gasket if you need to, with removing the whole pipe.
I haven't used propane heat in decades, and I've found it to not be very
effective for heating something like a broken off bolt or stud in an
aluminum head.
what you doing would be first my approach ..
penetrating oil, heat, vice grips.
I hope you get 'em !
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Grisanti" <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2011 12:14 PM
Subject: Exhaust fun never ends
Finally finished my roof this week by taking two nice October vacation days
thereby freeing me up to pursue the exhaust replacement on the Westy, which
I undertook in earnest this morning. I had done the muffler and tailpipe a
couple of years ago and am now doing the four main pipes upstream of the
cat. Although I could find no receipt for it in the paper pile from the two
previous owners, this system must have been replaced because it does not use
studs at each flange, but only at two of them. Cylinders #1 and #4 have each
had both studs replaced with bolts, and despite my fears of dealing with the
dreaded exhaust studs it was two of these bolts that snapped off during the
removal, the upper one at each of the two flanges. Damn! The studs survived
just fine, although access to them was so bad I had to Dremel off most of
the nuts.
So now I find myself with additional challenge of removing the remains of
the bolts, two nubs about 3/8” long poking out of the heads. I’m doing some
other cleanup work before tackling that task so if there are any suggestions
for proceeding I’m all ears and will check back for your suggestions. PB
Blaster soaks in progress. I’m thinking propane torch and Vise Grips. I’ve
heard of welding nuts to what’s left and turning them out that way, but I’m
no welder.
I knew going in that this job would be messy, troublesome and potential
painful (lucky on that last one so far) and I know why we pay shops to do
this kind of work, but I also figured that I could handle it. Gotta love a
challenge.
Stephen