So I recently got my car back from my mechanic ($450 and 5 days later), and I'm here to say it runs better than ever! I have finally gotten my car the the level I imagined it as when I bought it three years ago!

Anyway, 8 of the 12 studs were broken...The rear bank was leaking exhaust, and the front four broke as soon as they were wrenched on. The broken studs were removed with a TIG welder. Now she runs great! Long live the Four Door Sports Car!

 

Congrats. Had that done last year - huge improvement. Mine had 4 on the back and 2 on the front broken. Put-put-put...

 

Did mine a couple months ago and happy to have decent gas mileage again.

 

I need to do mine, put Im dropping in another engine.

Can you tell me how your mechanic TIG'd the studs out. I told my friend but I wasnt real sure and neither was he. I cant wait to get my max and 240 quiet again.

~Alex

 

I cant wait to fix mine... Might drive up to Inidiana by Josh and help him then have him help me. Congrats on the fix!

 

How do you know if exhaust studs need replacing? My engine sounds like a clock (not a VE), I think I read long ago that it might be the exhaust studs?

 

We put new studs in the motor that went into my old 92. I think maybe 3 were broke. I put new studs in my old 92 VG while I had the heads off to repair the damage from a broken T belt and I think all but two were broke or broke when I took the nuts off. I put new studs in my current 93 while the motor is out even though not a single bolt was broken. none broke when I took the nuts off either...or when I took the studs out. Makes me think they were replaced already but its cheap insurance to go ahead and do it anyway.

Its a lot easier to replace them when the motor is out thats for sure. I did 2 rear ones on my old 90 with the motor still in the car...that was a pain but I got them done and the car quiet.


jaguax...yeah you probably have some broken studs. Look to see if any are physically missing.

 

You'll have a very noticable exhaust smell, usually best with cold engine. Some people have noticed some type of "ticking", since that is normal when the studs break and you have 2 plates of metal (one off the y-pipe and the other your exhaust manifold) bouncing off each other.

Another way, which confirms my studs, is if you ever get an Emissions check and your NOx (the vairous oxides of nitrogen) is almost 0ppm (i.e. mine was 0.15ppm), then you most likely have an early ehaust leak, which would probably be the studs.

$450 sounds reasonable, since the mechanic would pretty much have to twist his/her back to get to the studs closest to the firewall. The studs in the front, I've heard, are easier to do. Usually, dropping the entire engine out of the bay makes the back studs easier to do.

A member by the name of Byran 91SE has a pretty good write up and something about Nickson "Clamp a Stud" for those who need to continually swap Y-pipes for any reason.
http://members.csinet.net/tisch/maxima/

Good luck, I hope to do mine sometime too, especially with a new WS y-pipe in mind.

 

It's that peculiar put-put-put sound, mate!

 

Also, if you seafoam your motor and suffocating white fumes start coming from by your manifolds and you inhale them and almost die, that means your studs are broken.


Or so I hear.

 

I just sea foamed my car. I pretty much had smoke coming from every joint in my exaust except the head to manifold were all good except 1 on the front drivers side. Ive always seen that pos stud break. So yea my exaust needs work..

~Alex

 

I am replacing my y pipe (header pipe) next week due to my flex pipe failing. $150 shipped including all the gaskets. I did not order new studs however. How much are they? What is the liklihood that I will need to replace some or all of the studs in this process. How many will I be dealing with in doing this job? Thanks.

 

where'd you get the y-pipe from...go warpspeed or nothin'

 

$450 seems fair to go from leaky and loud to a quiet purr. i bet you have renewed love for the car. i'm surprised you didn't tackle it yourself considering you did the 5 speed conversion.

 

I never really noticed an exhaust leak in my car untill I took off all the front trim pieces to do the LED conversion. With the center console, radio bezel, glove box, gauge bezel w/clock all gone....you can really hear whats going on under the hood while driving around. I can distinctly hear the leaking manifolds. It sucks because I just dropped loads of cash for the y-pipe, custom B pipe, cataco converter, and GReddy, and I can live with the put-put for awhile untill I have the cash to fix it. It does take away from the nice GReddy sound though....what a bummer.