A few weeks ago I pulled the motor and transmission (VG auto) out of my 91parts car. I've been ordering replacement parts since then such as timing belt/water pump/camshaft seals/crank seal/trans filter kit/all motor mounts and a boot load of other parts for a complete front suspension rebuild.

Today while removing engine accessories to gain access to the timing belt I noticed that there was an exhaust stud missing behind the ac compressor.

I removed the ac compressor to inspect and found that there are more exhaust studs broken on both front and rear manifolds, in all I have 7 of these to drill out. I knew there was an exhaust leak but not to this extent.

I have the engine/trans together on a dolly so that it can be moved around in the garage while I clean it up and install my replacement parts. Both manifolds have been removed along with the timing belt/cam sprockets/tensioner and water pump.

Broken exhaust studs are common with these engines but this will be my first time ever to perform this type of repair by myself.

I have ordered new studs and they were not cheap but as mentioned in other threads its best to replace all of them while the engine is out of the car. When I am done this will be transplanted into the digimax.

Hoping those who have drilled out the broken studs will chime in and help guide me through this one.

 

I would imagine you need to becareful not to drill into any coolant passages. Although they are aluminum heads i would maybe try to see if you can mig weld a nut over the stud and see if you can't twist em out.

 

The studs are broken below the surface and there is no way to weld to them. I am going to carefully attempt drilling one out tomorrow. I will measure the depth of another hole where I was able to get the entire stud out and mark the drill bit accordingly and go from there. I guess the best thing to do is start out with a small bit and work my way up until I can get the easy out in there.

 

When I tapped mine for an extractor (using a reverse drill bit) the lions share of the broken studs ended up spinning out with the drill bit, I only needed the extractor bit for a couple of them. Get a reverse drill bit if you can, you may get lucky and have them spin out. I also repeatedly soaked each of the studs with penetrating oil for a good week prior and shocked them all with a spring loaded punch just before attempting removal - no doubt a huge contributor to the ease of removal.

 

Hey you're at an easy crossroads with the engine removed....don't drill in too deep but since all that is accessible, you need to remove the exhaust manifolds completely....get yourself a good center punch. Center punch all your broken studs, and drill thru them, becareful at this point and don't get cared away... (about 1-4"-3/8") spray in some pb blaster outside and inside the drilled holes, as well as the good ones....Order all new OEMs or go with ARP studs the same size and thread pitch from thier general hardware listing or contact a tech rep/sales rep for help....you get the point....when you go back in use anti-seize and torque to spec with new nuts as well....GL

 

Thanks everyone for the help/advise, its very much appreciated.

So, first thing to get is a new center punch along with a reverse drill bit.

Both manifolds have been removed. I knew I was going to need some tools so I left it alone and took some time to clean up a little on the rest of the engine.

Glad I decided to do the timing belt, the left camshaft seal was leaking and had been for sometime and the T-belt was soaked with oil.

Will get the correct tools tomorrow and proceed with the exhaust stud removal.

I want to replace everything I can before the engine goes into the digimax this fall.

 

Made a trip to sears and found the tools I needed. Roughly 45 minutes into the job and now have 2 of the 7 broken studs out.
Not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Going after the other 5 after work*tomorrow.

 

are they still offering the turbo studs, or did the turbo studs finally phase ours out?

I remember back in the day we kept getting turbo studs from Kaleb

 

Okay, not doing too bad. I have 6 broken studs removed and 1 left to go and wouldn't ya know it be the one I royaly screw up. Gonna leave it alone for now and work on replacing both camshaft and crank seals.

 

You still get the updated turbo studs regardless. I replaced all of them last year with the turbo studs while the engine and trans. was out.

 

I actually drilled out 7 of them w/motor in car, moved a/c compressor and whatever else was in my way. I would think doing it out of car would be a little bit easier and probably don't need an angled drill like I had to use. What are your plans for the Max, besides the obvious stuff u listed?

 

Okay, I was able to get the last broken stud out without doing any damage to the threads. Thought once I got off center that was it.

shiloh, my plans right now are to completely rebuild the front suspension and change out the steering rack while the engine is out. Not doing the manual swap at this time as I have a rebuilt auto but will install the clutch pedal assembly for future use.
I would like to swap out the auto climate for the manual one.

 

Same here....but with an aviation style flexible Snake drill....and all was easy as hell! Then I removed the heads and eventually the engine once a saw the cylinders bores were gouged from a bad overheating condition.