Ok guys I've ran into a little problem with removing the stock y pipe. All of the nuts connecting to headers have come off except for 2 on the downpipe closest to the cat. They are very rusted from heat and no socket will fit on them well without posssibly stripping the rest of whats left.

This is my 3rd Y pipe install on Maximas so I'm not new to this, but I havent had this problem before. What would you guys recomend for getting them off? The car cannot be driven to a shop to have the last 2 removed, there is no exhaust left on the car except for the Y- and half of that I cut off because I didnt want to deal with the bolts on the cat.

The last option I want to resort to is drilling out the studs and threading the holes and putting in new bolts since, since I'm doing this in the garage on jack stands there isnt a lot of space.

Any help woud be appreciated guys, thanks!

 

Why can't you drive to a shop to do the removal? Even if you were to get pulled over, it's as simple as telling them that you're on your way to a muffler shop right now and even offer to have them escort you there.

I drove around for a day or two with open manifolds (which yours wouldn't even be as loud as, since the y-pipe is mostly in place) and cops didn't give me a second look.

 

Sears sells sockets that "cut" into bolt heads to back them out. It wrecks the bolt I believe, but it shouldn't be a big deal since you're probably replacing them right now anyways.

 

i would go to a shop its not that big of a deal to drive your car like that such a short distance.

 

Heat is your friend, and lots of it from an acetylene tourch.
Make the nuts glow red and they come off like butter no matter how rusted they are.

 

lol make sure you keep the flame pointed AWAY from anything that can burn or something that can be affected by it, one time in our shop this kid was trying to get his exhaust manifold bolts off his ranger and he had the acetylene torch pointed towards his firewall and he set the carpet on fire and it enggolfed the whole cabin in flames

 

Everyone in this post is 18. LMFAO even harder. Except you.

 

I cant go to a shop also because the car isnt registered yet and I have no plates or insurance or anything else for it.

Biglou, I'll look for one of those sockets and hope that will work. I'd try heat, but again, I dont have a lift to do this on, and I'd rather not have to try to remove glowing hot metal while its 2" from my body, I dont know about you though

 

Everyone in this post is 18, and doesn't ask stupid questions/threads.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=472128

didn't have to look far to prove my point.

 

what i do when i'm removing cat bolts normally at work is just get a nicely sized extention and the socket thats suppose to fit and just hammer it on there. takes a couple of good blows but that is a way you might want to try to look into.

 

haha that dude is an idiot.

and to stay on topic. soak those biatches over and ovre with that rust remover crap.

 

And regarding the exhaust I think your best bet is to go to an exhaust shop and have them break them free for you.

 

Well guys, I got it off myself, with much less stress than anticipated. No heat needed, all I did was hammer on a 12mm deep socket onto the nuts that wouldnt come off and then work it off with a breaker bar. I just wish I had thought of hammering it on the other day, then this would have been done quicker, but either way, its on

 

Glad to hear it worked out for you!

 

They don't make newbies like they used to. Seems like their getting dumber and dumber and more idiotic as time goes by.

 

I hope you're not referring to me...

 

glad to see my method worked for you. did you also have to bang your socket on the ground to get the nut out of the socket too ? that normally happens.

 

Yep, I hit it a few times and then I used a pair of pliers to wiggle it out the rest of the way. Thanks for the tip!