My 97 has 165k and it's seen a lot of salt every winter. I'm planning to install all new OEM exhaust parts from the engine back.

I know the nuts/bolt between the components aren't coming apart. I'm going to unbolt the brackets from the car body instead and replace all of it.

These bolts holding to the car body like the ones at the cat converter bracket will be rusted like crazy. I know from past experience on my other car just how easily the heads will snap off. I'm obviously going to PB blaster them, and maybe use some propane torch heat on them. Has anyone managed to get these little things apart without breaking off the heads?

If you did break the heads off, how did you manage to extract the remaining piece of bolt?

Dave

 

www.kanolabs.com you can get the nut off but I am fairly sure you wont be able to reuse any of them. I got the nuts off, used a dremel to shave the stud down and then drilled the remaining bolt out.

 

I sure don't intend to reuse any of them - I'm mostly worried about shearing off those tiny bolts with the 10mm head - what exactly do you use to drill those out?

Dave

 

not sure which bolts you are referring to that are 10mm. for the 14mm bolts, I used a regular drill.

 

the best way i heard to is to use oxy acetyl, to melt the bolts out, works great that how they removed my exhaust system from the cat back, now i just have to get my y-pipe out, have you tried that Kroil/AeroKroil? i'm just wondering how well it actual works.

 

Uh, I'm not going to have oxyacetylene in my condo 1-car garage. And it would melt a hole into the cabin of the car. I thought I saw some really little bolts, but even a 14mm headed bolt could be difficult.

I've heard Kroil is one of the better penetrants. I've been using PB Blaster for a while with decent success. They're both way better than WD-40.

I'm not worried about the bigger bolts that hold the whole exhaust together - I'm probably not going to even separate it when I take it down. I just need to salvage that little section between the cat and b-pipe.

Dave

 

for taking my y-pipe i'm going to use the kroil, it cost me $140 to get my cat back installed, mine was on there pretty good, but they drilled and re-tap the holes so that was a good thing i guess.

 

Kroil works well. Start the car and get the exhaust hot. then spray it on and let it soak in. the longer the better (as with any pen lube). If you have a torch you will prob have to use it to cut the cat bolts off. the header bolts shouldnt be too bad (assuming here).