Rough Day

Tak28Tudor

Junior Member
While having a new radiator made, I decide to clean up the motor and repaint a few parts. I pulled the exhaust manifold off, clean and repainted,etc. I then reinstalled the exhaust manifold. I reinstalled the exhaust manifold with new gasket. While torquing the nuts to the manifold studs, I torque each nut evenly up to 30 ft pounds, then 35, then 40. I was going to stop at 40 but said, “no I’ll follow the Red Book” and torque each to 45 foot pounds. I then torque the 1st nut, 2nd nut, 3rd nut....then I as I torque the 4th nut from 40 to 45, I hear a metallic “snap”. I broke the 4th stud. I almost cried and then immediately cracked a beer.

Anyone ever been in this pickle? Help!

Thanks,
Brent
 
Not too bad, just a stud... I was holding my breath ... waiting for "cracked off the manifold ear" that's bad

Joe B
 
Just use a “bolt extractor” and replace? I have this fear that the stud in the engine won’t come out and/or a torch is needed. Gulp.
 
That is one of the mistakes in the red book, should be around 25-30.
Another mistake in the pan bolts no way 20 ft lb.
 
Glad it was just a stud.

Drilling and using an extractor can work but if you break the extractor off in the stud then things get very troublesome.

I would suggest that you take the car to someone that can weld a nut onto the stud and back it out that way.

I never use a torque wrench on a manifold. I just snug them up a little at a time until I feel most of the "squish" is out of the gasket. I check them a few times after driving until they settle in.

They don't have to be super tight if your surfaces are reasonably flat and are using a new gasket.

When installing I leave the two bolts holding the intake manifold to the exhaust manifold loose and tighten them last.
 
While having a new radiator made, I decide to clean up the motor and repaint a few parts. I pulled the exhaust manifold off, clean and repainted,etc. I then reinstalled the exhaust manifold. I reinstalled the exhaust manifold with new gasket. While torquing the nuts to the manifold studs, I torque each nut evenly up to 30 ft pounds, then 35, then 40. I was going to stop at 40 but said, “no I’ll follow the Red Book” and torque each to 45 foot pounds. I then torque the 1st nut, 2nd nut, 3rd nut....then I as I torque the 4th nut from 40 to 45, I hear a metallic “snap”. I broke the 4th stud. I almost cried and then immediately cracked a beer.

Anyone ever been in this pickle? Help!

Thanks,
Brent

Brent
Not the end of the world at all. I have snapped a several bolts over the years on different cars and I have always been able to get them out with an extractor tool that you can get at Lowes or stores like that. As for the beer its never a bad idea after an O Sh!& moment. Best to walk away and get a plan together.

Ron
 
Brent, I had the same experience with a cylinder head stud on a newly rebuilt engine. I wanted to paint the cylinder head myself and have the copper gasket exposed. Dumb, I should have let the rebuilder do the job. A friend helped me get the bad stud out of the block. Ed
 
Well, I took the 25 foot/lb. advice. But I put a dab of aluminum never sieze on the studs. Uh oh ... then I remembered the torque page in the red book. A 40+ percent reduction in torque is advised when using anti seize. I stopped tightening. So far so good.
 
Depending on how much stud you have left, I'd use the tool below (about $18) along with some PB blaster, a lite ballpeen hammer
IT may not be as bad as you imagine,
 

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If you need to drill it out at all, use a left hand drill bit, run of course in your drill backwards. Sometimes you can get the bit to bite into the stud and reverse it without further work.
 
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