Engine Out Removing Heat Exchangers

Thanks to everyone who gave support and advice in my first Porsche engine removal. Especially Warren! Thanks to a previous posting (RarlyL8 I think) the engine is now on a regular engine stand, not the expensive Porsche stand. Anyway took one look at what a pain in the ass it was going to be to get at the exhaust nuts, whipped out the reciprocating saw with a bi-metal blade and in about 5 minutes had the heat exchangers cut off. Now I can get at the exhaust nuts without the use of any special tools. Soaked them down in rust penetrator and will go after them with lots of torch heat tomorrow!

Kurt V
72 911E

Kurt,

If you have the exchangers cut off and can rotate the engine sideways or upside down, you may want to use a nut splitter on the hex nuts and grind off opposite sides of the barrel (Allen) nuts ... then use the nut splitter on them, too! Having acces to the nuts gives you a lot more choices than usually presented by the limited space and access.

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

Are you saying that you actually cut up your heat exchangers and left the nuts and studs there? Seems like an expensive removal process unless the exchangers were ruined anyway.I've just removed two sets of exchangers from a 70 and a 68 after soaking in WD40, and though a few were frozen and twisted off, the rest came off pretty easily. That's with me lying under the car and wrenching up at them. My 70 had all allen screws holding them on and the 68 had all 12mm nuts on studs(?). No big deal and the exchangers made it unscathed.

Kurt,

Having just snapped off 5 of my 12 exhaust studs yesterday, I say good move on doing it out of the car. I had a hard time getting on them squarely.

However, once I got the exchangers off, I saw that the studs that broke were badly rusted on the exposed threads, so I would anticipate that they would have snapped off no matter what I did.

Even if I had split the nuts, I probably would have thought twice about re-using such badly rusted studs.

Just a word to the wise...you may want to have a stud remover handy!

If you are trashing the old exchangers, I had an idea to cut a flange off one of them, fit it with different sized inserts in one of the holes and use it as a drilling jig (assuming you have one good stud and one broken on each exhaust port). Im getting a collet style stud remover today, but I am ready to drill (carefully!) and time-sert if I have to.

Best of Luck
Nick.

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Nick Shumaker
1982 911SC Coupe

[This message has been edited by Nickshu (edited 02-18-2001).]

adgx, my exchangers were rusted out which is what started the whole engine removal process. Nick, even with penetrator and heat, I broke off one stud. Looks like time-sert time. Do they have a web site? Another question, all but three of the studs came out, which is good as I don't trust the old studs. However, I'm worried if I try to take the other studs out I risk breaking them off. Should I just clean them up and reuse them with some anti-sieze on them?

Kurt V
72 911E

Kurt,

http://www.timesert.com

Nick.

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Nick Shumaker
1982 911SC Coupe