Hey baby,

That's funny. Anyway back to frustrations. The opening that the Allen wrench goes into is stripped. Allen wrench just spins. Still hitting it with PBS blaster and have heated it twice. Any good tricks to solving, I am all ears.
Based on the photos are the heat exchangers worth saving?
Airbox experts, jb weld or take no chances and pony up $425 large and get a new box.
Of course I cringe at the thought of buying a new box and drilling a hole in it for the pop off valve.
Opinions and input are appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time.

GarySmileWavy

One thing I learned is that I used to just trash and wreck a lot of ok parts and pieces because I planned on putting new on. I soon saw others selling used parts in similar condition and wished I just didn't hack them apart. One mans trash is another mans treasure and you would be surprised what some old worn, rusty but original parts go for.

How YOU doin? :) As you know by now, the worst of the teardown is when you run into dead ends like this. Stuck bolts, etc... Sometimes your progress stops for a few days. It's frustrating, but catharsis isn't always comfortable.

So you have a stripped exhaust bolt. No big deal. The most extreme thing you should need to do is to cut off the head of the bolt. Before you do that, take Prime's advice and do some soak/heat cycles for a couple days. I can't tell how much clearance you have, but you can use an ez out or as I suggested before, use a dremel to cut a slot across the top of the bolt and then stick a lever in the slot and apply pressure. Can you get a vice grip on the head? Can you get a Dremel in there to cut off the head? Then you can pull off the exchanger and ez-out what's left of the bolt. It'll come to you. But no matter how you end up attacking the head, when it comes time to unscrew the bolt, cycles of heat and pb blaster or kroil or whatever is the way to go.

As for the airbox, I'm no expert, but it seems lots of guys expoxy cracks. Don't know if that would work on a piece that supports the weight of a fuel line, but I'd bet if you do it right the expoxy would be stronger than the plastic. Might not look that great though. As an alternative, you can probably find a used air box for quite a bit less than 4 bills. Good luck!

I would weld (with my wire feed welder) a long bolt to that stripped nut. A wrench on the head of the bolt and it should come out easily.

Gary -

Those allen-head heat exchanger bolts are a pain to deal with when they're stripped. I had one that was not stripped, but a PO put a non-porsche replacement stud in there that interfered with the Allen wrench head when attempting to remove it. That was good times.

The way that I would attack this is NOT to cut your heat exchanger off. I would get a socket driven allen driver, the next size up (from normal) and tap it in the nut, and after MANY treatments of the PB blaster, I would (slowly) turn it outta there.

Your repairs on this car require patience. The best part about this car (in my opinion) is that it's not your daily driver (...I don't think) and it is not a car that HAS to be on the road with a "do-or-die" deadline to get back on the road.


On to the airbox: that can be repaired with epoxy. JB weld does wonders, use the slow-set stuff. After you're done with the repair of the airbox, TEST it for air leaks.

If you don't trust that you can repair that section on your own, keep an eye on the parts FS section, and you can pick one up that you can use. Trouble is that -- you can pick up a used one and it may leak air already, bringing you back to 'square one' and having to repair it anyway. Buy a new one? I may have went that route had I knew (what I know now) back when I started this project.

Lastly, people on this forum are incredible. Gotta problem? Post some pics, and you will likely get about 4 solutions on how they fixed it, or dealt with it in the past.

Many thanks to all. Great advice.
Been hitting it with PB Blaster and heat. I will give it another whirl this evening using the methods suggested above.
I will report back when complete.
Thanks.

Gary

Mission Accomplished
 

Man was that a stubborn bolt. After repeated soaking and heating, to welding in a bolt to try and remove that way, it was finally 20 minutes of working in the tight spaces with a Dremel and cutting a gap all the way down the allen nut. Then pried out with screw driver. Unbelievable how seized on that piece was. It should be quite the adventure actually removing those posts. I can see based on the exchangers that it is a good thing I got the turbo valve covers, to stop that oil leak.
I removed the spark plug and wires, and am getting ready to remove the harness and shroud tonight.
If anyone has any suggestions other than bead blasting the the heat exchangers and the exhaust to clean them up, I am all ears.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1396470956.jpg

Screwed
 

Brutal. Exhaust studs breaking. Even with tool. Drilling holes in studs and the extractors break. Irwin removal tool doesn't work against head bolt based on clearance. What is the best way to remove these
stubborn sobs?
Thx

Garyhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1397195030.jpg

With the heads still on the motor? I would carefully drill out the center of the stud. Start with a small drill bit, then use larger bits until only the threads are left. Be very careful not to drill any aluminum. If you are lucky and skilled you can then extract the remaining threads using a pick and pliers.

Or if the heads are off there is an EDM process that can be used.

If you plan to have a machinist do the heads, you could ask him to extract the studs with his awesome machine shop equipment.

A number of people have had luck MIG welding a nut on the stud and then backing them out quickly before they cool too much. The heat from welding it will normally break the bond.
Heating the stud red hot once the nut is on there may help as well.

Levi is nothing with out dope!