Alright I"m preparing for my new exhaust system. I got new pacesetter headers, flowmaster 80 serires muffler, magnaflow highflow cat, and magnaflow stainless steel tips. The thing I"m most concerned with is removing the current manifold bolts I'm mostly affraid that they are gonna stap and break off in the head and then I'll be ****ed since ever one knows how much room there is to work with in that area. I'v been spraying each bolt with some penitrating oil everyday for nearly the last week and plan on doing everyday until I get around to acuatlly doing the header install. But I was wondering if anyone else had any other tips or tricks to remove the old bolts. Also if I do happen to break a bolt in the head what kind of trips and tricks does any one have for removing the rest of the bolts. And what kind of stuff can I use to prevent the new bolts from seizing and rusing to the head. I plan on covering the bolt threads in anitseize before I install them. I did a search but nothing real relivant came up for me.

Thanks
Gary

 

There shouldn't be too much torque on the manifold bolts and I haven't heard of anyone having a problem with them breaking off. The bolts that connect the manifolds to the stock Y pipe almost always end up breaking off though because they are usually rusted on.

 

I'm not really concerned with the y-pipe to manifold botls since I'm getting a new y-pipe also. But a buddy of mind boke off one bold in the very back of the right head and had to rip the head off and have in machined out. And a guy I work with broke like 4 bolts off in his head while fixing an exhaust leak, not on a camaro but on a f-250. I'm not really affraid to fix a bolt that breaks. If its gonna break its gonna break and theres nothing I can really do about it. I know it can be fixed but not with out either removing the engine or head. And I just odn't want to do that. I was also wondering what type of bolt should be used for the header bolts. Should I go with grade 8? Or another kind of material?

 

I soaked all of my manifold bolts with PB Blaster for a few days before attempting to break them loose. They all came right off though with no struggle. As for header bolts, the Grade 8 locking bolts are nice as are the Breslins.

 

WD-40 the day before worked well for me. They really didn't put up a struggle at all so I was surprised. The Y pipe bolts on the other hand were a PITA! Torches worked well though if you don't want to break them off. If not a breaker bar with a long extension will do the trick.

 

Hey crasher88, are you doing your install on a 3.4 as well? I'm doing mine pretty soon, but cuts haven't been made to my new catback yet. I'm thinking about doing about 75-85% of the work myself, then having it towed to a shop where I'm having the rest of the work done (cutting exhaust holes for the headers, etc). But only if it costs less than taking it somewhere and having them do it.

I need the exact specs on the right header bolts for my pacesetter midlengths, how do I find this info so I don't get the wrong ones? Grade 8 3/8 inch, what else?

Am I supposed to buy a new crossover pipe and possibly a new y-pipe?

Let me know how yours goes and good luck working on our damned tight spaced engine

 

well I'm not doing it any time soon I'm just preparing for the install. Main concerned about breaking bolts. I'v been blasting them with some penetrating oil everday for a week so far and plan on continue to do so until I acuatlly do the install or until my current exhaust leak drives me to the point of insanity and force me to fix it by installing the headers. I"m currently saving up for my new system and plan on getting that installed and up and running properly and then moving on to the exhaust.

 

my bolts all came off easy after a week of soaking with pb blast. but my friend is also doing an install on his right now and he has broke 4 of the past 10 bolts off the car.

 

PB Blaster all the way

Like others stated, start soaking them days ahead, and once more for good measure before trying to remove the bolts.

The only bolts I broke were on the Y-Pipe, and I didn't care since I didn't soak them, and broke them since the manifolds would never be used again.

 

Same here, I soaked every bolt for a good week before even picking up a wrench. I went through 3 cans of rust penetrant but it was well worth it as everything came loose without any "muscle" and nothing broke.

 

also, if a LT1, the stock manifolds use the end holes in the heads, I had 3 of the 4 break off, but the headers I installed didn't use those holes, so.........

 

PB blaster for 3 days before removal and from the look of em the assembly line worker was having a good day, lots of anti seize on mine.
Each one came out like butter.

 

Mine practically fell out (there was actually one missing and one loose) - the Y-pipe bolts/studs pretty much got destroyed though.

 

I parked my car where I was going to work on it and then let the motor cool off. I then shot everything with PB blaster. I let that sit overnight and had no problems with the bolts. The only problems I had was the EGR fittings in the stock manifolds.

Rob

 

The PB blaster is amzing stuff. Mine came out with no problem. Never felt like they were going to break.
If you do break bolts they will break most likely under the head of the bolt. If you can then get the manifild out there will be a stud that you can heat with a torch and turn with vicegrips.
Last resort is head removal.
Get some grade 8 ARP 1" bolts for header install and felpro 1406 gaskets.
Just take your time and get a box of bandaids and prepared to negitively expand your vocabulary.