I have always wanted to install headers but am worried about the bolts breaking off when I removed the exhaust manifolds.

I was just wondering what the chances are of this happening?

 

I started installing my headers today I took off my driver side manifold with ease, the bolts weren't even very tight. I have 80k, which is fairly high so I don't think it's that likely to happen. A good way to try to prevent it is buy some penetration oil from Autozone, I bought some but haven't used it on my header bolts. I did however on my y-pipe.

 

The manifold to y-pipe bolts will probably break, but I haven't heard of too many bolts into the head breaking. However, we did break one on a buddy of mine's TA. Luckily it was the rear bolt and the LTs used a different hole than with the manifolds.

 

Use penetrating oil, it is your friend.

 

i sprayed mine daily with pb blaster for a week or two before i did the headers. All my bolts came out fine except the front one the alternator bolted too. It wasn't even tight but it snapped off. Luckily i didn't need it. Now that i have a new motor and new heads no broke bolts for me.

 

I too used PB Blaster and did not break a bolt, I stripped on when putting headers on, but that was cause I didnt chase the thread with a tap beforehand.

 

I had 78k on my motor when I pulled it. Didn't have no problem with any bolts and didn't use any of that stuff. Wish I knew though. I would use that penatrating oil if I ever do this again.

 

110K miles when I pulled mine, no broken header bolts, just collector.

 

I pulled my manifolds at 95k and just used wd40 on them the night before (sprayed the **** outta them) and didn't break any off. Just be careful and use wd40 and penatrating oil.

 

i doubt youll bust any off.. mine were quite rusty but they all busted loose without much effort. the y-pipe bolts however will likely break off.

 

do yourself a favor and pick up some PB Blaster from your local auto parts store. I sprayed it on all my bolts the night before, and the day of. I broke all of the Y-pipe bolts, but the manifold bolts came out real easy.

 

I didn't break any manifold bolts when I did mine at 50k, I also soaked them with penetrating oil the night before. I did break most of the y-pipe to manifold bolts though, those were a frozen mess!

 

I just pulled my manifolds last weekend at 94k miles on the ODO. The guys above are right. The night before you're going to work on the car, jack it up and crawl under there and blast all the bolts with PB Blaster (or equiv); samething for the ones you can reach under the hood. I had to use a long-handle 3/8" ratchet to break the manifold bolts loose, but after that each one came out slowly but surely. Also, you can take some extra precaution and spray the bolts periodically with PB Blaster while your taking them out. You shouldn't have a problem.

Here's something interesting for you. The night before I removed my manifolds I was feeling around for the rear-most manifold bolt on the driver-side and to my surpise it was loose (without ever being touched by a ratchet). I was able to take it out with my hands and low-and-behold it was already broken off flush with the head. From the rust covering the breakage portion of the bolt, it had been that way for a long, long time. I panicked thinking I would have to remove the head and have the bolt tapped. However, the front-most and rear-most bolt holes in the heads are only used by the manifolds. Aftermarket headers do not generally use those holes, but rather ones about 3/8" closer to the exhaust port.

Don't sweat it, just spray them and take your time to remove them. Again, you should be fine!