[Vwdiesel] Exhaust Studs - Report

[Mary Beth and Chris Geiser]

Well - I soaked the exhaust studs in "Liquid Wrench" for 5 days, then
did the heat/candle thing, tapped them as I tried to loosen with a vice
grip... final results: it all failed - broke the studs off even with the
manifold surface and ended up drilling out the centers, gradually wider
and wider until I could run my tap into the threads to clean out the old
stud crap... I took a punch to indent the centers of each stud before
drilling, then tried to keep the hole straight.  Seems to have worked,
but we'll see when I torque down on the studs to hold the system all
together.  

Parts not here yet, so I'll probably assemble everything next weekend.
Luckily this is a spare vehicle - between this Vanagon and my '92
Ecodiesel Jetta, one is usually driveable at any given time.  And for
the price I paid for each of them, together I couldn't even put a
downpayment on a new one... a system that works for me!!

Hope everyone is having as nice a weather as we are in WI right now -
mid 70's each day with no humidity... good for working on VW's...

Chris