There wasn't enough meat left on any of the manifold nuts to get a grip so I cut them off with a torch. Now I have 8 studs sticking out of the head at least 1/2". I tried grabbing them all with vise grips "very lightly" to see if any were really loose. No luck was had. I was looking at one of those drill-chuck-looking stud extractors at the local auto parts but the kid said don't waste your time with that. It's $20 and I can bring it back if it doesn't work but maybe that tool could make things worse than better? I have a MIG welder so my next to last attempt will be to weld washers and nuts onto the studs.

Any advice or words of encouragement?

 

Heat them up.... heat seems to be the ticket on these things. Like you mentioned, welding a nut on them will get them nice and toasty too. Here are some more ideas for you. Eric has some great videos on his channel.... this is not the only exhaust stud removal video he has done, BTW. Search his channel. EDIT: His channel is South Main Auto Repair...

 

I am a big fan of SMA. It's because of Eric that I am even attempting to do this on my own, well that and my usual mechanic didn't want to do it.

 

Yeah, I watch him all the time.... even if he's working on a Hondoo. I love how he calls his bay the "Subaru Bay". LOL

 

"puts the beans to it"

 

With "Big Nasty". Hahahaha.

 

The first 4 studs came out with vice grips after several cycles of heat and pb blaster. Then I welded nuts onto the ends of the studs using a MIG. I thought the big nuts would work better because they would allow more of the length of the stud to be welded to the nut. My theory didn't seem to hold up. I had better luck with smaller nuts after twisting off the end of the stud, the smaller nuts welded to the clean end of the stud. - Next project AT dipstick tube.

 

Big Nasty would totally collapse my truck into a pile of dust.

 

Nice work man! I have this job to tackle on my Expy, if I wind up keeping it. It's in my dog house right now..... and most definitely on the chopping block, LOL.

 

Good God, that looks familar lol. Hey I know I had taken a few pics for yuh, - the trans tube. Post them up later, got a card game goin at the moment lol.