Oh Crap!

[rocknforchrist]

My exhaust is noisy to say the least. Cruising about 65 down the highway it sounds like open header dumptruck! So being new to these i searched around under the hood and found the two front passenger side exhaust studs broke off. Nice! So how hard would this be to fix? I am a machinist and know how to get them out(have broken the occasional tap off at work). I'm guessing the water jacket is prob pretty close to the studs so i bet this will be a super fun job. Anyways any tips,tricks or should i just live with it and screw the neighbors for looking at me sidways everytime I drop the hammer down.

[Cuong Nguyen]

I had to cut/bend the fender well to get access to the studs/broken studs when I replaced almost all of mine with 300zx ones. It's a PITA without a body lift. Even with the body lift I still had problem accessing the studs because of angle and room to work with. You might have problems with the heat shields. I had the cut of the bolt heads. Also removing the manifold flange bolts were hard to get as they were rusted and froze.

 

soak the bolts in pb blaster or some kind of super penetrating stuff to break the rust and corrosion.

Edited June 2, 2010 by Cuong Nguyen

[k9sar]

definately give them a good soaking. The passenger side on mine was much nore difficult due to crap in the way. I was able to get at mine using a rt-angle drill adapter and cobolt drills. One of them I accessed using a hex'd easy-out-type gadget and a long screwdriver bit extension in my drill. Open your mind and be creative.

[Tungsten]

you might also want to get a new manifold because chances are it is warped if the studs are cracked

fyi, the heat shields on them are not necessary as the spark plugs are placed on the inside of the heads so you won't melt the wiring off without any heat shields

[tmoore4512]

Yea, have seen manifolds for uber cheap. $30 $40 bucks on ebay. Dont know if they are OEM or not...

 

I am in the same boat, thinking about going with headers instead of replacing the manifolds...

 

Daggum money pit.

 

LOL

[GrimGreg]

I swaped to headers when I fixed my studs.

[k9sar]

as did I

[tmoore4512]

Okay guys, so the Doug Thorley's are apparently no longer available...

 

Pacesetter is it...anyone use them? Worth it? Fitment problems?

[k9sar]

I put pacesetters on my 95. The only fitment issues were that the drivers side was hitting the heat shield over the motor mount so I had to snip that off. Since I replaced the entire exhaust system, there was no issue with mating to the existing system. I left everything a little loose, tightened the headers to the engine first then tightened everything else. I only had to modify one bracket about 1/2 inch but that's probably due to the cheap-ass muffler I bought.

[tmoore4512]

Any issues after the fact? I have read about people having the headers crack, gaskets go...etc. Also, the crossover pipe, did it clear? Any gains in MPG's?

 

Seriously considering doing this, as my manifolds are shot...

[k9sar]

nothing bad yet. No problem with the crossover pipe and I have an AT. I did get a little bit of an oil leak but I haven't crawled under to determine if it's my rear seal or my relo kit is leaking. I have noticed about a 3mpg improvement. I have a thread in here somewhere with pictures.

[andreus009]

My install of the PaceSetters was bit of a challenge, but some of that may have been my fault as torqued them to the heads before connecting the rest of the exhaust. Might have gone a little smoother if I had done it differently.

 

http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=23496&st=20

 

In the above thread I describe my challeges in a little more detail. Of course others, have had a lot less problems than I did.