Hi all,

I am knee deep in dropping my tranny to replace my rear main seal on my 97 civic and have hit a snag with a rusted, stripped, frozen bolt on the exhaust pipe nearest to front of car.

I have tried soaking in PB Blast overnight, taking a propane torch to it, and hammering a smaller sized socket onto in my attempts to break it. Nothing is working. Angle grinder won't fit to cut it off that way.

Any suggestions???

Thanks!!

 

The one bolting to the exhaust mani down pipe or where the cat connects?

 

You could always drill it out and twist the head or nut off.

 

lift the car higher, drop the exhaust by removing it off the hangers, and take the angle grinder to it, hammer out the rest

if its that bad to the point where a torch wont get it, its not gonna unscrew

 

...or split the nut sides with a really sharp cold chisel...

 

Bolt/nut extractor usually works pretty decent. Or remove the entire setup like someone else said it and cut it out, or cut the stud out with a torch or stick welder.

 

Thanks for the quick replies!! It is the last of the 3 bolts that attaches the pipe to the cat.

OK... will try the cold chisel now, as I don't want to have to remove the manifold.

Thanks!!

 

Chisel did not work either.

 

Do you have or know anyone with a Dremel tool? I have used the cut off wheels for Dremels when space was tight. The other option is taking a hack saw blade, and if room is tight take the blade from the handle, wear gloves and just use the blade to cut through the bolt.

 

Ok, I know which area you are talking about, and it is a bitch. Can you drill the head or nut out? All you have to do is drill most of it out and you should be able to twist that end off pretty easy with a wrench on one side and a socket/rachet on the other.

 

This is the bolt (assuming I figured out how to post pics correctly).

 

use a dremel.. the wheels cut pretty good n they are small enough to get in there like a previous person had said as well.... be sure to wear sometype of goggles while performing this tho... metal shards in the eye are ****in killer...

 

My friend has a dremel... we will try that in the morning. Hope it works!

 

Cant you just torch it off. Thats what most muffler shops do, LOL

 

I suggest making sacrifice to Apollo, and then after that, remove the exhaust and use a cut-off tool or grinder

 

It's off!! Yay!! We used the dremel and cut through the bolt, then used an air chisel to break it loose. Geez... we have spent more time with this one bolt than we have doing everything else so far in the entire project.

Now... it's time to place jack under tranny and remove the last support bolts... :D

Thanks everyone for your help!

 

Nice.