Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all

More stupid questions. Sorry.

My new engine needs exhaust studs fitting. Weirdly 2 of the ports already have studs fitted, I think these are stock steel studs & at first glance look new since they are covered in fresh blue gunk which I presume is a thread locker. Obviously I need to fit the 4 other studs & find suitable nuts & washers.

My exhaust is a stainless one, if that makes any difference.

Question is, what the preference the studs? Stainless steel? If so what nuts? Brass?
I'm not really struck on removing the 4 studs that are in there, so I guess standard steel studs for the remaining 4 would be best, so at least they are all the same. If I go down this path, is it best to go stainless nuts, with standard zinc plated washer to separate the stainless nuts from the stainless exhaust?

Is it worth putting anything onto the studs/nuts to stop them rusting up over time? Copper slip or something?

Or should I bite the bullet & remove the 4 that are in there for a complete new set?

Cheers
Chewie

Any opinions please guys?

Google has too much conflicting info.

Stainless is too brittle I think , too hard in the ally heads .

many many years ago, my ex father in law worked on the North Sea oil rigs , and he brought home something called PBC , a industrial copper grease the stuff , good to 1200°c and sea water resistant. Very expensive at the time ( 30 years ago ) anyway I still have a bit left in a tube, I keep it for zorst studs ( not the zorst assembly nuts and bolts, just the engine studs) and it is bloody good stuff , anyway I just did a little eBay search and I’m pretty sure this is the same stuff, although the colour scheme is now different 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154290679907
 

I replaced mine with stainless and brass nuts (pack from eBay) and they’ve been fine (i'm running the speedshop stainless exhaust).

I didn’t put anything on the threads as far as I can remember, but maybe a little bit of copper slip:

So a Google search led me to why there's only 2 sets of studs,, that's how it was factory. Lol.
Something to do with getting the stock exhaust on there, then using bolts for half the fixings that don't have studs.

So, now I have an answer, I can just decide which way to go with studs. I just can't make my mind up on putting 4 more stock studs in there or swapping to a full set of 8 stainless.

Thanks for the replies by the way guys.

I have bolts in some of mine , I have the Brickwerks stainless zorst, which is of course a direct pattern of the stock vw one . I didn’t twig until now , yes , it’s so much easier to use bolts .... it’s so long since I needed to mess with mine I forgot 

My exhaust splits, so no issues there. I think studs seem the way forward for all mine, 2 chances of getting them out if there's problems! 

Yeah but will it split later in life ? 
I have experienced cheaper stainless ones changing shape with age and being almost impossible to refit. 

I hope it will, I think it's the Speed Shop one I had fitted, which I was under the impression were a decent enough system?