Exhaust Manifold repair

[stoneageman]

Hi, i'm a new poster on here and have a question on my T25 exhaust. I recently bought the van and it was fine for a few months, then the exhaust started to blow. On closer inspection it's blowing from the manifold where the down pipe is held on by no bolts!! They both looked to have been sheered off. I'm guessing i'll have to drill them out and retap. My questions are, does anyone know of a metal paste that will act as a temporay repair and withstand the vibration, just to stop it from blowing?? If you don't, what a good thing to invent!!
Second question, is it easier to drop the engine out to mend the bolts, or is it possible to do it in situ?? (looks difficult to me).

Thanks fo reading

[CovKid]

Nothing temporary will work. However, you may not need to completely remove engine to gain access - lowering it a little may be enough. The main thing is to be square on to the broken studs and use a punch to centre your drill. Might be possible to weld (tack) something on to whats left of stud but rarely succesful on manifold studs. Theres one here in Cov that has exactly the same prob and regrettably I'm not able to get to it for a month - poor guys camper sounds like a tank....

[stoneageman]

Thanks Covkid, just lowering it slightly sounds better than dropping it out completely. Fortunately it's the one that you can see the most, PITA though.

[CovKid]

No prob and welcome. If you have a question about the T25 you're in the right place. When you tackle this job, take plenty of pictures as you may just help someone else on here. The WIKI (see menu above) is fairly extensive but often lacks solutions for a crisis like this so keep us posted!!