Club 80-90 Forums

Oh bugger we've taken our van to have a complete new exhaust fitted and have been told ALL the bolt heads going into the cylinder head have snapped off. The garage are going to try and get them out with a stud remover in the morning. I know there is a risk that the threads will strip when they do this and we'll need to get someone to take the engine out and re-tap them.

Has anyone any experience with any of this please? Is it gonna cost a fortune? Maybe we should just buy a new engine!!?!!?

Ta
Paul

There are quite a few threads on this, do a search for stainless steel exhausts, etc, while you are waiting for replys.

I snapped one of mine last year and felt like my world had ended. Fortunately there was enought sticking out that i managed to get some mole grips on and twist it out with loads of wd40.

GSF sell the replacement studs.

Good luck

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

the stud remover only worked 3 of the studs!!! our van now has to to another garage (who can't fit it in until next wednesday) for them to drill out/helicoil or whatever it is they have to do. we're meant to be at vanfest next friday.......we've been told this could cost up to 600 quid worst case! i'm thinking i could buy another engine from JK for 1200 if it's going to cost that much. anybody had a similar nightmare? are we been ripped off? i should have just left the exhaust split in two as it was! wish i had the tools/time/experties to do it myself. i think maybe i could have removed the bolts more carefully than the garage by heating them up as recommended on other threads.

Paul

Mistermoo
this is a real pain for you and you have my sympathy! This is a problem with these engines (mine's a 1.9 DG, you don't say what type yours is....?). The engine was based on the old Aircooled one and a simple aluminium water 'jacket' was put in place by the jolly VW designers. Its 'fault' was that the cylinder head studs pass through the actual coolant and into the engine block. The engine had to have special coolant (VW G12, pink stuff) in it from new, and renewed every two years. Sad fact is, nobody ever did that so engines ended up with weak/wrong coolant in them, which affected the internal anti corrosion properties.
Over time this meant the long cylinder head studs rusted into the aluminium block, and heaven help anyone rying to remove them. Dont blame the garage though, studs would probably have broken whoever tried, if they were that badly seized. (lots of people on here have tried lots of tricks to remove them, with varying degrees of success!)
They look like this (shows heads off and pistons removed):-
[IMG:640:480]http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/ ... MG2024.jpg[/img]
I would be tempted (if you have the space to do it) to buy a second hand engine (look on here - set you back 200-350 quid) and get the garage to put that in to tide you over (you can always flog it again after). Then put your engine in your garage (?) and set about it yourself. You can strip it down, learning as you go. The whole block can go to a specialist engineers and they will be able to remove the broken studs/helicoil as required. The rebuild will take time, patience and lots of help from the folk on here, but its very rewarding......
Certain jobs WILL require the professional touch, thats true, but alot of the work is just cleaning and checking and being meticulously clean with bits!
Whatever you choose to do, good luck with it

Don't let's get confused here now! It's only the exhaust studs that have broken - cylinder head bolts/studs are on a different level of seriousness.

I don't supose you went to kwik fit
£ 600
we charge £35 extra to remove/ retap and fit a helicoil.
all studs can be replaced in situe.
you must have chosen a poor garage or they are taking you for a fool

And the 'doughnut of the day award' for today goes to......






ME!

CumbrianKeith - thank you for pointing out my (not so deliberate) mistake! Doh!

'zorst studs......? MUCH easier!!!

Fairywinds, thinking of doing exactly that, buying a SH engine and rebuilding it so that I have one ready to drop in if needs be. Picture helps a lot too!

So the exhaust studs are much easier, Great I'm not so worried now!

Thanks for your trouble anyway Cumbrian Keith - all interesting stuff anyway as we do have a 1.9 DG. I may look at another engine in the future.....see how much I get charged this week just for the exhaust studs.

ColinMSC - ta also. Great to know it can all be done in situ and really useful to kind out the kwik fit prices - might end up taking it to one if I think the garage where our van is now is taking the mickey. They've said £600 only in the very worst case. I suppose at Kwik Fit it would cost me about £280 for all 8 studs then.

Part of me is reluctant to pay for re-tapping the studs on an engine that is about to go round the clock when I could maybe just buy an engine with much less miles on it for about the same price....

mistermoo, i think you mised the point, i mean't you should not go to kwick fit

DOH I see what you mean now! Mis-read that one.
Thanks again! I was a bit surprised that kwik-fit would be cheaper.

I also doubt that anyone at dickfits would know what a helicoil was let alone be able to fit one.
I concur with colinM, I have heli kits and reckon 30ish a time to be right, not so much the cost of the insert but time taken to drill and tap out correctly FIRST time.
Mike