I knocked off about 3 this afternoon and thought I'd be able to amuse myself for hours.
However here I am less than 90 mins from starting with phase one complete and less drama than I expected. I only sheared two bolts out of 11. So not quite an A but definitely a B+ for me!!
So coffee now while I decide if I go home and wallow in my glorious victory or get the drill out and start phase 2.
Here's how it went. I've been spraying the bolts with PB Blaster for the last few days and letting it soak. This is an American product and I found it via some US muscle car stuff where lads swore of its miracle properties in terms of rusted exhaust bolts and stud's. Did it help? No clue but it did seem to wick under the heads and up along to bolt to where it threaded into the block. So I suppose it did help with release from the manifold itself.
The car was cold. I had suggestions of run the engine and get it heated up a bit. Others said weld another nut onto the bolt and that would heat the bolt. Others just suggested the blue spanner and heat the bolt. I figured you can argue plus or minus for each of these so I just went cold as less chance of burns or worse a fire.
Initially I tried one with a breaker bar. There was no budge so I tried another and it was the same. I felt I'd definitely shear them right off so abandoned that plan. I have a crap air impact driver so got that out. I set it to the lowest torque it has and that's fairly low. Even at its highest it won't open a wheel bolt.
So on with the ear muffs and tried a bolt. Didn't leave it long, move to another. I kept checking the bolt and the socket for heat as I thought if I was heating the bolt I was probably stretching it.
So with a bit of patience most went on the low setting one. Two sheared on that setting and two needed a move to the second setting. I was glad I'd done the previous job last year and even with the new bolts connecting the manifolds to the cats they put up a bit of a fight.
I think I'll just trim the broken bolts while I have the air line out and take the victory. Live to fight another day and all that.
