Snapped exhaust stud in head - recommend me a garage in S.E. Wales?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

happybiker wrote: »

From the sounds of it, you don't need a garage, you need a jobbing engineering shop. I've tackled many such jobs, always with the head on a bench in front of me. You risk wrecking things by trying to cut corners and do it with the head in situ, snapped studs can be time consuming and one needs lots of patience to get them out without damage.

Take the head off.

no need to, either a pnewmatic 90deg drill with extractor bit on it, and loosen off some engine mounts to turn the engine for better access. if they cant be drilled snob welded and extracted that way, then drill out the bolts helicoil and new bolts it can be done with engine in situ its finding someone who wants the job that's experienced anough to follow it through to the end even if that is a last resort of dropping the engine out and working on it on a engine stand. no need to split the block at all.

Lum

Well I've had a PM with details of a decent place. Not sure why they chose to PM it but I'll respect their wishes.

Driven up there and they come across as knowing what they are doing, have a 90 degree drill and reckon they should be able to get it out.

In other good news, my usual place didn't charge me for their attempt, even though they took time taking the turbo off etc. since they couldn't do the job.

I'll report back when the work isn't done, only downside is they're busy until early March.

Question now is: Should I replace all 12 studs while they're down there.

Slowly_does_it..

I vote YES change ALL studs!

Glad you have someone to do it. Was going to suggest a crazy idea of lifting entire engine up rather than taking the head off. This is easier on some cars than others, don't know your car at all, sorry!

Lum

It's ok, few people know this car. There aren't many of them over here and mine is somewhat unique even amongst those (4WD, slightly different engine bay layout and very different front suspension being the main ones).

I'm basically required to know what needs doing what parts to use (or what car to substitute parts from) and roughly where things are when taking it to any garage that isn't a specialist.

I'm also often the crazy woman yelling at the spotty tyre changing teenager not to jack it on the bloody sills!

Lum

Well, it's all sorted, turned out that this was (possibly) caused by the turbo elbow coming loose (annoying, I had that exhaust custom made in 2009) and shaking the system to bits.

All of the studs were drilled out cleanly, except the very front one which had to be helicoiled, and they sorted out the exhaust while they were at it, since it just needed tightening up.

The engine now sounds lovely again and it feels like it's up on power, though hard to tell as I've been driving a Mondeo for the last month!

The two guys who worked on my car, one of them owns an S13 180SX and the other an S14a Silvia, neither of them are even close to standard! My car is very closely related to the S13 platform, so yes a good choice of people

Only realy downside is the fact that they're an hour's drive for me, makes it a bit of a logistical nightmare, especially with my partner working long hours. Can't really blame the garage for that though! It's also quite a nice run, I kinda miss driving up in the valleys proper.

Total cost £300.60. No engine removal, no head removal. I'm rather happy! Definitely going back there for jobs more complicated than brakes/tyres/oil etc.

This was K&P Autos in Tonypandy.

Richard53

Looks like a result, well done.

Lum

Mmmn, spent a bit of time chatting and geeking about 90s japanese cars with the guys there.

I also find it a good thing when the people working on your car own something sillier and faster than that I have, it means that unlike when your car is worked on by a 17yr old owner of a 1.0 Corsa, they're unlikely to be ragging it on the test drive.