Not_Sure

Well, I figured while I had the engine half apart, might as well pull the headers off, inspect, clean, wrap them with the basalt header wrap and make a new heat shield while im at it.....got the 2-3 off with out too much effort but of course the rear of the 1-4 not enough room. First I tried unbolting the engine mount (from the bottom of the cross member since I was pulling the control arm anyway) but the engine didnt move near enough before the whole car started to lift.
Then I tried the double nut method but they kept slipping and I felt like I was either going to strip or break the stud.

any other ideas? definitely not pulling the head, already went a little deeper then planned.

Chapman951

Maybe Soak the bolts in some pb blaster for a few days and see if that helps out?

mahoney944

Pick up a map gas torch at your local hardware store. Heat them up then do the double nut trick. Should come out easy. Map gas is the yellow bottle near the blue propane ones.

Dash01

Hit it with a propane torch to thermally break the molecular bond between metal parts. Use candle wax on the thread or PB Blaster penetrating oil and let it soak.

Not_Sure

im just thinking maybe I should say screw it and put the 2-3 back on and call it good. already did the water test to see if the 2-3 was leaking. (previously the car wasnt building more than 10psi no matter what, thought it could possibly be the headers, but more likely an intake issue)
besides since they are already shielded, and the header wrap could possibly cause them to crack.....

I will wrap the cross over and down pipe however. probably do a water test on the cross over as well.

Not_Sure

ok FWIW I gave the propane and penetrating lube a try and it worked. I only had to remove the front stud of the last port, since after that I was able to pull the front most port free and pivot it all on the rearmost stud and wiggle the whole thing off.
now do I replace the stud or is it ok to use the same one?

bumflick

When I did something similar a couple years ago, (removed and replaced entire exhaust including turbo and downpipe), I replaced every nut washer and bolt with new.

I think 944online has a couple kits...one just for the studs and nuts, and one for the entire exhaust system.

That plus a little anti sieze make life better the next time you have to do any maintenance.

Malcolm