I have been soaking the crossover tube bolts for about two weeks hoping against hope. The tube should be delivered by the weekend so i thought I would give it a shot. I promptly twisted off the first one......dangit! Not really a surprise but I would of liked it to have gone smoothly. The bolts on the drivers side are a third the size they should be in the middle......rust, heat and original I'm sure. Anywho.....I am hoping the ones on the passenger side are not as bad.

Any thoughts on getting the other two on the drivers side out. I do not have an oxy/acet torch but I got a 1lb propane bottle and torch......would it be worth it or should I just pull the exhaust manifold and tap it?

Thanks

Try a map gas torch

Soak, heat, cool, soak, heat etc was the advice I got...after the fact. The other tidbit that would have come in handy was after the three step ritual to use an impact wrench to apply sudden torque to break them loose. With the rust, that just may be problematic. I used slow twisting pressure and slowly twisted one, the last one, off, not out! So much for the good luck I WAS having. Helicoil inserts after grinding down and drilling out. Didn't have to remove the manifolds...I could only imagine how much fun those would have been...
No issues after over 4 months. Going to make an inspection this next week and see how they've held up.

I'll try the soak, heat, cool method......an impact may not be a possibility here with the thinning of the bolts so I am scared to try that just yet.

I did go after the one with the most access. What about just drilling it and thru-bolting it with a nut?

torch the remaining stud out, the studs melt long before the cast iron, then you can clean up the threads with a tap

I just took mine out last week, soaked them over night with some pb blaster, next night had my torch all ready to go, thought I would hit them with my 18v DeWalt 1/2" Impact to see how they would go before heating them and all but one came out with just the impact, the remaining I had to put a bar on, but it came loose with a couple good tugs. I think I was just lucky. Bolts where crazy rusted out where they were exposed between flange and header, almost half the diameter. Of coarse it was a Sunday no where to get grade 10.9 bolts, so had to get some new ARP bolts from Summit Racing. One of the best things about being 30 min away from them.

if you wind up pulling the manifolds out of the truck, head the manifold around the stud cherry red with a torch, then douse it in motor oil, do this about 3 times and it should losen them up where you can get them out with a pair of vise grips.

acctech, that sounds like my bolts....where you can see the bolt between the flanges it is a third normal size. I'll break out the impact and try it on one.....no harder to grind one than two I guess.

outalne94 and MrBeast, that makes sense too.....I do not have that type of torch but maybe it is time to take it to the muffler shop....before I get it broke completely apart?!? Or by a good torch....lol

any welding shop will have an oxy acetalene torch that will get the job done.

But yes, a pro shop might make life a little easier, and some times cheaper in the long run if you wind up buggering the manifolds

When I did the crossover pipe on my old 6.5 I ended up changing the driver side exhaust manifold. All three studs broke and the original manifold was horribly rusted. Changing the manifold wasn't as bad as I'd thought.

Later,
Stephen

This is why I paid a shop to do mine. He replaced all the bolts and nuts and didn't break any.

led, right now I have everything out of the way like and the driverside manifold is readily accessible.

MrBeast, I would like to think of my garage as a pro shop....just minus all of the necessary tools....lol. Anyways I hear what you are saying....and that seems the most likely based on time.

whats the purpose of replacing the crossover pipe( are you going bigger) whats it do???ive been wanting to do this...

lifteddiesel, yes I am going bigger than OEM and mandrel bent....2.5" Warpspeed.

whats the purpose of replacing the crossover pipe( are you going bigger) whats it do???ive been wanting to do this...


A lot of them are rotted by now. Even a small crossover leak will cause you to lose boost and power. Ask me how I know!

whats the purpose of replacing the crossover pipe( are you going bigger) whats it do???ive been wanting to do this...


Yep, I got a flowmaster kit for mine from Summit. Truck is straight piped so didn't hear the leak, noticed lack of boost though so cranked up my home made turbo master thought its spring was getting weak, but I just had holes all over my crossover pipe.

Had the local shop remove the old crossover and install the new one. The other five bolts came out fine so.....replaced them all with studs. Exhaust this weekend.....woohoo!

Thanks for the input....

Had the local shop remove the old crossover and install the new one. The other five bolts came out fine so.....replaced them all with studs. Exhaust this weekend.....woohoo!

Thanks for the input....

Use a sawzall to remove the old one. It's super fast and saves a lot of effort.