Hi guys -

This morning I called the local Midas shop. I'm friendly with the guys down there, and they seemed to be on the level. I explained to the store manager that I wanted the crossover and downpipe installed, and he said "Sure, sounds like a 1 hour job. My guys can do that, no problem." Anyway, I scheduled an appointment and went down with the kids. Note that I had soaked all the nuts and bolts with PB Blaster the night before.

The technician had no problem with the downpipe, as he simply broke the bolts off at the flange (The idea being to use the bolts that came with the FlowMaster kit). To my surprise, he actually did decide to take the inner fender off (it took him like 10 minutes to do), and so he had full access to the downpipe. It went in easily, but he did damage the flange gasket. I told him to cut the flange off, and simply weld a pipe over the top to join the two pieces. 20 minutes later, he was done. Looks good. Here's where it gets dicey.

I took the kids off to treat them to an ice cream cone. When I returned, I was horrified to know that in trying to remove the bolts holding the crossover pipe, they had managed to break off 5 of the 6 bolts! Augh! When I asked them why they did that, they said that the first one broke off, and they decided the easiest thing was to break them all off and then drill out the holes and replace them with new nuts and bolts. It sounded reasonable, so I sat back and waited, and waited, took the kids to a restaurant, and waited and... you get the idea.

I returned 3 1/2 hours later, to find that they had been completely unable to remove the remainder of the bolts. They had ruined a couple of brand new titanium drill bits trying to get the bolts out. The also tried 'blasting them out' - which they explained to mean that they tried to melt the bolts out with a welding torch. They had stopped because they had failed, and the mainfold was starting to melt! :help:

I surveyed the damage. The manifold still looks reasonably OK, as they stopped when the corner of the flange started to melt. If the bolts can indeed be removed after all this, then they will be able to put some bolts in and salvage the job. If they fail, then new manifolds will need to be ordered, the job will then become that of removing the exhaust manifolds and putting in new ones and replacing the $50 crossover pipe. What a mess.

They are bringing in a senior tech from another shop who has 30+ years of experience in dealing with issues like this, and they hope he can salvage this situation.

Any helpful hints at this point will be appreciated. I can't believe this is now so screwed up.

Sincerely,

Rob :)

If they heated it up and used an air gun to try to get the bolts off for the crossover then they did the best they could do. I would assume the bolts would break too and drilling and tapping would be the way out of that.
Tell them to get a good drill bit and tap and it will go no problem. Oil the drill as they go with WD40 and it should be easy.

Sounded like the steps I would have followed myself, except I would have tried to remove the others without breaking cause I hate broken exhaust bolt replacement. Lucky I did my cross-over in my yard and with just hand tools. Worked great and no broken bolts, yee haa

I broke one off in my drivers side manifold when I took it off the first time. I drilled it out but couldn't tap new threads, didn't feel safe using a torch with all the oil around the engine, so I just used a smaller bolt through the drilled out part. It has worked fine for 30K so far.

I bet it you had looked close at the bolts before you took it in, you would have been surprised. They rust down to a real small diameter between the flange and the manifold. I had one once that was only about 1/8" diameter in that section. (of course it broke off)
I have always been able to remove them with a visegrip if there is at least 1/4" sticking out and heating it till red with a torch or using an easyout if broken too short. It takes a lot of heat to get them to turn when they are that rusty.

OK guys,

Their 30-year veteran came in today, and he 'blasted the bolts' out. I came by to see what he was doing, and he was using the torch to melt the old bolts out. He said the reason why the first guy didn't get it done is that he was not pinpointing the heat onto the bolt, and was not holding the torch steady enough. "You have hold it very carefully to melt just the bolt" he said.

The shop called just now, and they said the car is all done. They charged me $125 for all the work. He stated that they were able to get 5/16" bolts and nuts in all the holes except for one, which has a 3/8" bolt and nut. He said that the flange was too thin in that area to accomodate anything larger.

I'll swing by soon to pick it up and have a look-see.

I didn't realize how much I have come to enjoy the Tahoe - it's utility, it's power, reliability, and uniqueness. I'll be glad to get it back in one piece.

Sincerely,

Rob :)