<VV> repairing broken exhaust flange studs?

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

>Frank DuVal
>
>I gotta try the cutting torch method....
>

It's not for the faint of heart, but when you've tried everything else 
and the bolt remnants are still plugging the hole, and you are heating 
things up one more time with the cutting torch 'cause it's as close to a 
rosebud as you have, and the bolt is red hot and the surrounding metal 
isn't, what do you have to loose?, and Whom-o! you hit the oxygen lever, 
and it is really weird -- there is your hole needing just a little tap 
work to to clean things up and leaving you with something that looks 
like what you wanted to see in the first place -- threads.

This method does work well on Corvair exhaust manifold studs, which seem 
to be a bit of trouble when they are broken off due to seizure by 
corrosion.  Easiest when the bolt is already center drilled for prior 
attempts to get it out but it hasn't budged.

Now remember, those threads are probably no longer heat treated at this 
point, if they ever were.

Works best on open holes that go all the way through a piece, but, after 
making some effort at reasonable protection from flying hot slag, it can 
be done in blind holes or with undrilled bolts -- not reccomending, just 
commenting, okay?  It might cost you a new cutting tip, but maybe that's 
the price you gotta pay ... 

Bill Strickland