This is from my thread on bad idle and should give you an idea of what a pig its been!

 

A week or so ago!

I decided to do the exhaust today as I had all the bits I needed to sort it out.

I should've know what with the other issues I find as I go along that it wouldn't be straight forward. Took far, far longer than it should’ve done because of some issues (below) and a trip to the dentist which I forgot about until 5 minutes before!!!

 

Bad - The downpipe studs were FUBAR, one had snapped flush with the manifold, one was mangled and 2 were ok. I tried to remove the mangled one but to no avail, so I soldiered on in the hope that I could get a seal for now!

 

I removed the stainless downpipe and it was labeled as "Toyosport" and when I shone a torch inside I confirmed it was a decat. The bad welding that the mechanic talked about was on the joining piece that comes with the decat, so the decat itself is in really good condition.

 

When I removed the cross member, which should be holding the centre silencer rubber mountings it wasn't attached to anything, it had also been butchered so it only had retaining bolts for the rubber on one side!!

 

I cut the centre and rear silencers apart on the middle marking and removed the rear silencer. If you are going to do it make sure the car is jacked up high enough so you can turn the rear silencer upside down to aid removal. Took me a while to figure that one out.

 

Putting it back together with a standard downpipe was relatively easy, all new rubber mountings and it sits exactly how it’s supposed to.

 

It is blowing from the downpipe/manifold joint which I’m not surprised about what with the studs issue.

 

TODAY

Had the time and had sourced, cross member, left hand drills and a stud extractor (the chuck style one).

Took the centre section off, no worries and swapped cross members- all good!

Took the downpipe off - again, all good!

 

Used the stud extractor to remove the managled stud - piece of wee wee! Looked at the stud and it looked like it had been burnt off!

:coffee:

Then came the snapped off stud.

Read lots about "use left hand drills, will spin out no probs"

Used a right angle chuck and off I went.

"It'll take 5 minutes they said" Oh f king really, massive downer.

The left hand drills just went through with no movement from the stud whatsoever

So I had a :coffee:  and a think about it and.....

decided to drill progressively bigger up to 8.5mm then try and re-tap it!

So went back to r/h drills and off I went.

Got to size and started to tap it and you know what.....................it worked!!!!!!

Have to say though drilling up whilst lying on the floor is pretty tiring and my arms don't feel like this :strong:

All back together, no blowing that I can discern, so all is good with the world

 

As much as I mank about it I am learning loads, from you lot and, from doing it myself.

I know it sounds corny but thank you for all the help, tricks and tips you have either given me directly or have posted up on here. I probably wouldn't have done it without your knowledge

 

I got a set of them screw remover doohickies.. ended up using them when chamging the door lock mech. No amount of lube/shock&unlock etc would budge them.. took about 15mins sitting cross legged on the drive lookin right right tit to all the neigjbours driving past.. what a pita...

Forgot to say I tried a spiral screw extractor as well once I'd used all the L/H drills. Still didn't work!!!