This question goes out to any who have swapped their headers for aftermarket ones:
Did any of you find that your header bolts were completely rusted into the block. I tried removing one and it snapped. I even tried heating them up with a torch first, but they still felt like they were going to snap before they would come out. I took my car to a shop and they said they would have to take out the entire bottom of my engine and machine out the bolts, costing me somewhere close to $3000. Any advice?

 

Get another shop! Drive to Maryland and check out on eof the following:

GT Peformance

MotoModz

Both Genady and Lee are great and they won't rip you off. Had headers installed on my 99 with no problems.

Good luck -

 

PB Blaster over night helps also.

 

Try another shop even they could try a drill and a "easy out" bit.

 

ahhhhhh, PB Blaster. I think I heard that once before, but I couldn't recall the name. I might try that.

If I take it to a shop, could ALL of them be drilled out, or is that an unsafe option? The guy I took it to advised against that, but it looks like that would be the only way without completely removing the bottom end..... I have no idea how the bolts got that rusted.

thanks for the advice guys

 

are they snapping at the base and becomeing fluch with the head? If so then you can do 2 things.
1. Put PB blaster over night on the reminder ones. Get the headers out and try to replace the stud while you can. I would recommend APR studs. Put the new headers on with the old gasket (so you don't use the new one yet). Drive the car to a good shop, it doesn't have to be Porsche specific and have them take the broken stud out. If you want they can replace them all if you don't want to do it. If the are good, all they will do is drill a small hole on the broken stud and pull it out with an easy out, that way they will not drill new holes in your head. If it is really bad then they might enlarge the hole by drilling the whole stud out. then they will re-tap it and use a bit large stud but I would make sure they use a quality stud like APR.

2. Leave the car the way it is and take to a good shop to do the header work for you. But if you are like me, I would try to do as much as possible since I don't trust others to work on my cars.

this reminds me when I was doing exhaust upgrades on my 93 RX-7. I broke pretty much every stud there was on the exhaust manifold and turbo housing.

If they are not flush with the head and you have some thread left over you might have a chance on pulling them out. I would pull the header out completely. Take the studs that are sticking out and put a nut on them with some JB Weld. Let it sit for a while to make sure it dries pretty damn good (specially since you are in Va and you have Humidity). Once it is dry, try to unscrew it out. Replace stud and nut with APR ones.

the good thing is that accesing the headers is pretty good.

If you can wait, I be driving your direction at the end of Oct because I'm moving to Va. Beach.