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[cdx25]

A good day of work on the car yesterday and big thanks to all the contributors on this forum for all the maintenance guides and info.  Halfway through the jobs Id stop and get back on the forum to check things out!

Jobs done - both cam cover gaskets, breather pipes clean out, coolant system flush, new GM exhausts from the cats back, towbar install and a new crank sensor.  I discovered that one of the cam cover gaskets was aftermarket - and allegedly just a few months old.  It was rock hard and utter cr@p, plugs full of oil that side.  The other side was genuine GM and although it was old it was still in good order... plugs not wet & oily that side.  Needless to say the 4 exhaust bolts needed to be cut and drilled out which was an interesting job with the pipes still in place.  Crank sensor wire foil section was touching the exhaust manifold so that must have been getting pretty hot.  Followed the routing idea in the forum which seems much more sensible.  TB - you can keep the 700 mile high score ;-)

Jobs done - thanks all

Jon

[TheBoy]

Sounds like a satisfying day

[Admin]

Sounds like a bl**dy busy day!!

Even Mark would have been pleased at doing that much in 1 day!  

Well done.

[tunnie]

Sounds like you got a heck of a lot done!  

Just think of all that money saved in labour!  

Well done m8  

[x25xe]

A good days work there - I wish I could get so many things done in a day.

Question, how did you drill out the exhaust bolts?  I have been trying to do this for some time now and have managed to drill though one and a pilot hole in the other bolt, on the drivers side.  I ordered up some titanium drill bots - these seem to work for one bolt only.  Even the Dwalt extreme drill bits don't touch it.

I am fast thinking that I either use screw / bolt extractors or admit defeat and drive it up the road to a garage.

Do you have any advice for my final attempt?

[Markie]

thats a scary amount of work for one person in one day..brilliant stuff  

[Timbuk]

A lot of good jobs done there

[Dave-C]

A good day of work on the car yesterday and big thanks to all the contributors on this forum for all the maintenance guides and info.  Halfway through the jobs Id stop and get back on the forum to check things out!

Jobs done - both cam cover gaskets, breather pipes clean out, coolant system flush, new GM exhausts from the cats back, towbar install and a new crank sensor.  I discovered that one of the cam cover gaskets was aftermarket - and allegedly just a few months old.  It was rock hard and utter cr@p, plugs full of oil that side.  The other side was genuine GM and although it was old it was still in good order... plugs not wet & oily that side.  Needless to say the 4 exhaust bolts needed to be cut and drilled out which was an interesting job with the pipes still in place.  Crank sensor wire foil section was touching the exhaust manifold so that must have been getting pretty hot.  Followed the routing idea in the forum which seems much more sensible.  TB - you can keep the 700 mile high score ;-)

Jobs done - thanks all

Jon

Where do you buy your Cryptonite from, they don't sell it Aldi... We have to eat bread with tuna fish in our house..DC
Well done mate..

[cdx25]

A good days work there - I wish I could get so many things done in a day.

Question, how did you drill out the exhaust bolts?  I have been trying to do this for some time now and have managed to drill though one and a pilot hole in the other bolt, on the drivers side.  I ordered up some titanium drill bots - these seem to work for one bolt only.  Even the Dwalt extreme drill bits don't touch it.

I am fast thinking that I either use screw / bolt extractors or admit defeat and drive it up the road to a garage.

Do you have any advice for my final attempt?

Well, it was a pretty long day mind!!  

The bolts were a bit of a sod.  Started out by levelling them with an angle grinder disc until they were flush, then stamped a point into them with a punch in the centre.  Through first with a 2.5-3mm or thereabouts drill - just a normal HSS drill out of a Bosch pack, nothing special.  Took a while.  Then up 1mm at a time (using same drill bits set) until I hit 8.5mm which was OK for an M8 bolt (in stainless!) Better results with slower drill rpm as diameter increased.  The drilling became a bit easier once the initial pilot hole was done.  Whether I'll be able to use the drills again is a different matter ;-) No, actually they weren't that badly knackered.  I did snap a 3mm drill in there though...  

Think screw extractors might not be much of an improvement as you still need to drill a biggish hole to get the thread in to start with.  Mine were solid to the metal so they would still be quite well siezed. But grinding the stud flush both sides and then soaking in some penetrant might help if you were to go this route.  Also a bit of differential heat with care perhaps.  They just aint easy...  

Jon

[x25xe]

Thanks for that Jon - I will have a final attempt using the method that you describe.  I have not tried lowering the RPM of the drill to be honest.  My bolts are like yours - well siezed in position.  I've ground them flat both sides so will have another attempt at the weekend.

Thanks for your help.

[cdx25]

Thanks for that Jon - I will have a final attempt using the method that you describe.  I have not tried lowering the RPM of the drill to be honest.  My bolts are like yours - well siezed in position.  I've ground them flat both sides so will have another attempt at the weekend.

Thanks for your help.

No worries - shame you are so far away as I'd be more than willing to help out with yours.  If you have a pilot hole you have got through the bit I found hardest to drill.  After that it was take it steady with the drill sizes, up 1mm at a time and experiment with speed settings.  I used a rechargeable drill as I couldnt get the mains powered one into the gap - needed to recharge it about 3 times!  Good luck with it...

Jon

[cdx25]

A good day of work on the car yesterday and big thanks to all the contributors on this forum for all the maintenance guides and info.  Halfway through the jobs Id stop and get back on the forum to check things out!

Jobs done - both cam cover gaskets, breather pipes clean out, coolant system flush, new GM exhausts from the cats back, towbar install and a new crank sensor.  I discovered that one of the cam cover gaskets was aftermarket - and allegedly just a few months old.  It was rock hard and utter cr@p, plugs full of oil that side.  The other side was genuine GM and although it was old it was still in good order... plugs not wet & oily that side.  Needless to say the 4 exhaust bolts needed to be cut and drilled out which was an interesting job with the pipes still in place.  Crank sensor wire foil section was touching the exhaust manifold so that must have been getting pretty hot.  Followed the routing idea in the forum which seems much more sensible.  TB - you can keep the 700 mile high score ;-)

Jobs done - thanks all

Jon

Where do you buy your Cryptonite from, they don't sell it Aldi... We have to eat bread with tuna fish in our house..DC
Well done mate..

Cheeky git    I'd better come clean and admit the day started at 7am and finished at least 12 hours later...  Would have been much more had I not had the resources on here to tap into  8-)

[x25xe]

Thanks for that Jon - I will have a final attempt using the method that you describe.  I have not tried lowering the RPM of the drill to be honest.  My bolts are like yours - well siezed in position.  I've ground them flat both sides so will have another attempt at the weekend.

Thanks for your help.

No worries - shame you are so far away as I'd be more than willing to help out with yours.  If you have a pilot hole you have got through the bit I found hardest to drill.  After that it was take it steady with the drill sizes, up 1mm at a time and experiment with speed settings.  I used a rechargeable drill as I couldnt get the mains powered one into the gap - needed to recharge it about 3 times!  Good luck with it...

Jon

Thanks - I would consider coming to you but may be a bit noisy!!  Will get some more titanium bits for the other side.  Wish me luck!!