I am trying to separate a turbo charger from the exhaust manifold. The manifold gasket needs replacing.
There are 4 studs in the manifold and 4 corresponding nuts holding the turbo charger on. The manifold - turbo charger pair are on the vehicle and one of the manifold bolts is shielded by the turbo charger. I believe the turbo charger must be removed first.
Study it carefully. You may be right, but make sure you're right. It's no good to wrestle with a nearly inaccessible fastener to save the trouble of accessing an annoying to access fastener. It's an easy rabbit hole to get into. Just be sure that you're sure.
One of the 4 nuts is accessible with either a box end or crows foot, the second nut is accessible by a box end. The other 2 nuts are only accessible with an open end wrench. I am concerned if I try to loosen those last 2 with an open wrench I will round the corners of the nuts and then be really stuck.
That's about par for the course on these things.
Are there intermediate wrench types that are half way between a box end and an open end? It would have to slid on via 2 sides and then rotate to 'lock'.
There are indeed "half open" wrenches, they're flare nut wrenches. And I'm not a fan. The theory is sound, there was probably a time when they were something good, but in 30 years of turning wrenches, I've NEVER found a flare nut wrench that will beat a QUALITY open ended wrench. I'm not talking about just junk brands, I'm talking about ALL the brands. Tool truck brands, Williams, Giller, Stahlwille, Old Proto, S&K, New Craftsman, Old Craftsman, Old, Old Craftsman, K-mart junk brands, Harbor Freight, etc. In the last 15 years, as the "positive grip" style of wrenches became more and more popular, I've discovered that they will "grip" a bolt, the "gripping teeth" just do tear a chunk out of the nut on the way around, but if I use the same brand of wrench WITHOUT that feature, I can pull harder on that one before it lets go. Buth that, witht he open end wrenches and the line wrench thing are NOT intuitive when you look at 'em... But 30 years of pullling on them says that common wisdom doesn't really apply.
You know what size the fastener is... Take your wrench collection and see what pulls on it the best. Odds are buying in a "problem solver" for grip isn't necessarily the answer. The answer is more than likely finding the handle styls/shape/offset, and approach angle that you need.
I haven't tried heat. Will simply starting the engine and waiting for the manifold to get to 500 degrees or help? Or is this method band and I need to try direct heat on the nuts as best as I can?
What does the nut look like? Is it steel, or is it too light of a color to be "just steel". Does the "patina" and color match other known "regular" steel bolts/nuts in/on the manifold and turbo? The reason I ask is that there doesn't "have" to be, but there are often special one time use nuts that are designed to lock into place on the stud and not move during the crazy heat cycling that happens at that joint. If you've got the nuts that don't "quite" look like normal steel (and feel very light in your hand once they're off), heat is fine, but the assistance is minimal at best. If it's steel, then heat does help.
What have I missed? I can't be the first one to run into something like this. After braking things for decades I have learned to slow down. However at this point I am well and truly stuck. (although I haven't made is worse yet.) Thanks in advance - Dan
I'ts exhaust. Things get stuck. The real key to working on exhaust stuff is
A, don't be afraid to break it, the stuff WILL be stuck. It's heat cycled, pulled, shrunk, and generally fatigued until the the bolt "stretches" enough to not be very stressed in it's installed position. In other words, it's already going to be easier to break than an identical fastener elsewhere on the vehicle.
B, Pay real close attention to when it's about to break. If it's gonna break anyway, make sure that the break is in a way that's convenient for you (or a machine shop, depending on tooling and fixturing needs, and degree of "stuckness'....) will have an easy time of recovering the broken stufff. Manifolds are increadibly awkward to fixture. Cost, pride, cocnvenience.... Somebody's gotta fix it' Make it easy.
There's a lot of ways to skin a cat. If you "trimmed" the top of the stud, could you get a 12 point box wrench around it? Can you access the nut with a long drift, so you could swing a hammer at it? Can you access the opposite end of the stud (or more correctly, the metal that the stud is anchored in) so that the opposite end could be heated, making that come out as a bolt, possiblly last since I presume that there's not enough room to remove it without lifting the turbo at the same time? And there's a little "sub-tip" there- Before you go after exhaust stuff with a chisel, hammer it (respectfully) with a blunt punch from the side. Shift (hammer) the nut sideways. (or bolt head depending where you are). Literally pushing the stud/bolt shank to the edge of the clearance in it's hole. Doing that breaks the "stuck" which is directly under the fastener. That greatly reduces the excessive force needed to get the thing moving. It's usually stuck harder there (under the fastener) than it is on the threads.
Is it plausible to get pictures of the actual problem child, so that we could see the connundrum? Maybe get some better ideas? Somebody got that in there after all... And regardless of how you get it out, you're still going to have to get something on it properly enough to properly tighten it before the job is done... IMO, it's best to work it out now, before you dig out the chisels, grinders, and torches, since you will have to work out the problem before you're done anyhow.
