Retarded Mopar practices????

[brads70]

While at my buddy's shop ( race engine builder) working on my 451" he gets a call from the local Chrysler dealer service manager asking him if he was able to drill out 2 broken exhaust studs in a pair of 5.7 heads. He didn't want to do it so he handed the phone over to me. I said sure no problem as I'm always looking for work for my machines.  When I got there I could belive it they had this poor guys motor all in a basket/shelf to remove 2 studs? It was warantee work for them. They had actually tried to order 2 new heads because they couldn't get the broken studs out!   No wonder vehicles cost so much darn money! Imagine that? new heads because they couldn't drill out 2 studs? The only reason I got the job was because so many dealerships were doing the same thing that they had used up the supply and had no idea when/if they would have any more?  Like how dumb is that? Good thing I'm not the boss as a whole lot of people would be looking for new jobs!

Granted I did have to use carbide tooling  as it was rock hard but wow what a waste huh? Had to install a helicoil but no biggie?   The service manager said they get about 5 sets a week in for the same issue? 

Think of that new time you go look at the sticker price on a new vehicle?

On the bright side it could mean more work for me!  

[TinCuda]

Yeah, I was trying to get a rusty nut off a stud once.  One of the guys that I worked with walked by and asked me if I wanted him to "put a little weight on it".  I was like NO.  I know how much torgue it takes to break off a stud and I had already tried just short of that.  A bit of an oil soak later, the nut came right off with out any trouble, and without breaking off the stud!  Some people just don't think.



.,

[brads70]

Yeah, I was trying to get a rusty nut off a stud once.  One of the guys that I worked with walked by and asked me if I wanted him to "put a little weight on it".  I was like NO.  I know how much torgue it takes to break off a stud and I had already tried just short of that.  A bit of an oil soak later, the nut came right off with out any trouble, and without breaking off the stud!  Some people just don't think.



.,

Ya I always keep a few of those small  birthday candles around in my toolbox for stuburn bolts studs. I heat up the stud/bolt then melt the wax around the area and most of the time it frees up.

[Bullitt-]

One of the single largest cost of a new appliance is the warranty, the average tech approaches warranty repair with a shotgun so they shouldn't miss anything...a lot of unnecessary parts are replaced.

Why are so many heads needing attention in the 1st place? 

['Cuda Hunter]

Why are so many heads needing attention in the 1st place?

I was wondering the same thing.

[moparclown]

I was wondering the same thing.

I bet its actually the exhaust manifolds that are the problem.
I have a 2000 ford F150 with a 4.6 and I got it at a great price because the manifolds were junk(rotted out)and the cost was huge to have a shop replace them.So dummy me figures it can't be that bad,can it?I started the job on my knees out in the driveway,working thru the wheel well was not a lot of fun and then it started snowing which added to the whole mess.I ended up learning a really great trick for removing the studs from the aluminum(just had to ask the right people)First off,just torch the manifold stud nuts right off and leave some of the stud showing.once you have the iron manifold out of the way go and get a nut that fits over the stud a bit loose and weld it right to the stud and remove while its still hot from the weld.It took me 3 hours the get the first stud out not using this method and the rest of them were out in less than 30 minutes doing it with the welder(which I turned up to be very hot)Steel and aluminum oxidize together and I also suspect the factory might use a type of locktite also(thought I could smell it )

[moparmaniac59]

That's a pretty good tip on the birthday candle wax Brad. I've never tried that. I've tried the other tricks for frozen fasteners such as heat combined with dry ice, wintergreen oil (that works well but stinky), liquid wrench, WD-40, Kroil (Kroil is great stuff) & PB Blaster which I personally like. Another "home brew" solution which has shown to be VERY effective is a 50/50 % mix of automatic transmission fluid & acetone. Welding over-size nuts on studs has always worked well & will save a lot of pain as mentioned by Cuda Hunter. I've even hade large studs (over 1" in diameter) that were frozen & we carbon arc out the center and then use a hyd press to jack out the remaining stud.

I recently broke (while torquing) a new intake manifold bolt on my Land Rover (stretch to yeild bolts) and had to carbide burr & drill it out (aluminum engine), tap it and install a heli-coil. Not many good machinists left out there. There's plenty of well trained automotive techs from very good schools and they are very knowledgeable, but I don't think they teach much in the way machinist type skills anymore and a lot of that type work gets farmed out. In my day if I told my boss I couldn't get a frozen bolt/stud out, I would have been laughed out of the office & promptly sent back to the job to git r done! 


                                                                     Matt B.

[brads70]

One of the single largest cost of a new appliance is the warranty, the average tech approaches warranty repair with a shotgun so they shouldn't miss anything...a lot of unnecessary parts are replaced.

Why are so many heads needing attention in the 1st place?

 The service manager said it had an exhaust leak? So I assume it was the manifolds?

[AARuFAST]

The service manager said it had an exhaust leak?

yea,  after they snapped the head off of the bolt,.......