I've owned cars twice as old and 10x as rusty as this G, so I'm stuck here.

I'm swapping my Y pipe for a Stillen pipe, got the gaskets today and decided to swap it after work only to find the bolts were not going anywhere. I used penetrating oil for a while, even torched around the bolts and it made no difference.

I've had situations like this before with O2 sensors and old hardware, and a torch has never failed me. This is ridiculous. Any other techniques I should try? I really don't want to have to take it to the shop, but I might since my compressor crapped the bed and won't put my impact past 50ft lbs


Help!

 

Is the nut stripped? if not get a breaker bar or a pipe to go over ur socket wrench. if it is stripped some vice grips might do the trick and do yourself a favor and buy a new nut. good luck.

 

I considered it but I'm only about 14" above the ground on stands, I think the breaker bar would bend before it got anywhere without much room to spin.

Nothing is stripped yet, it hasn't even moved. The hex sides of the bolts are so caked in rust I can't get a socket on haha. Car is only 6 years old!

 

Penetrating oil won't do much if you just spray it on extremely rusted bolts for exhaust stuff, because the heat really helps seize them up.

Here's what I've done in the past with extraordinary success on bolts that I never though I'd have a prayer of breaking free on exhaust systems:

Buy a can of SeaFoam Deep Creep. This stuff is absolutely amazing. It's much better than PB-Blaster or any other penetrating rust-breaker chemical I've ever used. It's fairly expensive in comparison to PB-Blaster, but it is not flammable and is safe to use around torches... unlike PB-Blaster.

1) Spray the bolts with Deep Creep and let it sit for a while.
2) Heat the bolts up with a torch, and spray them with more deep creep when they are piping hot. Repeat this step a few times. The point of this is that the metal from the nuts and bolts often expands at different rates, and when you spray it with the Deep Creep, it rapidly cools the metal and sucks the Deep Creep into all the little microscopic fissures in the metal between the nut and bolt. The rapid expansion and contraction also helps to break the rust free.
3) Heat the bolt up one last time and try to remove it while it's really hot using a rusty/stripped-bolt extractor tool. It may only be necessary to use the stripped-bolt extractor if the head of the bolt/nut that you're trying to remove is badly stripped. If not, you can just use a regular socket on it, although an impact socket is probably better since it will handle the heat better.

If you have an impact gun, use that... it will increase your chances of success significantly.

Here is what I mean by a rounded/stripped bolt extractor:


You can pick a setup at Sears for a decent price and they are invaluable to have at your disposal in times of need when dealing with rusty parts.

Make sure you replace the exhaust bolts with new ones and use Never-Seize on them.... preferably the high-heat copper-colored kind.

 

Thanks for the tip! We started selling Deep Creep where I work so I'll give it a shot tomorrow. I have plenty of the copper anti seize already, I wish Nissan would have used it to begin with.

I really hope that Seafoam spray works, my G sounds like a mid 90's civic with straight pipes with the OEM Y leaking a bit. It's embarrassing to drive like this.

 

What year is your car? They must salt the roads like crazy up there in Edmonton to rust it out that bad.

I don't drive my G35 at all in the winter so I'm fortunate to have absolutely zero rust on the undercarriage..... wish I could say the same about my Tacoma though. The Tacoma is an '01 and has a brand new frame, courtesy of Toyota's frame-rust recall program as of April 2010, and it's already pretty rusty. I put a new exhaust on my Taco in '08 and it's just about ready to get replaced again even though I painted the brand new exhaust completely with tons of anti-rust stuff before installing it.

I hate living in the rust belt!

 

2006, they do a lot of gravel now and not as much salt luckily but it's still pretty bad. Really the only rusted parts on this car are the boomerang shaped piece of the undercarriage (not sure what its for) and a few nuts and bolts. Body is perfect!

I envy the guys that live in California and other constantly hot states. I can't even lower my car for more than 5 months before its snowing again haha.

I'll update this post tomorrow with results of the Seafoam/torch round 2 in case anyone's interested.

 

Good luck!

 

Adam, seriously what do you expect living in the frozen north? Under your circumstances I would have sprayed the nuts/bolts with WD40 and let them sit for a few hours before trying to break em loose. Laying on your back, trying to replace the y-pipe will never be an enjoyable experience....
Gary

 

Deep Creep > PB-Blaster >>>>>>>>> WD-40

Might as well spit on the bolts.... probably just as effective as using WD-40 for breaking rusted exhaust bolts in comparison to all the other superior products on the market nowadays.

 

Well I gave her another shot tonight, grabbed another tank of propene and some Deep Creep. Even after 4 thermal cycles with sprays between, nothing. I actually started to strip the bolt with a 6 point socket.. I don't know if its because of how much heat I was using or because of how stuck it is but its just getting out of hand.

One more try tomorrow and then I give up and take her to the shop :/

I still can't believe this, I've NEVER had this much trouble with a damn bolt before.

 

One other choice as long as you have new hardware is cut them off. If its a stock Y-pipe the studs are connected to the Y-pipe itself. If its were it connectes to the cats its a whole different story.

 

I'm probably going to just break them off with an impact on forwards based on how seized they are.

The studs are connected to the cats on the front end and the Y pipe on the back end. The new pipe came with 2 nuts/bolts to replace them since it has no splined studs on the back end like the original.

I'm hoping my mechanic uses his acetylene torch successfully, I'm a little nervous breaking the studs off the cats. With my luck something will crack and I didn't plan on getting new cats at this point haha.

 

Breaker bars are great, I usually always use them when dealing with exhaust/drivetrain crap.

That and a little elbow grease

 

Giggity, all done. He used his acetylene torch which is a few thousand degrees hotter than mine haha. Came off pretty easily, no breakage.