Stainless steel to alloy W124 M103
 

Hi the job i am about to do is replace the rusty nuts,, and studs in my Mercedes W124 M103 exhaust manifolds. I need to do this job once and for all . I went down the path of replacing the studs and the fixings with stainless steel .I need to know if i should use S/S of stick to the normal MB studs and flange nuts .Any one used S/S in to the alloy head on the forum . I know it needs thread compound on the thread going in to the alloy head .And to use copper nuts and not stainless steel .

No reason you cannot. OTOH the mb fasteners are such high quality that they seldom break even if 40 years old if reasonable care is exercised in their removal.

y walgamuth to-day i ordered a set of 13 Swag exhaust studs .Reason is i dont think that the stainless steel studs will be strong enough ,, and if they do happen to break in use. And if they are boken off inside the alloy head it will be near impossible to extract them after .Thank you

Unless you're using a high end coating I've had reasonably good results painting the exhaust manifolds with several coats of high heat primer by itself. Looks great, lasted a couple of years.

Good luck!!!

I wouild love to have the exhaust manifold ceramic coated .But it will cost far to much .And after all with a good VHT paint it will look 90% better .
I purchased a tin of Bill Hirsch manifold paint .I will use this after the manifold is bead blasted. Thank you for you help ...

I painted mine with vht and it lasted a short 3 months. Next time I have the exhaust out I’ll send them to jet hot coating

What is swag? I believe that ss is as strong as normal steel, is it not?

Carbon steel is stronger and less brittle than stainless or at least until corrosion begins. Stainless obviously has a higher corrosion resistance.

Use caution mating stainless to an alloy as the hardness of the stainless surfaces can cause excessive wear to the alloy.

Tom, not only is SWAG an acronym, it is a company which manufactures tooling for metal working and off-road vehicle parts.

https://www.swagoffroad.com/About-Swag_ep_7.html

Thank you Mike .

Yes, thanks!