Well, this evening I tore into my SDL to replace the the flex pipe. I decided to go a different route than most people here and went ahead and removed the turbo so I could just do the whole manifold, glad I did and I'll tell you all why. So, the right side of my engine is now bare except for the manifold still attached to the head. A little off-topic, but how did you guys get the bottom bolt off the cross-over that the EGR attaches to? The allen bolt is hidden down in the crevace (sp?) of the exhaust manifold. So anyways, I got the turbo off so that allen bolt would be easy as would the manifold removal. The car is out of commission until Monday or so because the rims are being sandblasted then painted so I decided now was a good time.

I knew going in that it was possible to break a stud so I pre-arranged with a forum member here to let me borrow the tool he made for his extraction, that is of course if I needed it. I just sent him an email and hopefully he'll get back with me soon. He had broken the same stud on each of his SDL's within the same week, so he knows what he's doing. Well, it is the stud closest to the firewall. The wierd thing is though, I hardly put an torque on it to remove it when it practically fell out of the head. At first I thought it was just finger tight, but I was wrong and I found out quickly that it broke. It's broken about a 1/4" into the head. Well, if that's not enough, I see that the exhaust has been leaking there for a long time noted by the think soot on the gasket and the broken stud that came out had coked on soot all around it, but had a fine pink dot in the middle which must have been all the kept it together? The reason it was leaking was that my manifold is warped! So as a recap, tonight I broke a stud in the head and my exhaust manifold is warped. I'm hoping it can be ground down to make it true again, it doesn't seem too severe but definitely enough to be noticed when a straight edge is applied. What do you guys recommend I do from here? I've learned quite a bit and though some of it was a real pain I still feel rewarded from taking a whole side of the engine apart.(associated pieces I mean)

I have the turbo and all associated parts in the back of the Trailblazer that my uncle is letting me borrow off the lot. The parts I need to order to complete this are:
1.drain tube o-rings (since it's apart now I even spray painted it black)
2.any gaskets needed to put turbo back on (is there a gasket where the oil feed line attaches to the turbo?)
3.I'm going to go to the hardware store and get copper, brass, or stianless nuts to replace the ones I've removed
4.cross-over gasket (I thought I'd reuse the o-rings)

Do you guys know of anything else I should replace that isn't too much money? I lightly considered rebuilding the turbo but I think that would cost too much plus the bearings have no play. I'd just want to reseal it and clean it up. I also spray painted the brackets which hold the turbo, we'll see how long the paint lasts though. Of course, any and all suggestions welcome.

Thanks
David

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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