Removing the OEM downpipe, I was able to get 3 of the 4 nuts and studs off with no issue. I am having an issue removing the last one - the upper rear (towards the passenger compartment).

Basically, I was impatient and sheared off the nut and part of the stud. There is not enough remaining threads to put two nuts on there and try to back out the stud. Do I have options aside from removing the turbos and drilling the stud out?

 

I did this once, back in my hay day. Be sure to always use plenty of penetrating oil with all that high heat hardware upon removal. I broke 2 of the down pipe studs off in the turbos outlet. Had to remove the turbos, then drill and extract the broken studs. Easy and cheap to have a machine shop do it as well. At least if you remove the turbos, you get a chance to inspect everything down there. How much of the stud is sticking out? If you can get a single nut all the way on there, it could be carefully welded to the stud(After a day or two of wd40 treatment down the threads). If you were lucky, it could then be backed out.

 

Pretty tight in there. I really don't see a practical way of drilling and removing the stud w/o pulling the turbos now. Even if you could get a right-angle drill up there, you can't really see what you're doing and risk screwing up the turbo.

 

Heat the broken stud really hot and put wax around broken stud the heat will melt the wax and draw the wax into the thread, thus removing it, you will have to drill a hole in the broken stud and use an easy out, do not use a spiral easy out, use a proto square easy out that do not snap. I have switched to the proto square washout because of all the spiral easy outs I have broken, one that happens there is no drilling through them so a edm machine is the only way to remove it.

 

[QUOTE=ricardo.benin;12013720]Heat the broken stud really hot and put wax around broken stud the heat will melt the wax and draw the wax into the thread, thus removing it, you will have to drill a hole in the broken stud and use an easy out, do not use a spiral easy out, use a proto square easy out that do not snap. I have switched to the proto square washout because of all the spiral easy outs I have broken, one that happens there is no drilling through them so a edm machine is the only way to remove it.[/QUOTE

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Do you have a right angle drill AND are you really good at drilling centered and perpendicular holes into uneven surfaces completely blind by feel alone?

If not, then the best option may be to just remove the turbos (you're part of the way there already), take them to a machine shop, and have them burn out the broken stud.

If you can get a vice grip on there, you may have luck working it back and forth. BUT remember it is probably stuck because of galling or a broken thread and if you decide to remove what is left by unthreading/ez outing vs burning it out, you risk damaging the remaining good threads.

 

I don't think a right hand drill will work, it's going to be in there

 

Well, I'm happy to report I had a friend come and weld a nut onto the stud. It took a couple tries, but eventually the stud came out! Now I just need a gasket and I can finish installing my downpipe.

 

Congrats on the removal. Glad that the welding worked.