Hello - I've got an 85 245 that I've made significant progress with thanks to brickboard. One of the hurdles your posts helped me with this summer was replacing a bad/stuck O2 sensor, complete with stripped out exhaust manifold threads. I ended up Helicoiling the threads, and splicing in the cheaper Ford Escort, Bosch sensor... My gas milage and rich running improved immediately.

One of the mistakes I made during that repair though was to panic once I damaged the threads, and tried removing (unnecessarily) the whole exhaust manifold . I was lucky in that I didn't break any of the manifold to header studs -- they all came out fairly easily, but one of the nuts at the front-pipe flange would not budge. I ended up damaging the gasket and creating an exhaust leak.

Since then I've replaced all of the copper nuts and the gasket where the manifold and front pipe meet. But it still leaks. What I'd like to try next, is to replace the studs and then see if I that will allow me to tighten it down a little better. I don't see these at IPD, FCP, or eEuroparts... anyone know a good source other than making a half day trip to the nearest dealer? Anything else I should try?
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1985 245 NA, wanna-be dogmobile