Hi Guys,

Been searching around, was lucky and got the cracked exhaust mani off my 93 NA wagon without busting any studs. However, one stud backed out, coincidently the new stud I put in 2 or 3 years back when the head gasket called it a day.

So, which is the right approach for stud install? Spin it in the hole and tighten up with lock tight or spin it in and back of ~1/16 of a turn to allow for expansion.

I'm leaning to torque it up with lock tight. I'll inspect the rest and replace any that look suspect, don't want to have to pull head, had enough fun grinding the 3 nuts off the downpipe from underneath. Really need oxy-acetylene for this stuff, just don't have enough quick heat to do the job on these rusted nuts.

Mike