exhaust bolts

[slosh]

Tried searching but couldn't find anything. My g/f's 98 camry, 4cyl, has an oil leak. I think (hope) it's just the oil pan gasket. I was going to fix it but I have to remove the exhaust pipe and I can not get those exhaust bolts off back at the catalytic converter. They are rusted on there bad. I was about to just cut the pipe and take it in afterwards and have it welded back together. So can anyone help me out here and let me know how I could get those bolts off? Any tips or tricks? Thanks in advance.

[chronoti]

spray it with some liquid wrench it's kinda acidic spray lube, leave it over night and try again if that fails try to located a impact wrench (air or eletric) and use that to take it off

[slosh]

I doused it with WD40 quite a few times. These things were so rusted I could barely get a wrench on them.

[RedPhoenix]

Originally Posted by slosh

I doused it with WD40 quite a few times. These things were so rusted I could barely get a wrench on them.

Well liquid wrench is acidic. WD40 is just a lube.

[Mike Gerber]

Keep soaking it with a good penetrating oil (PB blaster is good) not WD40 and keep trying. Heating it with a torch may be required to break really rusted bolts loose. A porpane torch might work if you have one or could borrow one. If they won't come off or you can't access a torch try taking it to a muffler shop and giving the guy there a few bucks to break them loose for you. I'm sure he will use his torch on them and then an impact.

Good luck.

Mike

[CrawlingEye]

I had the same issue, they were so rusted that when I grabbed them with a 12 point socket they just mashed so I tried vice grips so tight that I could barely close them with both hands... this was while bathing it in PB blaster for days...

I couldn't even cut through it with a sawzaw, finally I cut through the bolts with my dremel and cutoff discs (actually worked well).

[Hajoca]

I try and save the bolts by using a nut splitter, and use new nuts. Stainless would be nice, but not required.

[CrawlingEye]

a nut splitter won't work, you won't get one that will slip on the area (I tried that as well).

[userlain]

You must rent an impact wrench.

[CrawlingEye]

again, won't work, I tried an impact gun as well.

[bassthrive]

dremel cutoff discs worked for me too!

my bolts were so encrusted in rust, no amount of pb blaster could penetrate.