Anyone used a Stomski jig to remove 996 exhaust studs?
Discussion
Hello Everyone,
My 996 3.6 C2 has a blown exhaust gasket. Although the replacement gasket is less than a tenner I have seen that removing the manifold (and its six notorious studs) can be a soul-destroyer of a task. A bit of googling shows Hartech's experience of having to deal with owner's bodges having tried to drill out any snapped studs, along with various owners around the globe starting this job on their driveway and then being reduced to tears as each "diamond hard" stud snaps in the soft ali heads.
I see that Stomski doing a special tool (code SR067 from Porscheshop) for removing broken studs using a bespoke jig and special drill bits, has anyone used one? The very few reports of its use seem to be very favourable, if not a little brief. Given that it is not a cheap purchase (£250) for a job I might only ever do once on my car, can anyone vouch for how good it is?
I will NOT be drilling out broken studs on my back in the driveway without a jig, but I also want to know that the Stomski kit is good for the money. The understandably high prices "in the trade" to do this job are eye watering.
Of course, I could just find that with some heat and penetrating oil all six studs come out intact! (Stop laughing at the back).
If anyone has a second hand one to sell, I would also be very interested.
My 996 3.6 C2 has a blown exhaust gasket. Although the replacement gasket is less than a tenner I have seen that removing the manifold (and its six notorious studs) can be a soul-destroyer of a task. A bit of googling shows Hartech's experience of having to deal with owner's bodges having tried to drill out any snapped studs, along with various owners around the globe starting this job on their driveway and then being reduced to tears as each "diamond hard" stud snaps in the soft ali heads.
I see that Stomski doing a special tool (code SR067 from Porscheshop) for removing broken studs using a bespoke jig and special drill bits, has anyone used one? The very few reports of its use seem to be very favourable, if not a little brief. Given that it is not a cheap purchase (£250) for a job I might only ever do once on my car, can anyone vouch for how good it is?
I will NOT be drilling out broken studs on my back in the driveway without a jig, but I also want to know that the Stomski kit is good for the money. The understandably high prices "in the trade" to do this job are eye watering.
Of course, I could just find that with some heat and penetrating oil all six studs come out intact! (Stop laughing at the back).
If anyone has a second hand one to sell, I would also be very interested.
I haven't used that specific tool, but I have used other Stomski tools and they have always been extremely high quality.
He seems to take some pride in designing tools to do specific jobs on Porsche cars in a way that is either i) easier or ii) an improvement over the factory offering.
I would be confident that his stud jig would make a job that sucks much less so. It may still not be fun but I would expect it to be easier with it.
Not sure that helps much ultimately, but it should at least make you confident that the tool itself won't be junk.
FWIW, the SR067 is $342 direct from Stomski himself so the price isn't horribly inflated either.
He seems to take some pride in designing tools to do specific jobs on Porsche cars in a way that is either i) easier or ii) an improvement over the factory offering.
I would be confident that his stud jig would make a job that sucks much less so. It may still not be fun but I would expect it to be easier with it.
Not sure that helps much ultimately, but it should at least make you confident that the tool itself won't be junk.
FWIW, the SR067 is $342 direct from Stomski himself so the price isn't horribly inflated either.
Edited by fioran0 on Friday 4th September 13:51
If it was me, I'd be buying that in a heart beat!
When I tackled the turbos and manifolds on mine, even with heat, freeze spray and shock, I still had some snap, 5 or 6 out of the 12. I wasnt aware of this tool at the time. Luckily, I could get her on a proper ramp, and the engineering firm that my local Indie use came and did it and "only" charged me £260.
It's one of those jobs that I would hate to do, but would be extremely satisfied that I had afterwards.
You'd be able to sell it afterwards and recoup a fair bit of the cost as well. I'd be interested.
What bolts are you going to use as a replacement?
When I tackled the turbos and manifolds on mine, even with heat, freeze spray and shock, I still had some snap, 5 or 6 out of the 12. I wasnt aware of this tool at the time. Luckily, I could get her on a proper ramp, and the engineering firm that my local Indie use came and did it and "only" charged me £260.
It's one of those jobs that I would hate to do, but would be extremely satisfied that I had afterwards.
You'd be able to sell it afterwards and recoup a fair bit of the cost as well. I'd be interested.
What bolts are you going to use as a replacement?
I cannot coment on the stromski removal tool for the 996 but for the 997 gt3 it is brilliant I had 2 snapped off bolt heads to remove and the kit was well worth it both was removed from heads. I don't no if it's me but I have now removed from my car and 2 friends seized manifold bolts are the standard ones made from " monkey metal" they are crap I replace them with m8 x 30 stainless steel with plenty of neaver seize on them then once a year just back them off slightly and re tighten this might seen a it extreme but moving them is the way around them seizing again forgot to say if you have oxygen/ acatlene this is a big help
The nuts that hold the manifold on are designed to deform and lock on to the stud from the machined shoulder where the washer sits, because of this its near impossible to unscrew the nut off the stud even if you have the whole nut and stud off the car and the stud in a vice. I found the only way to successfully remove the nuts is to use a nut splitter and with some care its possible to get the nuts off without damaging the studs. I used SS aerotite nuts on the refit.
Right, about time I came back to this thread, given the weather is getting warmer!
I now have the Stomski jig, and I have the new gasket (which no one could beat OPC for price on), just got to source the bolts/studs. Any recommendations?
I see that the Indys all say use copperslip on the threads of whatever is used to attach the manifolds back to the heads.
I now have the Stomski jig, and I have the new gasket (which no one could beat OPC for price on), just got to source the bolts/studs. Any recommendations?
I see that the Indys all say use copperslip on the threads of whatever is used to attach the manifolds back to the heads.
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