removing an exhaust

[BigBen]

After putting up with a noisy exhaust for almost a year the time has come to bite the bullet and fit new system from the manifold back on my Merc 300SL.

Problem I can envisage having is undoing the bolts where the existing system connects to the manifold, set up is as follows.

2 x banks of 2 to 1 from engine
2 x flanges bolting to twin pipes of exhaust system

Flanges are attached by a bolt from the underside to a square nut on the top side which braces against the manifold so it does not spin when the bolt is tightened / loosened.

My problem is there does not seem to be much room on the lower side to get a spanner in and loosen the bolts.

Any tips / pointers on removing tricky bolts welcome, not accessable enough to drill them out. Am already soaking the bolts in water dispersant every day for the week leading up to the job

Cheers

Ben

[BigBen]

Job done ! Started by rounding off the bolt heads (of course) then bought a set of Irwin bolt grip removers, which I can't praise enough fantastic bits of kit. After getting the manifold bolts off a pretty easy job

Ben