I have a Olds 55 88 hardtop with 324. I have an exhaust leak where my manifolds connect to the head. I found out I have one stud broken off inside the head on each of the cylinders 7 and 8. There may be more I have to check tonight. Does anyone know if these are screw in studs or pressed in? I just thought I would ask since there is a remote chance I might be able to back them out if they are screw in. Otherwise I guess the motor will have to come a part and I will need to probably take the heads to a machine shop have them drilled out or something.

Thanks, P.S. if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

 

I imagine they are screw in studs. The best thing to do would be to soak the rest of the exhaust manifold bolts and studs with PB blaster for a couple of days. Then take the manifold off so you can access the head. Hopefully you will be able to latch onto the borken off stud with a pair of vise grips and back it out.

 

I will try this first. I have a show this weekend so probably won't try it until later this weekend.

 

I cant vouch for 324, but every 371 and 394 I have is a screw in bolt. But this may be more important - Those bolts reach into cooling passages in the head and once you unscrew them out, coolant will start peeing out, so drain the coolant below the level of the studs your taking out

 

If the bolt holes go into the water passage there isn't much chance you are going to be able to turn the bolts. Over the years the water will have rusted the bolts and the engine head together. 4 of the 5 bolts on the later heads aren't even blind holes but I've still seen many of them broken off - plus they're nowhere near the engine coolant. Your best chance of turning the bolts would be heating the surrounding engine head of each bolt with an acetylene torch, and trying to unscrew the bolt when the surrounding engine head is glowing. If the bolt starts to glow as well wait for it to cool off a bit and try again - the bolts will bend and distort very easily if they are too hot. Keep trying as long as you can, but make sure to let the head cool between each try. Do not cool the metal quickly with water as it may crack - allow it to cool by itself. Also you have to be very careful when heating the head because too much heat can easily cause the head to crack or even warp. If the bolt distorts in such a way that you are no longer able to grab it I believe the only thing left you can do is drill it out and retap the hole. Honestly I think you're going to end up having to drill and tap, but trying to turn them first is always worth a try. PB blaster is a great idea and you should not attempt to turn anything before it has been soaked for a few days. If you end up needing to drill and tap, you will have to do this with the engine out of the car. If the bolt holes go into the water passage you will probably want to remove the heads before drilling the bolts out otherwise metal shavings may get into the water and clog passages. Well I hope that helps and best of luck!

 

I'm thinking this is going to be a drill and tap deal as well. I will probably tear into it sometime this weekend. I guess I better start soaking those bolts. thanks for all the good advice.

 

If the PB Blaster trick doesn't work you might as well go ahead and remove the head so you can get to the bolt/stud easier.

 

Its got parade duty in the morning so I'm thinking you have the right idea if the PB doesn't work,

 

Well I got the manifold off and no threads are sticking out

the bolt is broke off and is the one that is on the rear most cylinder bottom hole (#8). I looked at the hole and it appears that someone has possibly tried to remove this before as the hole has dent or small chip in it its no longer a perfect circle but, a circle with a little chip on upper edge.

I doubt I can get any power drill or anything up in that area as there is little room to work. You have to go at it from below because you can not see from above. I'm not sure I want to frustrate myself with even trying it while lying on my back. Your thoughts?

In finding this out I decided well before I do anything else , I should pop the valve cover off the driver side and see what the rockers valvesprings etc. look like. In doing so I found little plastic keeper things on top of the valvesprings that were falling apart or had cracks in them. I need to know what those are , and I'm assuming this can't be good as I ended removing some pieces that were laying on top of the head. I also noticed a thin layer of sludge on the springs and rockers indicating the old girl has not always had her oil changed on time. I'm contemplating going forward and removing the driverside manifold as well since the driverside head has a broken stud too. However it is not leaking. So I may end up with half the motor taken apart by the time this is over with. Would it be easier just to pull the engine?? I'm kind of wondering. since things are really tight on the driverside with the steering and all.

 

You should try to get the head off first. I guarantee you that removing the whole engine would be harder. What are you contemplating? Considering what you discovered, perhaps having both heads done by a machinist would be a solution to your problems.

 

I agree with Oldsguy. Take the heads of and take to a quality machine shop and get a quote for the work you need done. You will be better off in the long run. While you have the heads off you can check the cylinder taper and check for a ridge around the top of the cylinder wall. Some times when you redo the heads you will find the the compression increase will cause the engine to burn a little oil; when you put it back together

 

Would a compression test be worthwhile right now??? I was leaning towards just yanking the heads like you guys said. I seriously doubt I can do much with the car without having the heads out of it.

With regard to the compression test I figured I might get a good idea what condition the bottom end is in if I did this test.

If I have good compression,, I would just look into freshening the heads and leaving the rest alone. However I guess the visual of the cylinders once the heads are off may be tell tale too. but it won't let me know if the rings are bad.

Car runs decent. Comments always welcome.

 

Good idea. Do the compression test first

 

Cylinder #1 100
Cylinder #2 110
Cylinder #3 85
Cylinder #4 85
Cylinder #5 90
Cylinder # 6 95
Cylinder #7 100
Cylinder #8 90

O.k. fellas I don't have a shop manual yet but I'm guessing 120 would have been a better number to see your thoughts on the matter. Oh by the way I didn't warm the engine prior to the test. there is no coolant in the motor right now due to it all running out when I pulled the exhaust manifolds. This may or may not be a valid test I don't know.

 

I suggest you pull both heads and find a good shop familiar with working on heads. I had my heads on my 56 off due to a blown gasket and decided to have new guides and hardened valve seats installed along with getting the gasket sides reground enough to clean them up. If you are planning on running your Olds on today's no lead gas you need the hardened valve seats or a lead additive. You can also get the valve springs checked; all depends on how far you want to go. Good luck, Chuck

 

Well if they are coming off they will be completely gone through, valves ground, new seats, springs, valve guides and seals, the whole 9. No sense in doing this twice.

Not sure about the rocker system,, I'm guessing a good cleaning . I am a little concerned however if I put new springs etc in the engine whether my cam will survive. I would go with the proper spring pressures etc. but I don't want to tax out the old cam.

 

Your concerns about wear on the cam got me to recall a problem that a few 56's had. Some premature wear on the cam, lifters going bad and excessive oil usage were due to a manufacturing glich with the oil pump. There is a small soft metal plug in the side of the pump that was not installed properly and became loose and in some cases came out. The result was that if the oil was low, or you cornered to hard the pump would starve for oil and oil would not get to where it should be. Even if you put in a rebuilt pump, inspect this plug carefully to make sure it is in tight. Been there and done that. Chuck