Does anybody know of a safe way to remove exhaust studs from a 440 head. I've had bad luck, the studs break off and when I use heat the head cracks easy. I need to get the studs out of a new engine I bought so I can use my haeders. Thanks for any help.

I'd love to hear a good way too.

The only way I know is take them to the machine shop and let them cut'em out, my local shop charges $25 a stud or $30 if you broke an easy out in it like I did the first time.

I've found that welding a nut onto the stud with a mig welder seems to blast the rust off the threads. Maybe it's the current through the stud or maybe it's the heat?

I also drench them with Kroil or Heat penetrating oil the day before.

If I break one I weld a washer on end to the stud if there's enough metal left. You can mig real close to the head as the molten steel does not stick very well to the cast iron.

leave them in,,, you wont have any water leaks...

IF you try an EZ-out ... use a QUALITY one of the square design....NOT the spiral one.

You can try rapping them with a hammer before you double nut them. It tends to "shock" the threads to help break them loose....

Screw (2) nuts onto the stud. You use the nut that is closest to the head to remove the stud. That nut contacts the outside nut and they lock themselves together.

I have used the double nut process as well. Use pb or any other penetrant...as well as heat and percussion adjustment......all to break the rust seal that is there. Use grade 8 nuts as it will require alot of pressure. Only done on 2 sets of heads but all studs came out.

Something else that works other than PB is Anticease. PB seems to burn off with heat instead of flowing into the threads. If you use heat and then spread some anticease on the stud...it will become a liquid and run right into the threads without burning off.

The question is why? Why do you want them out? Are they all stripped out or something? If so get a good rust buster, soak, hit with a torch, soak, torch, then use the nut to nut method, before you try and turn it hit it with heat one more time. As stated, some are going to break so go get ya an extractor, tap and dye set
Depending on the header you can use almost all or in some cases all of the exh mani studs.

If they are all rusty and or stripped I would just get a nut that slips over the stud and weld it to the stud , they should come right out .