Good words, aswracing. Heeds these words OP! I read so many stories of broken extractors and easy outside when I researched this topic.

I don't meant to hijack the thread, but while we're on the topic, I'll ask this question: how do you feel about removing non-broken studs to replace with brand new studs, aswracing? I successfully removed my exhaust the other day without any studs being broken in the process. Old studs are a bit weathered and rusted after 11 years, but the threads are intact. Should I replace the old studs with new ones, or should I leave them alone and simply use new nuts on the old studs?

If anyone has valuable* experience with this, please chime in. The OP and I could benefit!

 

Unless they are really bad, I would leave them alone. Just clean them up as best you can. I put anti sieze on mine, never had any issues. I recheck them now and again, but after a couple times they settle in.

 

use a thread restorer and some solvent on the studs to clean em up.

 

In ideal conditions those studs are not easy to remove or refit. Leave well alone, keep clean, as already suggested.

 

When removing old studs, that have gone through lots of heat cycles and fatigue over the years, it's highly likely that some or all of them will break in the process. Remember the interference fit thread thing. Those studs are bound up tightly inside the head. You can barely even get one out when everything is brand new and has never been run. Add a decade of heat cycles and fatigue and corrosion to the studs and it becomes next to impossible.

So if you want to replace old fatigued studs as a preventative measure, my advice is to have the little drill guide tool handy and be prepared to be drilling them out once they break off, because I think it's likely.

 

Buy Brass nuts for the studs and eliminate that problem from ever happening again.