Wowbagger the I.P.

I have a FMII kit. The rear two turbo studs popped yesterday. I have to go to school tomorrow. Today's my last whole day to fix anything.

I read the "epic" thread and saw that TSE's 10 mm studs are the way to go for hard track use. However, I don't know that my car will ever see the track. I'd like to avoid drilling and tapping for 10 mm. I could possibly do it at the machine shop at school, but not on my DD. Too risky.

I can pick up a meter of 304SS M8x1.25 threaded rod from Fastenal for $13 today. Laur3ns seemed to have great success with the 304SS on the track, which would seem to indicate that it is more than capable for street use.

If I had 15+ posts I could PM Leafy, who mentioned the 8 mm 300ZX Inconel studs. Leafy, have you actually used them? Do they fit? I read some posts that call into question the thread pitch on the different sides. Are they long enough?

I can get a set of those tomorrow from the dealer for $26 or so.

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

Go with whatever you can find locally that fits to get you to school tomorrow. They will last long enough on the street for you to get some Nissian ones in later to try.

Wowbagger the I.P.

I'm going to pick up 4 40 mm 304SS M8 bolts for $2, cut the heads off, and employ those as a stop gap solution with some high temp (1600 deg F) anti seize on the manifold side.

I'm still curious about the 300ZX studs, so if anyone has info on those, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Now to see a) if I can get the turbo off and b) if I can get the broken studs out.

This will be fun. Good thing it's 20 degrees out and I don't have a garage handy. Grumble mumble complain.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

I have the 300zx studs on my MSM. Don't know if that helps you at all, since i don't have an FM2 kit, sorry. :(

Wowbagger the I.P.

That's still helpful information! Did you get the turbo to manifold studs (NIS300-14064-40P01) or the turbo to downpipe studs (14414-17F00)?

The links in the threads are being tossed around interchangeably.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

These.

Wowbagger the I.P.

Awesome. I called FM and they didn't know if MSM and FMII studs were interchangeable, but from what piecing together I've done in the past 12 hours, they look like a good choice.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Its the same thread and should be more or less the same length for all T2 flange turbos. I recently found 2 nuts that loosened but they were the impossible to tighten ones so I'm currently going with the explanation that the nuts were not tight enough, the studs are not elongated. These are the studs I used. 1 of them I had to put the longer threaded side into the manifold, but that should be an EFR only problem.

chicksdigmiatas

iTrader: (11)

I used those same ones before stepping up to the 10mm ones myself. I really didn't need the 10mm's but I did it anyways. I had nothing but good luck with them for over a year. I had done a few auto x and numerous quarter mile passes at that point. Not that those things are particularly stressful.

I went to the 10mm ones because the car was apart, and I would rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Wowbagger the I.P.

If I can get these out with some left hand drill bits and the threads are still OK, I think I'll stick with 8 mm and grab some Nissan Inconel (thanks guys for the part no. confirmation). If I can't get them out, I'll have it drilled and tapped for 10 mm and get some RX7 Inconel studs.

If I've learned anything from this process, it's that I don't want to do it again. What a hassle. I'm thankful I have access to another car to get me to school for the next few days.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Good call with the RX7's for a 10mm option. As far as I can tell those are also factory inconel.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

RX7 turbo studs are inconel.

Wowbagger the I.P.

I tried left hand drill bits first - no luck. Bought a cheap easy-out kit from HF - size gaps between tools rendered it unusable.

I think I'm gonna bite the bullet and have a shop drill it out to 10 mm and get the RX-7 studs. As for drilling out the turbo flange, I have no idea what I'm going to do at the moment. Try as I might, I couldn't disconnect the coolant lines from the bottom, so I'd love if I could operate on the housing without removing it from the engine bay. However, I don't think that'd be a terribly good idea.

Urgh. The upside to jumping to 10 mm is that I'll likely never have to touch them again. The car probably won't ever see the track and will only be autocrossed infrequently.

chicksdigmiatas

iTrader: (11)

I have rarely had easy-outs work. Unless you are lucky, and the bolt isn't seized, they will, but the harder the steel, the less ductile it is. So you are often left with a harder to drill through broken piece of metal. You won't regret the 10's.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

On bolts that broke from over torquing on tightening that arent bottomed ezouts work great, for ones that broke when you were loosening, you're boned.

RedCarmel

iTrader: (7)

Good to know in case my begi 10mm studs stretch. Wish I would gave known this before.

Efini~FC3S

iTrader: (4)

What's the cheapest price people have found for the RX7 10mm studs?

The little bit of searching I did only found a couple vendors, and they're not especially cheap.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

They're about twice the price of the OEM 300zx studs.

Wowbagger the I.P.

I saw ~$7 + lots of S&H online, $8 from local dealers. The Mazda dealers near me have to get 'em from a warehouse in Chicago.

To update my progress:

I called scores of local machine shops and none were especially willing to take a job this small. Only one said they would, and it'd be $50 (a minimum charge). I went back at trying to remove the pieces and got one out, but the other continued to defy the extraction attempts. I dropped it off with a small engine mechanic friend who said he may be able to get the rest out. I'll be checking back in with him later on.

I hope I can stay with 8 mm. I really don't want to drill out the flange if I can avoid it.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Your local dealers are somehow cheaper than mazda motorsports. The dealer retail on those studs is $18.40. And mazda motorsports is obviously cheaper than that.