Water pump and thermostat housing studs

[keith0alan]

Hello all,

One of the things I like to do when I work on these things is to make stainless steel studs to replace the originals. There is no way to keep the water out and replacing them with stainless makes life much easier next time it has to come apart.

[Import_sounds-of-mid-GA]

If you take your old ones out you should be able to take them to a local hardware store and match them up to what you are lookin for.

[spl310]

Stainless would be a fantastic solution. Actually, that is one of my pet peeves. There are so many things that are well made, but when it comes to fasteners, they cheap out with carbon steel instead of stainless. Off shore boats are a prime example. It would have been great if Nissan had used stainless for the studs that are causing so much fun now...

[garth]

I am staring at two ph**cing frozen studs right now that are seriously impeding any progress on the rebuild of this engine. I've tried penetrating fluid and heating/cooling. Still frozen. If no progress tommorrow, I guess I'll be cutting the studs off and drilling and tapping new holes. I will definately be replacing them with stainless.

I am curious if any one has ever tried using a shunt made from brass shim stock to shunt current directly from the temperature sending to the head. The way the temperature sender was configured on my engine, the sender ground path is through the stud. With the disimilar metals plus a small current flow, there all the right conditions for serious galvanic corosion resulting in frozen threads. A brass shunt will virually eliminate current flow through the stud and a possible cause of a malfunciton of the temperature sender.

[keith0alan]

Should work fine. The OEM 2L gaskets have a staple in them for just that reason. A piece of brass shim stock folded over and slid over the edge of the gasket should work fine. Just don't cover it with gasket goo. Some folks run a wire from the sender to the engine.

The Brits have some stuff that is a combination of some refrigerant (freon?) and penetrating oil. Supposed to work good but I haven't seen it here.

Drilling the studs is a pain. Center punch as close to the center as you can. Start with a small drill and work up one step at a time. If you're lucky you will get to the point where the remainds of the stud can be picked out. If you centered well you will end up with just the threads left and you can curl them out.

Before you cut try this. Get some good penetrating oil, Kroil, JB-80, PB Blaster. Put a few drops around the stud. Get the propane torch and heat the aluminum around the stud till the oil just starts to bubble. Squirt more oil on the stud and try to turn. Repeat a few times. I get some wickedly stuck studs and bolts in manifolds and that seems to work pretty well. Haven't had to drill one in a while.

[Datsun 440]

Garth ,if the studs were over tightened at some time it stretches the aluminum around the steel threads acting as a lock. Try giving the stud a good blow on the end with hammer.Also Heating it should come out.
Arnold