Copper Nuts on Exhaust Manifold?

[stegosaurus]

So I'm removing the exhaust manifold and all the nuts are copper, I'm wondering what the guys at BMW were thinking putting such a soft metal on there.

So they were all slightly covered in rust but they all came off, except for one. This nut will not come off, I've tried everything; heat, rounded socket set, tried flattening one side to get some bite, tried grinding a slot for a flat head, problem is there is absolutely no room in there.

So...

What do I do now?

EDIT: It's an M42 btw.

[der affe]

self locking copper nuts have been around fopr a long time. they are softer, but have a better expansion rate then steel nuts along with the locking tang. they don't come loose with time. just make sure you put a little anti sieze on the studs first tom make sure that they don't make themselves perminate. they are usually a 12 mm for teh 8 mm exhaust studs, not a 13mm like the steel ones. there are 13mm copper exhaust nuts, but they are not very common. we used to sell them at the VW shop from 13mm to 11mm sizes if you needed extra clearence

[der affe]

the rest of my post didn't show up??????

is there enough stud past the nut to double nut it or use a stud extractor?

can you get a pair of vice grips in there and turn it?
you might ruin the stud too, but depending on your tool access that may be your only way.

you can always put in a new stud if you ruin the threads

[JuanPabloBongto]

Yeah who cares about the stud, they cost $1.20 each. Always have spares.

double-nut that fvcker and DOMINATE

[equate975]

they use copper nuts so they lock nylon will burn off.

Get a nut splitter and split the nut.

[TwoJ's]

I wonder what the actual material for them is. I would bet that it's an alloy, not just copper.

Hmph.

[thedeal]

You sure they are not brass. Copper... Hmmm!

[stegosaurus]

I'm liking the sounds of a stud extractor or nut splitter. I tried to double nut it yesterday, saughtered them together and it felt so right! Turned out the saughter broke and I just extracted the clean nut. I spent 6 hours on this one nut yesterday.

It's in one of the worst spots possible IMO, its the cylinder 3 bolt on the cylinder 4 side, between the shock tower and the wheel well there isn't much room for anything.

I'm babysitting a mercedes shop for 3 weeks so I've got time though.

[TwoJ's]

Solder?

And you don't need to do that. Just get a wrench on each nut, and twist them in opposite directions. Get them down very tight, and you don't need to weld or solder them together.

[stegosaurus]

Yeah, Solder, I'm not sure why I spelled it that way. I'll keep trying and hopefully it's out by the end of today.

[TwoJ's]

Yeah, just keep at it man. Use heat and penetrating oil, they are your friend.

[stegosaurus]

I ended up using a veeeery small dremel to get rid of the stud and the nut because there was about an inch of stud left between the nut and the block, and the manifold isn't threaded.

Once the manifold slid off I used a set of vice grips to turn it off, hilarity ensued. It was the high point of my day considering it took 3 days to figure out how to get it off. I wish there was a video of it, I was foaming.

[Jand3rson]

I just put copper all-metal lock nuts on my exhaust manifolds, that was all they had at the stealer. They didn't have any of the BMW ones, so I had to get VW ones.

[equate975]

I just put copper all-metal lock nuts on my exhaust manifolds, that was all they had at the stealer. They didn't have any of the BMW ones, so I had to get VW ones.

Yeah the stealer is like the only place I can find copper lock nuts at. I swear I went to every automotive store and hardware store and no one had them.

I don't think a m10 copper lock nut is gonna matter if its for a VW or BMW ;)

[SamE30e]

self locking copper nuts have been around fopr a long time. they are softer, but have a better expansion rate then steel nuts along with the locking tang.

This might have been a hint as to what you should do.

Propane torch will work fine.