I have 97 accord. It needs a new exhaust, but the studs are tack welded to the cat which are rusted by lovely michigan weather. Instead of torching them out, could I grind the tack welded part off and simply tap the remainder of the stud out with out the need of drilling.

 

i dont see why you cant?

 

u'll have to go to a local mechanic shop and have them torque it out w/ an impact. it'll come out then.

 

they're rusted pretty bad and they wont break and wont grind off easily. u'll super pissed by the time u grind one off even w/ the grinder.

 

If I removed the bolts in front of the converter would the flange be reuseable with a new gasket. Then I can bring it to some body who knows how to remove them.

 

if u grind them. ur cat wont be useable anymore. the bolts are welded on to the cat and the nuts go in after the catback pipe. so when u grin them the bolts will come out short.

ur better off getting them off w/ in impact.

one thing i'm not understanding is that u just need a new muffler. why not just go to a muffler shop and have them cut out ur old one and weld a new one on. are u installing a catback system?

 

The entire system behind the cat is toast. I need a new flex and the muffler rattles when accelerating. The current pipe has sheet metal clamped. I have purchased the pipe kit and muffler for around $150 from a local parts store. The person who sold me the parts informed me that the way to remove the studs is to heat the studs up after cutting the studs off with a acetylene torch till red hot. From there they will pop out with moderate hammering. I'm at the point of just replacing every thing. The two things I hate about this car is removing the rotors and replacing the exhaust. Other than that I love it. I don't have any pictures but if you were to see the current condition of the studs, wrenching would be out of the question because the nuts are no long the size or shape when put in originally at the factory. Michigan weather and roads cause hell when removing even manifold bolts. Thats why I wish stainless bolts were a federal mandate. Just kidding.

 

if u can, replace everything and have a peace of mind. but if u get a cheap header, they will leak for sure (almost guaranteed). as far as I know, only DC header are good and they dont leak out air. and do not get "pacesetters" those are the worst.

and also make sure u get the right gasket that goes b/w the flex pipe and the cat. there was a lot of air leaking out and and i replaced many gaskets. later on someone told me that its a ring shaped fat gasket not a plane flat one.

 

First sorry for the delay my isp provider wouldn't allow me to access this site. Now I replace the flex/resonator pipe. I simply purchased a cutting wheel for my dremel tool. The project took 5hrs. I simply grinded the studs off drilled them out to 5/16 then installed some stainless bolts. Now I notice that my car has a mild rumble that it didn't have before I replaced this part. I've checked for air leaks but couldn't find any. I think the resonator is generic and simply isn't designed for this engine. Thats were OEM honda is better. When I replace the muffler later on I will use a Honda OEM part.

 

so whats ur setup now?

header, resonator, and catback exhaust?