Hullo Gang.
Could any one recommend a decent mechanic in the Western suburbs of Melbourne or Geelong, Jag or otherwise that can replace the exhaust studs on my STR?
A local mechanic in Hoppers Crossing(who cannot take on the job) diagnosed the fault and said the engine has to be removed to enable the repair.
Any ideas

Cheers
Jim J

 

Have a search around for "thread repair" in your area. This guy came up on a few searches Thread Doctor The - Fasteners--Industrial - Narre Warren South, VIC - Yellow Pages® wrong side of Melbourne but you never know.

I used a thread repair guy up here in Sydney to extract a broken bolt once, he told me he needed 15cm straight on access to the bolt, which I think won't be possible for an exhaust manifold...

So yeah it could be engine out, which would require a crane. Either drop the front subframe with the engine/gearbox still attached, or lift the engine out the top.

The other way would be to remove the head & exhaust manifold as one piece, but that is still a 20 hour job by the time you remove the supercharger, intake, etc just to get the head off...

Call that guy up, see what he says.

Good luck.

 

Some indy Jag shops in the recommended shops at the top of VIC/TAS section, althought non in the west. If engine out is in the frame it may well be worth checking with Ratcliffs or similar before committing. Ugly problem, let us now how it goes.

Good luck