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Still thinking of drilling.
You can forget about using the fixture if you have broken EZ-outs still in the hole. Those are heat-treated to 62-65 Rockwell C(very Hard). The only thing that will even touch them is carbide, and thats a road you don't want to go down. I used the Lisle drill fixture and it worked great, but I'm a Machinist by trade and have 45 years experience dealing with scenarios like this. A welder works great, if you have one or have access to one. I don't. The drills that came with the fixture worked fine, but I did pick up a couple of left hand drills and it did break one of the studs loose. The rest, I just drilled them tapped in the EZ-out and and they came out. The worst one to drill for me was the left front stud. Had to use my 90 degree air drill for that one. If you try drilling over size for an insert, you'll probably make it worse since the hole is already off center. Are you skilled enough to drill and tap for the inserts? Also, you'll have to use a sealer on the threads and those heads get pretty hot. Not sure if that would stay sealed over time. Agree with many of the other members that you better look at a replacement head.
The OP's in Canada,unless you rob banks for a living doing aftermarket heads and a cam are out for alot of guys due to the cost factor.You basically double the US cost to get Canadian pricing
Be that as it may, only the sun rises for free
You know he'd sell it to china firstOnly cause our esteemed leader hasn't figured out a way to tax it
Well you're not wrong there
Why would you buy a new manifold??? The best fix is to get your manifolds machined at a competent machine shop. That will bring an end to your broken exhaust stud problem. The older more used manifols, the better! The manifolds on the vehicle when it was new we refer to as "green" cast. It hasn't gone through the stress relieve process. That involves heating and cooling. A new, out of the box manifold will do the same warpage trick of your old one, get the old ones machined and solve your problem rather than just pushing it down the road.
I just put shorty's on and call it a day. If the stock manifolds aren't warping they're cracking, and a machined one is going to be more likely to crack.
You're shorties are way more likely to crack then a machined seasoned cast iron manifold is. If you get a set of shorties that don't crack a weld with-in a year odds are you're hardly ever driving the truck
I respectfully disagree, I did mine about 3 or 4 years ago and no problem since, No cracks, no broken bolts and best of all, no warpage. I followed the proper torque values and sequence with the exception that I stay a bit lower on the torque on the rear bolt on both sides.
