So long story short, wire between starter and battery had a short on the chassis. Caused complete meltdown of all related wiring in the engine bay, melted/dead battery. To fix I replaced the starter (free), remove/reinstall exhaust, replaced battery (free), ran all new wiring ($50), new battery post clamps ($50 - but they're awesome, and gold plated!).

Probably would have been over $1000 in a shop, but did it all for about $100 on my time and dime. Well, I also bought a Dremel as a reward: Total Cost $175.

QUESTION
I cross threaded the nuts on the exhaust manifold bolts when I was putting it back on. Ugh. I used a die to fix the threads and put new 7/16"-20 nuts on there (from Lowes). They're some sort of stainless steel and I don't believe they're as durable as the stock nuts.

Will the heat have a negative impact on these bolts? Should I replace with nuts designed for high-temp .. is there even such a thing? If this happened at other areas of the exhaust I wouldn't worry... but given the heat at the exhaust manifold I'm a little curious. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />


Oh, and funny enough, after a complete re-wire my engine no longer ticks! At all! I think she's just feeling guilty! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Did the nuts have a grade marking on them? I don't know about the impact of heat on the metal, but Lowe's here has a very good selection of grade 8 hardware (class 10.9 in metric), which I try to use if at all possible when replacing hardware.

Here's a useful site web page