I'd tap that

Managed to get some more time on the car today and focussed on drilling and tapping the 3 broken studs. All were sorted with out too much hassle and much safer than risking easy-outs. Learnt my lesson there.

I had to get a new drill bit and tap set as I didn't own the required 'F' sized bit to drill a 5/16" - 18 hole, HomeDepot got me sorted. To make things easier I had to remove the thermostat housing and found a relatively new looking t-stat heavily stuck in place with a load of gasket sealer. The housing is pretty beat up and corroded so I've ordered a new one (along with a new t-stat) from RockAuto.

Now I've just got to deal with the one remaining stud and figuring the best way to get it out.

Crack kills

January and February are busy months for us as 4 family birthdays fall at this time, plus if  you throw in the 2 weeks of everyone being sick then not much progress has been made on the car. However past couple of weeks I'm been working on the exhaust manifold.
I've had the new (used) intake and exhaust manifold sitting in the garage for a while now. It's from a 70-72 model, which means the choke pocket is open to the exhaust gases. Originally there was a stainless steel cup that sat in the hole but this is no longer available new and NOS is super pricey.  As I'm going to convert to an electric choke I don't need this pocket so I just need to make a plate up and cap this off and then I'll be good to go.

Went to a friend's workshop and used his bead blaster to strip and clean the new intake and exhaust manifolds. They came up really well and while we were there tackled the broken stud. The left hand bolt hole had a snapped off stud in it. I had already drilled and tried an "easy-out" on it which I'd also snapped. Those things are made from super hard steel and can't be drilled. Luckily we managed to punch it through the stud and could redrill and tap it. The other stud was stretched and bent and again snapped during removal, but was drilled and tapped too.

I sprayed the intake manifold with VHT silver and it looks like new. I need to find some black super high temp paint for the exhaust manifold and then it will look like the dog's proverbials.

I decided to try and take the existing manifold off and have been soaking the bolt in PB Blaster. Yes I said bolts as some previous owner or "mechanic" ditched the Dodge/Chrysler installation procedure of studs and special hardware in favour of an assortment of bolts and multiple washers.The manifolds are designed to float so that as they get hot they can expand. If they can't expand and slide then this happens.

Yep, cracked in to two pieces no wonder it was noisy, smelly and low on power. There are also 2 other cracks on it so it's fair to say it's junk.

Here's the block sans manifolds. I snapped one of the studs off (one of 2 remaining) and the last one is chewed up and needs replacing too.There were also 2 studs snapped off in the head already so I'll drill and retap these too. I've got the new studs already from silver seal and the new exhaust manifold from Remflex so I'm pretty much ready to go. I'd like to use brass nuts on assembly but I'm having a hard time locating them, so may have to switch to stainless.