[daoldbuick]

On New Years day I was wiring a trunk light and attaching the wire to a terminal near the starter. Grabbed a wrench to loosen the bolt and wasn't being very careful. Wrench shorted from the wiring terminal to the passenger side header, blowing a 1/16" hole in the rear header collector tube. About 4 inches from the head. Man, was I PO'd at myself. These headers might have about 1 mile on them. What a stupid thing to do. Question is "Now What"? There ceramic coated headers. How do I fix/plug this hole? Would muffler cement stick? would it take the heat this close to the head? Is there some other way, or do I have to replace the headers? Thanks for any help you can give.

[bigdog7373]

Grind the coating off around the hole and weld it. Then gring it to smooth it out but don't remove too much of the well. Then you can get it coated again or just paint that spot a similar color to the coating. Btw: Don't do this with the headers still on the engine. Very dangerous. Take them out and do it in the garage or whatever.

[RippinRon]

That sucks, they must have been some pretty thin headers. Like said before you can weld them but that doesn't help the ceramic coating. I'm in Meaford and have a TIG and could help you out with the welding part of it. You can buy ceramic rattle can paint and dab a bit over the repair and heat cure it. But it likely wont last long.

[daoldbuick]

Got em fixed. Would like to take this opportunity to thank "oldred" for his suggestion in one of the threads on welding. He suggested that one should preheat a weld to get better penetration. I carefully sanded off a dime size ares around the hole than preheated with a propane torch. when I welded it the weld lay-ed out so flat and smooth that I hardly had to touch it at all. Thanks to everyone.