In a message dated 17/01/2007 1:36:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:

stainless steel bolts on your muffler/catalytic converter.

The  more experienced among us know this already. I thought I'd beat  the
corrosion problem by using M8 stainless bolts and nuts for my new Bus  Depot
cat and muffler. Once they heat up, there's no way to loosen them. I  don't
know what happens to the steel, but it sure isn't any labor saver.  The heads
just break of when you crank them.  So much for good  intentions.

Well, that is just not entirely true.  I have  been using stainless steel
hardware on all exhaust systems here for over eight  years now and this little
problem you just experienced is rare.  It's  called galling, something stainless
steel hardware likes to do.   However, you will still always have perfectly
sized heads of the nuts and bolts  with which to put a good wrench on and be
able to twist until they either loosen  or break.  This is not the case with
mild steel hardware which eventually  rusts away until there is no wrench in the
world able to grab hold of it so your  left to drill, chisel, torch,
swear-a-lot, hammer, etc, until you get the  connection loose.  So.......you
choose..........I did long ago !

Cheers,

Frank  Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 Westy, '90 Carat, '87 Wolfsburg  (Forsale) & Lionel Trains (_Collection
for  sale_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/trainsal.htm) )
Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
_Frank Condelli &  Associates_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html)
_Vanagon  Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems_
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/stebro.htm)
_BusFusion_ (http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm)  a VW Camper
camping event, Almonte, ON, June 07 ~ 10,  2007