Need some help from the F430 Guru's

Hi I have just been fitting my X-Pipe, and all was going well, then when doing up the bolts "snap" one has broken off, and its one thats a stud welded on from the bottom.

I have removed the exhaust and cut off the remaining thread that is stuck out, and I am attempting to drill out the rest of the bolt, buy my god I have no idea what its made of, but I am only half way through, running off centre and its taken out about 10 drill bits!!

Any suggestions?

 

This is the underside of the snapped bolt, it does not look anything special, but its rock hard!

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And this is where I have attempted to drill out the bolt and its gone off centre, it should be ok, once I get through, as I will just knock out the remainder of the thread, I just can't get through and its melted my drill bits!

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Thanks, I've tried that, and it just melts the drill bit or snaps them! Think I might need to buy some expensive drill bits! Looks like cobalt ones are needed!

 

I’ve got one but the welds would be very difficult to get to in if you see where they are, and given the look of the exhaust clamp, I’d rather pass on removing the tailpipes to do it!

 

Yes got it thanks, went straight to fit it and then this! I did start her up and it was very loud even with the valves on quiet!

 

Well my local agent can sort it!

Not sure to put a difference post up on my thoughts of the X-Pipe with headers.

I quite liked the old set up I had before, headers and standard exhaust with Remote valves. That was more bassy and louder, but at low revs under say 2.5k and pulling away, it did not make a nice noise, almost like a crude bassy, farty, spitty noise and like the exhaust was blowing. Up in higher RPM it was very noisy but also very nice. A point to note, I do miss the titanium sounding howl it used to do at around 3k revs. I thought that was very nice, and it does not pop and bang so much on the overrun.

I've put the exhaust on, and it certainly is more high pitched, its very F1 sound. I need to do a tunnel run! The X-Pipe is quieter which is a surprise! It is now more of a refined sound at lower revs, and from in the car. Further up the revs it is more F1 high pitch scream once over 5k revs. The valves also work the opposite way as most other cars, and you cannot keep the valves shut, even with remotes because the ECU tells them to open, when you start putting your foot down. So until it can be coded (if I decide to keep it this way) I have strapped them closed so the X-Pipe is in play. One thing I could not stand with completely standard set up was the valves opening and closing with the gas pedal, its awful, on off, on off, noisy, quiet, noisy, quiet, made it sound like the car is broken!

I like both, and it leaves me thinking was it worth it. I need more time at the wheel and I am off to a Ferrari meet soon get some opinions!