Exhaust bolt removal...Do they all break?

[jimcor]

I eventually want to get a V&N 4:1 exhaust for my '83 GS1100GL. I've got a friend that's had several GSes and he says every time he's tried to take the pipes off of one he ends up breaking most of the exhaust bolts. Is this a common-place occurrence? Is there anything I can do to avoid it? I'm guessing hosing them down with Kroil and/or PB Blaster every night for weeks in advance isn't a bad place to start, but do you have any other recommendations? A friend suggests running the engine to get it hot, then putting something cold on the head of the bolt to shrink them a bit...Is this effective?

jt, this stuff from CRC may actuallly be an answer to your original question. Use the PB, smack the bolts with a drift and hammer, start two weeks in advance and finish with a little heat and the freezer spray and I'll bet you have good luck. A lot better than brute force.

[Zooks]

What has worked for me is to very slightly tighten the bolt before trying to loosen it. Nothing major, you just want to break the chemically induced bond, and bolts take stress better as you tighten them than when you loosen them.

This is the ONLY way I have ever removed rusted old bolts. Start by slightly tightening then slightly loosening. You just want to 'tweak' the bolt slightly in either direction (in & out) until it starts to get looser and looser. Very tiny little increments will break the rust seal without snapping the bolt.
It may take five or ten minutes to get a bolt out this way, but it's better than spending the next three days trying get the broken end out etc etc.

[GS750]

You should be able to get them out without heating by the previously suggested method of slightly tightening the bolts first, but use the impact screwdriver with the socket on it at the same time to TIGHTEN first.

I recently discovered an old GSin a paddock and loosened several bolts from it using this method and no penetrant fluids either.