Recently had some work done on one of my other cars to fix an exhaust leak and mentioned my Beta was very noisy in the exhaust. To my surprise, the shop owner not only knew what a Beta was but was eager to take a look for me.
They quickly replaced the gasket between header and downpipe but then found 2 missing studs on the manifold itself. I ordered the 9mm studs from Midwest Bayless but the shop said they wouldn't fit.
Here's the weird part: they claim that only an 8mm would thread into the inner head but the outer thread was 9mm. Their head technician is a really odd guy who's hard to understand, so I'm not entirely clear on all his comments, but something about a stepped stud was the old school fix. He fabbed up something from 8mm studs and all sounds great now, but of course I'm left with very expensive worthless-to-me 9mm studs and a very puzzled look on my face.
Does anyone have any experience with anything similar?
I've looked through the reams of service receipts on my car that date back to the early 90s and while there's two incidents of exhaust work, no mention of anything other than 9mm studs, though there was a valve job done at one point. Is there any other head, Fiat perhaps, that fits the 2.0 but has different fittings that might have been installed in place of the original?
