Subaru Exhaust manifold bolt removal

I am about to pull the exhaust manifold bolts on the EJ222 to check for dropped valve guides. However I want to make sure I don't break one. Whenever I did a manifold on aluminum heads before, I was replacing heads... didn't matter how many I broke and I broke quite a few. Any pointers for Subies before I go a crankin?

 

BTW the car runs OK so I can drive it to preheat etc.

Lots of rust penetrant. There is a chance that the nut will not separate from the stud and you will pull the stud out. This is ok. New studs and cheap and easy to install.

Hopefully yours aren't as corroded as mine were. I recently removed my enging to fix the oil plate and I broke 5 of 6 studs. I PB Blasted them twice and even heated them up and they still broke. To make matters worse even when I tried to remove the broken studs I ended up having to drill them out and heli coil them. It took for ever and lots of drill bits. So mine broke more because the studs were corroded to the heads then the nut to the stud, well that did play a part too. This is the first Subaru I've had this bad. Most come out easy especially with a torch.

Spoolin your experience is what prompted this thread lol.

LOL! I think mine were corroded because of the exhaust gasket. It was so imbedded on the cylinder heads when I cleaned them off the the heads surface was totally uneven and pitted. I had to use sand paper and a sanding block to level them out. Took over 6 hours to get them level so they wouldn't leak. Shitiest thing was I had to do this with the engine in the car. I though the surface was ok but the first time I started the engine after install they leaked. NOT A FUN TIME. I honestly think yours will be ok. Just dig into her.