Broken header bolts
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Senior User
Joined: Sep 2010
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From: Oregon City
Broken header bolts
Thought I would share my fun. My 72 f250 has a 360 in it that the previous owner had broken off two of the header bolts. The header was clamped to the head with these awesome clamps.
The exhaust leaks were pretty bad so I decided to tackle removing the rest of the bolts, removing the broken ones, and trying to get it sealed up.
The exhaust leaks were pretty bad so I decided to tackle removing the rest of the bolts, removing the broken ones, and trying to get it sealed up.
Post Fiend
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 8,209
Likes: 12
From: Black Hills of SD
the clamps do work. Ugly enough. On my last FE, I most of those top ones off trying to get them out. It's pretty hard to get in there with a comon drill so I used a torch and blowed through the old bolts and used grade 8 1/4" bolts with nuts and washers. You'll never have another siezed bolt again. And forget those gaskets because they just blow out again. Just clean everything up good and used a film of high heat silicon.
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Joined: Sep 2010
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From: Oregon City
I had soaked the bolts down with pb a few times days before. Then in the morning I soaked it down and ran it to get the bolts warm and soaked them again. Let it sit for a few hours to cool down and soaked it one more time.
I got out my 3/8 impact and 3/8 wabbley socket and feathered each of them forward and backward until I got movement, then I threaded them right out all of them came out like this except one. I resoaked it, got a 3/8 breaker bar and felt it out both ways several times, no movement. Broke out the half inch impact and rattled it forward and backward a few times. Got it up to 4 power and it finally broke loose and threaded out.
Now to just get the broken bolts out.
I got out my 3/8 impact and 3/8 wabbley socket and feathered each of them forward and backward until I got movement, then I threaded them right out all of them came out like this except one. I resoaked it, got a 3/8 breaker bar and felt it out both ways several times, no movement. Broke out the half inch impact and rattled it forward and backward a few times. Got it up to 4 power and it finally broke loose and threaded out.
Now to just get the broken bolts out.
Hotshot
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 18,488
Likes: 22
From: The Big, Oregon
I've done the clamp trick and the undersize bolt trick, both work well. If you're really good with a torch, you can clean all the bolt out without disturbing the threads, but that works better in blind holes.
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Joined: Sep 2010
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From: Oregon City
Originally Posted by willowbilly3
the clamps do work. Ugly enough. On my last FE, I most of those top ones off trying to get them out. It's pretty hard to get in there with a comon drill so I used a torch and blowed through the old bolts and used grade 8 1/4" bolts with nuts and washers. You'll never have another siezed bolt again. And forget those gaskets because they just blow out again. Just clean everything up good and used a film of high heat silicon.
The passenger side rear, I cut the mount for the wheel well/fender and was able to drill it out from behind the right front tire. Drill punched through with a 1/8 first. Then 1/4, then 5/16. My hole was crooked so I chewed up my thread on one side. I got the tap to run through but it was pretty loose, so I thought I would just get a longer header bolt and nut the back side.
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Joined: Sep 2010
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From: Oregon City
Originally Posted by HIO Silver
Excising broken exhaust bolts is a rite of passage for FE owners... it's Ford's version of a circumcision!
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Senior User
Joined: Sep 2010
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From: Oregon City
After getting everything apart, I was cleaning up the heads and the header flange. This is what the surface of the head looked like on the rear two exhaust ports on passenger side.
I figured that was gonna make it a little beyond what a gasket could do.
I figured that was gonna make it a little beyond what a gasket could do.
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From: Lind, WA- Eastern WA
If you don't want to get them polished down at bit, then try the old J-B weld stuff. Let it cure at least 24 hours then sand it down. It won't be perfect. But it will be better than what you have now.
Senior User
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 473
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From: SW Florida
Aaaahhhhh the fun of undoing the old hack jobs from generations of bad repairs. I still have a section of rust repair somebody made to my truck where they pop riveted a piece of aluminum over a rust hole and then smeared bondo over it all. Most of the bondo has long since fallen off but since they used aluminum none of that has rusted away, so I have a beautiful aluminum/rivet/bondo patch still hanging on to the bottom of a door.
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Senior User
Joined: Sep 2010
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From: Oregon City
Originally Posted by Talltruck
Aaaahhhhh the fun of undoing the old hack jobs from generations of bad repairs. I still have a section of rust repair somebody made to my truck where they pop riveted a piece of aluminum over a rust hole and then smeared bondo over it all. Most of the bondo has long since fallen off but since they used aluminum none of that has rusted away, so I have a beautiful aluminum/rivet/bondo patch still hanging on to the bottom of a door.
I am by no means a perfectionist. But my hack jobs only go so far
Post Fiend
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 8,209
Likes: 12
From: Black Hills of SD
I had soaked the bolts down with pb a few times days before. Then in the morning I soaked it down and ran it to get the bolts warm and soaked them again. Let it sit for a few hours to cool down and soaked it one more time.
I got out my 3/8 impact and 3/8 wabbley socket and feathered each of them forward and backward until I got movement, then I threaded them right out all of them came out like this except one. I resoaked it, got a 3/8 breaker bar and felt it out both ways several times, no movement. Broke out the half inch impact and rattled it forward and backward a few times. Got it up to 4 power and it finally broke loose and threaded out.
Now to just get the broken bolts out.
I got out my 3/8 impact and 3/8 wabbley socket and feathered each of them forward and backward until I got movement, then I threaded them right out all of them came out like this except one. I resoaked it, got a 3/8 breaker bar and felt it out both ways several times, no movement. Broke out the half inch impact and rattled it forward and backward a few times. Got it up to 4 power and it finally broke loose and threaded out.
Now to just get the broken bolts out.
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Senior User
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 183
Likes: 7
From: Oregon City
Originally Posted by willowbilly3
You did good. If you have time and patience you can work them loose. The few times I have addressed the issue it was on my daily driver and I didn't have the luxury of soaking them very long in PB, needed to get it fixed so I could get to work the next day. Those heads are a mess, never seen any pitted that bad.