I've TWO studs left to pull out of my X.

One is flush with the head. That's the one I need advice on. I've got a guide plate that will help me drill a hole in it for extraction, but I can't fit a drill in there to get to it. My options for this are undoing the motor mounts and raising the engine up or maybe getting multiple bits and cutting them to different lengths to work them in there. I have a right angle drill but it won't fit.

Some of the guys here at work (engineering) said to try welding a nut onto it.

Now, I knew about this solution but I didn't think it would work on one that's flush with the head.

Will welding a nut to the stud hurt or melt the head at all?

 

No it won't hurt it if you do it right. But it's a fine art one that you want to err on the side of caution and have a plethora of nuts handy for takes 4,5 and 6

 

Drill and guide plate worked for me. But the one or two behind motor mount came out easy. Did not have to drill those.

I tried welding a nut on some of the studs and only worked once or twice. And those had about 1/2 inch of stud sticking out of head.

Recommend the drill and left hand drill bits, along with a good extractor. I had best luck with a bit a hair larger than stud. Used it to drill about 1/8" deep. This removes corrosion between head and stud which causes most of the removal issue. Than drill a hole thru stud and spray pb blaster behind stud. Than start on 2nd stud repeating proceedure. Once that is done try extracting 1st stud if left hand drill bit did not remove it.

 

When I was working (retired now) here is how I did it at my work. I would take a flat washer the same size as the stud that was broken off. Take a pair of long nose vice grip style locking plyers and grab the washer on the outside of the washer, put it on the broken off stud in the center of the washer. Now with the wire welder take the washer to the stud in the center hole of the washer. Just a tack for now just to hold it in place. Now take a nut around the same size as the flat washer center hole. Usually for me a 3/8 nut would work great. Take the locking plyers and grab the nut hold it on the washer and tac that to the washer where the threads are to the washer and broken off stud. Remove the plyers and on a couple of places on the outside of the nut weld that to the washer. Now it will be red hot by this time and before it cools off eather use the locking plyers to rock the welded nut left and right 99 out of a hundred times the broken stud will back right out the first time........... I have taken out a broken stud like this hundreds of time over the 42 years of working........ Actually it took me longer to type all this out then it would take me to do the actual work........... good luck........

 

I did all of mine over the winter, and out of 20 studs, I had to use a welder to remove well over half of them. Of those, most of them were broken off below the head. use a pick or something to clean off the stud before you try to weld, make sure your gas is working, and slowly build up the weld until it is above the head. Then stick a large nut over the weld, and weld to the nut. This repeated heating and shrinking should loosen it up nicely and it should come right out. Make sure you get a good burn on the stud, that way the weld doesn't break off when you try to turn the nut. I didn't even try drilling them, I just used the welder on them all.

 

The wire from the MIG will only stick to the stud and nut, it will not stick to the aluminum of the head.
I welded a nut to one of my broken studs (drilled and easy out on the other), spun right out with the nut on it.
Here is the broken stud (circled), it is about a thread or so deep inside the head.



Here it is with the nut welded to it, I just fed wire into the nut till it was full.



Spun out easy with the nut.

 

Created account to say thank you! Could not get weld on nut to bite bolt, washer and nut worked first time! This should be a 4 beer job, when on #5 try the washer. Now for the other side.