if it were me i would take it to a machine shop one capable of doing the job.i would hate to mess up the motor trying to do it myself and then have to pay someone alot to fix my screw up! i have also been told that you can melt candle wax in around the threads and it will come out easier?

 

Are any of your golf buddies a dentist or an oral surgeon? see if he can give you a couple of the largest diamond burs he uses. Put it in a dremel tool and CAREFULLY rout out the broken easyout. Take it easy, let the bur do the work don't apply a lot of pressure, just enough to keep it producing powder. Dip the bur in water every minute or so to cool and clean it. Once you have the easy out piece out of the bolt. Drill the bolt out to as large a size you can without hitting the threads or until the bolt stub backs out with reverse twist drill bits. Use a slow speed drill motor with very firm pressure to give the bits a chance to grab and back out the stub. I've never had a lot of luck with ezouts. A squirt or two of Liquid Wrench before starting to drill will help the drilling go easier and help loosen the bolt stub. DON'T use WD-40!!! It is NOT a penetrating oil or designed to loosen rust! (In fact IMHO it isn't good choice for very much!)
Worse case will be the need to drill the hole out completely then retap for the next size bolt. If an oversize bolt is not an option then you could use a helicoil or for the pan I'd LIGHTLY grease a new bolt making sure not to miss anyplace including under the head, and put some liquid steel in the hole then put the bolt in (without the pan in place. After the LS fully cures remove the bolt and smooth down any LS that has squeezed out with a file. DON'T overtighten the bolts next time. Just tighten as tight as you can by hand with no longer than a 6" long wrench.

 

or rent a mag drill and use a small bit inside the threads, and drill the easy out with a carbide bit. Yes they make different size ez outs. Get a new ez out that's of good quality. a die grinder will work too, but that's risky with trying to control it from hitting the threads. candle wax would be tough here, since you need to go up instead of gravity letting the wax drip down. jb-80 or break-free-clp works much better than wd-40 in this application. and last, but not least, what I have at work is a piece of flat steel(atleast 3/4" thick) with 3 holes drilled, to match the bolt holes on the pan-to-block surface. With longer bolts, bolt the flat stock to the area with the center hole being over the hole with the broken bolt and ez-out. use this hole as a guide for aiming the center punch and something to rest your holding hand to. Hit it hard, but hold onto it harder. Good luck.

 

Well thanks for all the advice. This is where I am now, the old easy out is out and I drilled a new whole but it was slightly off center because of the angle I was working at, the new easy out actually bit but wouldn't turn the bolt out. I turned harder and now that easy out is stripped. What if I just drill it out and re-tap it is that a problem, I think that I probably have damaged some of the threads on one side ot the whole with what I have done so far. Free cholesterol screening for the advisor whose idea works! Chris

 

Its at that same point that I used a dremel and a burr, and a sharp pick or scribe to get the rest of the bolt out, I lost a small amount of threads, but it still holds fine.

 

Hey Doc, Can you get your hands on any of the Super Cold Wart Remover stuff, give that bolt hole a shot of that and try a new Easy-Out.

 

I agree with packrat, once the drill has reached the threads it's time for a grinder and pick. Grind a groove down the length of the thickest portion of the bolt left out as close to the threads as possible to divide the remainder in 1/2. Use a pick or right angle scribe to catch the edge of the bolt between threads on the thin side and fold the piece into the center of the hole from both sides until they can be picked out. As stated above I'd put the EZouts in the same "more hype than help" waste container as the WD-40. They're like you doing an open heart with a swiss army knife, might work in theory, but there are much better tools and procedures available. Any product with EZ in the name usually isn't!

 

You did good, doc, just keep chewing away at the bolt and sooner or later it will fall out of there.

I never thought you would get this far!

One last thing - I was rebuilding the ford 302 in my boat, using the merc-cruiser manual. It called for 25 ftpds on the rods. I had tightened three when the forth broke.

I investigated and found that the ford manual called for 15 pounds - further investigation proved that merc-crusier had used the rod bolts for a 351 when they had a 302 built. Their rod bolts were 3/8, Fords were only 5/16. The engine must have been changed at some time. I guess they went with stronger bolts as the engine is always operated at high RPMs.

Anyway, to make a long story short, now I look at the bolt and compare specs to a standard table (most manuals have them) as a double check. It also could be that your pan has two different sizes of bolts - heavy bolts at the ends and smaller sized bolts in the center.

So check your torque specs - and don't just accept what is printed on one page of the manual. Also, I use a small bit of loc-tight (glue). It acts as a lube when you install the bolt and then sets as a glue to hold it in place.

This is what makes doing your own mechanical work FUN! You can do everything right, and still have it blow up in your face.

 

As a last resort, I have drilled the old bolt out compleatly and taped the hole to a much larger size, A fine thread is better. Thread in a soft fine threaded bolt (gr 2) with red locktight. When it drys cut that bolt off even with the engine block make sure that you don't grind into the block but make it as close as you can get it. Place your oil pan up and center punch were the new hole need to be, remove pan. Drill and tap it to the proper size. Use some rtv in that area when installing the pan. Be careful cast iron can be brittle and use sharp usa made tools. If you can fix hearts you can fix this.

 

Wow, great advice. Well with a little elbow grease (and a dremel tool) I got the old one out! In the process I found that I had wrecked about 25-30% of the circumference of the hole. I re-tapped it with a 5/16 tap because that is the size of the bolt and the bolt now holds even though the thread doesn't go all the way around the whole. My question now is should I leave it alone, tap it out to the next size, 3/8", or put in one of those heli-coil's. If I use a heli-coil should I use a 5/16" or another size. Once again thanks for all the help, I still have all my fingers and I even protected my eyes

 

LocTite or Permatex makes a "thread restorer" product, an epoxy with metal filings as a filler. It is perfect for a situation like this, where there are enough threads on most of the hole. Read the directions, you use a "release agent" on the bolt and pack the hole with the epoxy mix, thread the bolt in, let it set awhile, then back out the bolt. (go with what the box says, I'm just summarizing) There isn't much stress on a pan bolt.

 

If I used the red loc-tite I would leave it alone - if not, I would pull it and put lots of red loc-tite on and reinstall. Pan bolts do not hold that much - all they do is hold the pan tight while the gasket glue seals!

 

Did you totally obliterate the threads on the one side of the hole i.e. is the hole larger than the bolt on that side, or is there any ghost of the threads left? If you put the bolt in 1/2 way can you rock it side to side at all? If you cannot rock it or you can still see a ghost of the threads all the way around If it was mine I'd put some good gasket sealer on the gasket, some blue locktite on the bolt and tighten it snug. Retapping the hole can cause more problem than fix. If the holes are blind you would have to make sure you didn't drill it thru and then you would need to find a bottoming tap the right size, not something you'll find at your local hardware store. If the hole is thru into the crankcase you risk getting metal chips inside the engine. My advice is one I sometimes have to tell myself: "Quit while you are ahead!".

 

Seawulff -

What AX said.

70% threads in the hole will give you 70% of the thread torque. Adjust accordingly. You'll be fine.

 

One side of the whole is totallly obliterated no threads visable. If I put the bolt in just a bit it will wiggle but won't when all the way in. I kind of agree that I have created enough trouble so far and sometimes as we say perfection is the enemy of good. The heli-coil thing looks pretty slick though, maybe when I get the old beast running I will take it to a shop and see if they can put one in if the above suggestions don't work. Thanks for all the help, I don't think I would have gotten this far without FTE.

Chris