ok, ill make a long sto0ry short, one of the bolts that holds my thermostat housing on my 351w is broke off, the bottom one to be exact, anyway, i drilled it out and tried using an easy out but it broke off inside the bolt, i tried hitting it with a cold chisel to turn it and everything, im out of ideas now, can someone help?

1985 F-150/351Ho/4wd/6inch with 33's
1979 f-250 429/4spd/6inchwith 36 inch buckshot mudders

on a quiet night your can hear a chevy (lol,you can watch a dodge) rusting away

 

Oh Oh
Well you won't be drilling thru that easyout with an ordinary drill bit. Weld a nut to the top of the bolt and try and turn it out that way. If the bolt is flush to the block, weld inside the nut. Of course you have to use a large nut, not a 1/4" one The heat should even help break the bolt loose.
Good luck.

Sparky

 

I think everyone that posts in this group has some experience with broken bolts. Afterwards, you get a lot smarter about loosening ANY bolt. If you don't have a torch handy, run down to your local hardware store and buy some titanium drill bits. My best advice is drill the bore clean and re-tap. First thing, post or find out what size ream you need to re-tap the threads. Buy that size drill bit, one bit smaller and another even smaller to use as a pilot. You'll also need to buy the right size tap for the threads (use one of the other bolts you did get free to gage the thread pitch and size), some type of holder to hold the tap, and tapping or multi-purpose oil. If you aren't broke yet, buy a couple of extra bits - just in case. Start with the smallest bit and drill a hole as close as possible to the center of the plugged hole. Don't run the drill at full speed. Apply firm pressure and pulsate the drill's trigger on and off to keep the chuck rotating as slowly as possible. After the slightest amount of progress, back the bit out, oil it, and repeat the process. If you run the bit to fast and/or without oil it will overheat and dull to uselessness! Continue with the pilot hole until you feel your in deep enough. Then move up to the next size bit and repeat the process - then to the bit size you need for the tap. Once you've reamed the hole clean, tap it. Oil and clean the tap often, turn it in and out- progressively working it into the bore, you should be able to catch some of the old threads.
With a small investment and some patience you can do it. If you don't know the bore size for the tap - post it and I'll help you out. Good luck.

 

Oh yeah, if you do have something to grab hold of - use lots of penetrating oil (let it sit for an hour) and break out a pipe wrench...that worked for me when my thermostat bolt was frozen and broken off.

 

This happened to me when I was replacing my water pump. I was bolting the pump back on when the last bolt on it broke. I thought I was SOL. Rather than continue to work on it, I went to bed. All that night and the next day at work I was worrying about how I was going to get that bolt out. That night after work, I took the other bolts out and it turned out that the bolt was broken in the block, it stuck out just a hair, and I was able to get the bolt out with a pair of needle nose vice grips.

One piece of advice I haven't seen posted yet, always buy new bolts. It is much cheaper than taking you engine out and to the machine shop.

Good Luck!


Matt
1974 F-250 4x4 Highboy

 

All of the above is good advice, although the first thing I would try is to take a torch and heat it up. The resulting expanding and shrinking of the metal often times will give you the edge you need in being able to knock that loose.

If your knuckles ain't bleeding you did something wrong.

'72 F-250 "Hi-Boy" 4x4, Dana 60/HD44, FE390 @ 400hp(purt near!), 4-speed, custom suspension w 4" lift, mud on black.

 

however you get it out, use anti-sieze on the new bolts, I say this from bitter experience

https://www.ford-trucks.com/dcforum/User_files/3a9df0394b631ce6.gif






77'FORD F150 XLT 400

 

Story: long years ago I was in the Navy, an old friend a farmer/mechanic also said the next time we had a stack change on the A/C we had (P2V Neptunes) Put some OIL OF WINTERGREEN on the bolts take a coffee break, come back in 15 minutes or so then back out the bolt. (by the way I was in my 20's then and thought to myself RIGHT but I went to the pharmacy and got some OIL OF WINTERGREEN and on our next stack change put 1 or 2 drops with a syringe and LO AND BEHOLD, IT WORKED.

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 21-Mar-01 AT 10:51 PM (EST)[/font][p]Or if possible get reverse drill bit, grind flush , centerpunch and drill and a lot of times it will back out on its own.
GWB

 

My father owns a tool and die shop. One day I called him when 2 intake manifold bolts broke on my '93 Bronco's 351. They broke flush and I had already broke an easy-out in one of them. He brought a small pencil type grinder with an assortment of carbide and diamond bits (very small). I taped over all the holes in the heads with duct tape and placed rags in the lifter valley. Dad, then very patiently and slowly, ground the bolt out of the hole. Once he ground out the bolt to the tapped threads, he took an 1/8" hardened rod (about 3" long) and ground a point on one end and used this punch to tap out the remaining threads of the bolt. The lower threads were unreachable, so we slowly ran a tap down the hole to chase the threads. In 2 hours, both bolts were removed. Just a couple more hints: the taps you buy at the hardware store are not really for tapping new threads. They are really for chasing existing threads. Go to a machine shop and ask to see their production taps. They will be very shiny and VERY sharp (unlike hardware-store stuff). Also, like everyone says: USE ANTI-SEIZE COMPOUND when you reassemble. BTW, I believe the thermostat housing bolts are 5/16-18 thread.

'75 Highboy
1975 F-250 4x4 (390, T18, p/s conv.)
1988 Ranger 4x4 (5.0 EFI, T5 trans.)
1993 Bronco 4x4 (5.8 EFI, B&M shift kit, otherwise it's just the "family wagon"!)

 

Here's an EASY way out, another trick that has gotten me through tons of broken bolt heads. Try this:
Using a thin file tip (or dremel grinding disc in some cases if size permits), file a straight channel across the top of the broken end of the nut (works if entrenched or sunken provided you have a the right sized file). Then simply take an appropriate size screwdrive, stick it into the channel and turn the damn thing out.
Basically you are transforming the top of the broken bolt so it accepts a flathead screwdrive.
Hope my description is understandable. If not email me and i'll draw up a picture on photoshop. Works like a charm. 1-2 minutes to do if you file hard enough =).

Steve

 

I have seen people drill into a broken bolt at an angle and use a punch to turn the bolt out. Eric

 

Everyone has given pretty sound advice on removing the broken bolts. A trick I use to keep it from ever happening again where the bolts penetrate a water jacket is to wrap them with Teflon tape.

 

I have managed to break so many many bolts off working on these old Fords here in the rust belt it's a wonder I have any hair left at all. The most valuable set of tools I own is a set of left hand drill bits, a small set of left hand taps,and the matching left-hand bolts. The only bad part is sometimes the bolt that is broken is hard to get at. All of the ideas on here will work at different times, but with these tools, if you can drill it it will come out.