hey guys, i was taking off my intake and all bolts came out good except the last one on the drivers side rear...it is next to a water port which is where i believe my problem came from....the head snapped off of it and it would not lift off of the leftover stud so i rocked it back and forth and it broke off smooth at the head. i tried an easyout and it snapped off inside the bolt....any suggestions on what to do now?

 

1st option would be to take a hard punch and try to break-up the easy out. They are pretty hard and not easy to bust up. If you do this while the head is still on the engine, make sure that you cover the intake valley with a towel or something so that no pieces get into the engine. 2nd option, pull the head and take it to a machine shop.

 

yeah i want to try and avoid door #2

 

I'd find another head.

 

that bad, huh?


and does anyone have suggestions on preventing this?

 

If you handy with a blow torch .... like he said cover up the intake/ports valley REAL GOOD and toss some fire on that ***** and it should burn up " pop splater" out. Then try another easy out. umm if not then yeah take the head off. I wouldn't see it costing much money for a machine shop to fix that an then buy new head bolts/gasket and put it back on.. In my humble opinion. let us know what happens.

 

If You are good with a welder you can put a nut over top and weld the inside of it to the broken off bolt/ easy out. The heat loosens the bolt (as Big billy suggests with the blow torch option) and then you can usually just take it out with a socket. I've done it at work lots of times. Just be careful and use lo - hi rod (7018 or some such)

 

its broke off smooth with the head..

 

Yep. I've even done them when they are broken below the surface. Just be careful not to hit the sides with the metal, the slag acts as a barrier to keep the weld metal off the sides. and if it's just flush, you don't even have to worry much about that. Smallest rod you've got, and be careful . It's just like that old game " Operation"

 

I have had good luck with broken drill bits (not easy-outs) using a carbide tipped masonry drill at high speed. Good luck

 

Hey bud, I've been there a couple times before. I now know to be careful with easy-outs, as they make the situation much worse when they break. What I like to do is use another bolt hole to gauge how deep the hole is, then mark the drill bit with some tape. Use a punch to make a divot in the center of the broken bolt and drill as straight as you can all the way through the broken bolt with a small bit. Use the tape as a guide, but you will feel it go through the end of the bolt. You can then use progressively larger bits until you are almost to the threads, then use a tap to clean them out. I usually stop and try an easy out somewhere in the middle of all that, but they don't work all that often. Now that you have the easy-out broken off flush, things get interesting. Like was previously posted, you can place a similarly sized nut over the broken bolt/easy out and try to use a mig welder to weld the inside of the nut to it. That has never worked for me, but I know lots of guys that swear by it. Easy-outs are very hard and near impossible to drill. They are fairly brittle though, so you could try beating it with a bfh and a center punch. If it doesn't break than you can start with a small bit and try to drill it. Maybe use cutting oil and keep the speed down to avoid smoking the bit(s). I need to invest in some left handed drill bits, because sometimes the bit biting into the bolt is enough to turn it out. I forget about them until the next time I need them. I would say worst case would be take the head off and take it to a machine shop.

Good luck,

Jared

 

If you can't break up the broken easy out with a punch then IMHO your best option is to remove the head ant take it to a machine shop. My prefered method of removing broken bolts is the same as Deluxetrucks. If you drill them out till all that's left is the threads you can then grab the end and unwind it out of the bolt hole.

 

Similar question. I've got a broken spark plug (long story). The picture is below, but basically the threads alone are left in the engine. Nothing to grip on the outside. I've soaked it with PB solution for months. Got an easy out in but it broke without loosening the remnant. There is about 2 inches of easy out sticking out but its rounded and I've not been able to get it loose. I hesitate to try breaking it off and sending fragments into the cylinder.

 

I never even mess around with the easy outs. I go right to drilling and tapping like previously mentioned. Unless you can break up that easy out and remove it, I think that you are going to be stuck with taking the head to a machine shop. It isn't bad at all to remove the head once you have the intake off. The hard part is done at that point. Just pick up some new head bolts and a head gasket for re-assembly. A friend of mine snapped off a bolt on his 302 in his Mustang when doing an intake swap and ended up taking it in to a machine shop. I think they only charged him $30 or $40 to remove the bolt.

 

I forgot to mention that it would be a very good idea to use some anti-seize around on the bolts that go near the water jackets. I swear every SBF snaps the intake bolts around the coolant passages when removing the intake. It happened to me when I took mine off and it happened to my friend. Just my 2 cents.