Broken bolt = square paperweight

[Craig Nedrow]

One thing I forgot to mention, I also highly recommend good cobalt jobber drills in left hand twist in the following sizes, .201-3 13/64 for 1/4-20, .256 for 5/16-18, 5/16 for 3/8-16, will cover 90% of all bolt removal, and will often turn the broken bolt out after you begin to drill. Get a tap drill chart, it is useful, also a cutting speed chart.

 

[wagner]

i have removed many broken studs of any size using arctec 60 ecoface 3/32 rods......create a dot on bolt center.....cool for 2 seconds and continue building straight up with more dots for 1/2 inch or more
smash a bigger nut onto the buildup and weld the nut......let it cool.....use penetrating fluid.......then heat the area around the stud .......work the nut back and forth .......take your time.....it's faster........this works in any position .......bigger rods for bigger bolts.... ecoface is very hard......80 to 90 amps for 3/32 rod

 

[Catbox]

The way I have gotten things loose is to hit it with a torch to get it hot.
Then douse it in oil.
The heat will pull the oil down into the threads.
You can also use a paraffin candle to the same effect.
The candle is less smelly...

 

[Rusty Nail]

Haven't gotten it out but haven't made it any worse either. It sits as it was apart from some penetrating oil on the infected area.

For good or bad I don't have a welder or any easy outs. The manifold and bolts are from the previous owner. It has been regasketed already because the gobs of blue rtv they used were not sealing. The idea and all the work of pulling this intake again and putting a new one onto this oil burning son of a bitch was not the next step in the upgrade plans.

Thanks for the ideas and I do appreciate any and all thoughts on the subject. Just sort of in limbo weighing methods, parts costs and time/work to unbrick ol brown. Most routes at the moment aren't giving me that warm fuzzy feeling.

Yeah but. You picked this hobby because you enjoy it so... Remember? This is what you do to relax...

Being a steel bolt in an aluminum manifold, that broke off instead of breaking loose, I personally would figure on a 0% chance of ever screwing it out. It will need to be re tapped at best, more than likely require a helicoil or insert. My guess is it was put in to tight and the alum threads are pulled a tick. You don't have anything to loose by drilling it out, get so far off that it cant be helicoiled or inserted (Can ream the holes in the cap/nipple if need be) the intake will be useless.....which is what it is now. Good luck!!

Uh huh. In my experience you might as well figure on a different manifold. I don't think its comin out either.

Y'all can debate speeds and feeds all ya want...mind you the clock is ticking. The point of spending too much time producing too little work passes quickly.

 

[Rusty Nail]

delete

 

[Blue Ox]

As my technician often reminds me when I'm hesitant to tackle a project,...

"Remember, God hates a coward."




Sometimes you've just got to get the tools and parts together and take the leap. Getting started is usually the hardest step of all. So to quote a certain hockey mom, "Drill baby, drill."

 

[wanderinthru]

Yeah but. You picked this hobby because you enjoy it so... Remember? This is what you do to relax...




Uh huh. In my experience you might as well figure on a different manifold. I don't think its comin out either.

Y'all can debate speeds and feeds all ya want...mind you the clock is ticking. The point of spending too much time producing too little work passes quickly.

Drilling and tapping is a 10 minute job, max. If a person has the tools to do it handy. My lathe has never had the rpm chart on it so I just fool with it till it cuts how I want it, do the same on my mills. But I'm just an old coonass not a machinist????

 

[gotyourgoat]

Bit into the rotten apple. Couldn't procrastinate any more. Just have been waiting on parts for an update.

Without a welder and in no way wanting to pull this intake again I decided to drill. Went slow and tried to use the sharpest bits I could find around here. At one point I thought all had gone to hell and the bit had broken. I was using a larger bit at this point and even though I was going slow it instantly bound and snapped breaking the already broken bolt into two smaller pieces. One piece sticking to the drill bit and the other propelled further down into the hole. Dammit, this **** show took a weird lateral.

The lower broken piece was not receptive to anymore drilling at this point. It is a very surly bolt for sure, referred to as Mr. Surly from here on out. Went at it trying to dig out a couple more threads and clean out the threads I had uncovered. Learned I don't have the proper tools to do this so I grabbed a beer and got creative. Using a junk selection of picks, some plyers and the one good bolt which I cut a notch into making a makeshift tap/thread chaser. Hopefully I had opened up enough usable threads and with fingers crossed some new hardware would grab before bottoming out because Mr. Surly is still in there.

Went with a new housing, one that uses two short bolts. Truck doesn't need the tall and short housing mounts/bolts. It doesn't have that bracket the tall side of the housing and longer bolt are used with. Other housing was an o-ring style, this is a gasket housing and the one I went with is pretty substantial. Who knows, it may have been the reason the new hardware didn't bottom out.

Mr. Surly's better half, Mrs. Surly. At least she knew it was time to leave.

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Threads on the other side weren't in very good shape either. At least I didn't have to dig broken **** out of them though.

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Even cleaned up a little of the funk, not to @Frankenchevy standards of course but it's ol brown, she might freak out and panic break something else with too much pampered treatment.

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The players.

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Back on the road and annoying each and every one of the senses.

 

[Bextreme04]

seeing a stainless bolt threaded into an aluminum manifold makes me cringe, especially where coolant and temp cycles are involved... I hope you used a lot of anti-seize

 

[SquareRoot]

I was gonna say shitcan it. Perfect opportunity for an LS swap. But then that new dizzy wouldn't fit the LS.

 

[Bextreme04]

I was gonna say shitcan it. Perfect opportunity for an LS swap. But then that new dizzy wouldn't fit the LS.

Thats why he needs to L29 Swap it... all the benefits of an LS swap, but he can keep the dizzy

 

[wanderinthru]

Bit into the rotten apple. Couldn't procrastinate any more. Just have been waiting on parts for an update.

Without a welder and in no way wanting to pull this intake again I decided to drill. Went slow and tried to use the sharpest bits I could find around here. At one point I thought all had gone to hell and the bit had broken. I was using a larger bit at this point and even though I was going slow it instantly bound and snapped breaking the already broken bolt into two smaller pieces. One piece sticking to the drill bit and the other propelled further down into the hole. Dammit, this **** show took a weird lateral.

The lower broken piece was not receptive to anymore drilling at this point. It is a very surly bolt for sure, referred to as Mr. Surly from here on out. Went at it trying to dig out a couple more threads and clean out the threads I had uncovered. Learned I don't have the proper tools to do this so I grabbed a beer and got creative. Using a junk selection of picks, some plyers and the one good bolt which I cut a notch into making a makeshift tap/thread chaser. Hopefully I had opened up enough usable threads and with fingers crossed some new hardware would grab before bottoming out because Mr. Surly is still in there.

Went with a new housing, one that uses two short bolts. Truck doesn't need the tall and short housing mounts/bolts. It doesn't have that bracket the tall side of the housing and longer bolt are used with. Other housing was an o-ring style, this is a gasket housing and the one I went with is pretty substantial. Who knows, it may have been the reason the new hardware didn't bottom out.

Mr. Surly's better half, Mrs. Surly. At least she knew it was time to leave.

You must be registered for see images attach

Threads on the other side weren't in very good shape either. At least I didn't have to dig broken **** out of them though.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Even cleaned up a little of the funk, not to @Frankenchevy standards of course but it's ol brown, she might freak out and panic break something else with too much pampered treatment.

You must be registered for see images attach

The players.

You must be registered for see images attach

Back on the road and annoying each and every one of the senses.

So on these elderbrock intakes there is a relief machined/ casted under the threads? Interesting.Glad you got it done!!!

 

[wanderinthru]

seeing a stainless bolt threaded into an aluminum manifold makes me cringe, especially where coolant and temp cycles are involved... I hope you used a lot of anti-seize

Why does stainless threaded into aluminum make you cringe?

 

[Swearbody]

Why does stainless threaded into aluminum make you cringe?

I wanna know too. Im about to use all stainless bolts in my build and quite a few of them screw into the aluminium manifold. I didnt know it was a thing

 

[Frankenchevy]

Even cleaned up a little of the funk, not to @Frankenchevy standards of course but it's ol brown, she might freak out and panic break something else with too much pampered treatment.

It’s back to its life a farm/property truck. It’s dirty as hell with a summer’s worth of dirt, pollen and bird poo. I guess it’s about due for a squirt off before I tear it apart this winter for some work. If I’m honest, I’m looking forward to working on it again this winter.

Nice work on getting the bolt out. Broken bolts are a PITA.