For awhile now theres been a real faint ticking sound coming from the engine bay--I was the only one that could even tell. Then all of a sudden I start my car the other day and it sounds like death. At first I thought it was something internally horrible but it seems like just a very bad manifold leak: you can feel air coming from there and one of the bolts is broken off. I have a sound/video clip if anyone wnats to check it out via aim. The sound goes away after a few minutes. What could have cause this so sunddenly? Is it ok to drive around like this? What can I do other than drilling the bolt out? I was thinking of just doubling up the gaskets and retightening everything really good. Any ideas?

 

sears bolt remover kit AKA the bolt-out

 

The exact same thing happened on my 93 Z28. There wasn't enough left of the bolt in the head to get it out with the heads in the car, so I removed the heads. They are all out getting worked on, so it's not too bad. If you can get it out with the head in the car, go for it! If not, it's not hard to get them off. Good luck, I know how that sound is and it's HORRIBLE. I feel ya.

 

ttt

 

I have an idea. You could drill the bolt down to approximately the end of it, or all the way through (I don't remember if the holes go all the way through the head) and put a heli-coil in, then throw a new bolt in there. I don't know if a drill would really fit in there but if it would I think you could do it no problem. I just asked my dad and he said they do it at work sometimes and it should go alright.
It surprises me that an exhaust leak would cause so much trouble.

 

Or you could just do what I did and tear it all apart!!!!! lol It's not that hard though, and now that I have everything off I can get the heads and intake ported and polished and go ahead and do all the things I wanted. If you have another car, then just go ahead and tear it down and do it the right way.