broken manifold bolt!!!!!
 

I got to working on the car today to yank the passenger side manifold to fix a broken flange stud. The GM engineer who designed these cars needs to be drawn and quartered and then have his head impailed on a rusty pole!!!!!! :mad: It was a PITA to get to the manifold bolts...just when I was getting the hang of things.....the very LAST manifold bolt snapped on me!!!!!!! @#$$%( :cry: I'm thinking the only option I have is to yank the head to drill out the bolt...... ARRRRGH!!!!!!

If I reinstall the manifold with only 5 bolts holding it to the head would the manifold leak? I need to pass smog this monday or else my registration is up!

-B

I had 5 bolts holding on my drivers side manifold and it didn't leak. i didnt know I only had 5 bolts holding it on because one of them snapped and I didnt know it. I would drill it and use an easy out or just take the head out. Its really not that much work if you had all the gaskets and stuff.

if you busted off the very first one...maybe even the very last too... but definitely the very first then you could just leave it in there and make it an excuse to buy headers:D if you look at the head you will see a stud hole on each side of every exhaust port(naturally) but the manifolds actually use an extra hole just to the outside of them on the first and maybe even the last port and headers do not use those! just a thought if you busted off the right one.

I have a new set of shiny Jet Hot long tubes sitting on the floor of my garage...I need to pass smog first before I can install these bad boys!!!! :D

I snapped the very last bolt on the passenger side exhuast manifold, the one closest to the firewall. When I looked at teh bolt again it looks like I only snapped off the very last 1/8 - 1/16 of the bolt. I think I still have enough thread to keep the manifold to the head!!!! YAY!!!!! :bow:

-B

The muffler shop near my house usually welds a T-handle or a big head to the end of the bolt and turns it out.

Try Vice-Grips on the threads if you can a hold of it.

If the bolt isn't rusted and brittle you can also try this...

I doubt it will work but if all else fails, drill a tiny hole through the side of the bolt and put a nail through it to turn it out.

Saw it on TV once but I'm not sure how you could do it and you would need pretty heavy duty drill bits.

well I tried using another bolt to screw into the head but it didn't work. :( I got a mirror and it seems that the bolt snapped off about 1/8 into the head so I guess I'm assed out. I could try to use just 5 bolts and some RTV to help seal the manifold till I get it smogged. Its the very last bolt on the passenger side. Anyone know if this is gonna work and NOT cause a lean condition?

-B

When I took off the passenger side header during my Hooker LT install I had the same bolt broken. At first I thought it was loose and tried to take it out, but it kept spinning. Then I realized it had been broken all this time. I did not have to worry about it because the LT's did not use this same hole for install.
My car had been leak free to this point, so I would guess that your car would be leak free if you replaced the header gasket with a new one. I would suggest a copper gasket to take up the slack. Let me know how this goes.

Unforutnately I'm not installing the long tubes yet...I have to use the stock manifold to pass smog first then swapping in the long tubes. If it leaks bad I know the car will go into a lean condition and cause HIGH NOx readings. :(

-B

Dude, I broke the same damn bolt in the same place. Only the end cap and like 1/4 piece of thread. I didn't crank on it very hard at all either. After looking at were it broke I noticed that only a small portion of the break was shiny. You could see that the bolt had been crack by the factory during install because oxidation/rust covered about 80% of the break point.

http://photos.yahoo.com/jeffdobbins2000

Jeff D.

Re: broken manifold bolt!!!!!
 

You need one of these:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/pho...99/40944-t.gif

If you have a harbor freight near you they are less than $50

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Category.taf?
CategoryID=326

Don't have a air compressor get one of these for your elec drill:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=43623

And one of these:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=40349

You can also get rev drill bits meaning you need a angle drill that can go in the oppitsite direction as the drill bit goes counter clockwise...neat thing about these bits is most of the time it will screw out the broken bolt as it gets to the end of the bolt :) I have a set of these and they work great...if not you will need to drill it out and use the extractor set...they also make a extractor set...from sears that has the drill bit built into the extractor...drill and at the same time it locks up and extracts the broken bolt :)...got that set as well....hope this helps you out!

Ken

What about next time you have to smog it?

just be carefull when you drill
my heads are sitin in the garage right now because the bit didnt go in straight and took out some of the head so i ended up pullen the heads any way :(

and now they need to be ported damn the luck