Ugh... so anyways I guess the very last bolt on my driver side manifold decided to just break in half so now half of it is stuck inside the head

I remember hearing about this happen before. Has it happened to any of you guys? How did you get it out?

I REALLY do not want to take the entire head off. If I could just get the rest of it out, I could retap the threads fairly easily.

BTW- what size threads is it?

 

Did it break outside of the head or inside?

 

inside

 

90 degree drill attachment, small drill bit, and an extractor are your best bet, without taking the head off. Home depot sells the 90' drill attachment kits for ~$30 or so.

Good luck, I did something similar recently and I know how you feel

Thomas.

 

Get a bolt extractor set at Pepboys. Itll come with a drill but and an extractor bit. Make sure you get the biggest size you can safely fit in the bolt. Also, soak it with some penetrating oil first. Dont forget to put a bunch of rags in your lifter valley and coolant/intake passages of the head to keep out metal shavings from drilling.

 

Exhaust manifold or intake?

if exhaust, are you putting on headers?

if yes, you can probably leave it, most headers don't use the end holes(there is a hole just forward of it that is unused by the stock manifolds(I think I broke 2 or three of the bolts in the LT1 I have in my Blazer)

 

A friend had this happen on his LT-1. His was in a Caprice with the Iron heads though. His buddy(also a local "mechanic" ) helped him fudge it up pretty good. They drilled it tried using an easy out, snapped it off inside the bolt, tried drilling it out, broke the bit, then broke the drill... They finally got some vise grips on the broken off easyout and tried heating the head, with an oxy/acetylene (sp?) Blow torch. It did just that and blew through the head! Needless to say, he replaced the head.

I would say on an aluminum head, it should be much easier.

 

You don't need the very last bolt...get a set of headers

 

Like mentioned above, the end bolts use a different bolt hole on the stock manifolds then the headers use. So your choices are to try and drill out the broken bolt or just remove the manifolds and put on headers! I would go with the header option since you would need to remove the manifold to take the head off if it came to that.

 

3/8-16 threads.

 

Thanks guys, the main thing is that I'm fixing to sell the car soon anyways... so I don't think it would be economically smart to buy headers just to sell the car. I'll ask the guy I'm selling it to and see if I can get enough money out of it to make it worth it.

 

Doh, I just realized you were talking about exhaust manifolds.

Its gonna be pretty much impossible to get at that bolt with anything with the engine in. The stock manifolds are quite rigid... you *might* be able to just bolt it back up minus that last bolt and have it seal as long as you use a good gasket. Why were you taking the manifolds off if you werent planning to put headers on anyways?

 

If you have never done a bolt extraction before, I do not recomend that this be your first attempt, I have seen way too many attempted extrations that turn into serious trouble. Take it to a mechanic, they should not charge you more than an hours time to do it in chasis.

Did it break because it was seized, or did you just size-load it?

 

happened to me on a couple of bolts. a friend (owns an exhaust shop) welded a bolt onto the broken bolt and ta-da........twisted it right out