HELPPP...Broken bolt advice....

nitrouspete

nitrouspete

Forum Member
so last night i got all my rockers and pushrods in place, primed the oil pump and we have good pressure and oil at the top of the heads!

decided i was going to bolt my intake on.


so i get everything set in place, all bolts go in fine until the last one.....it was just tight, i was not putting a huge amount of force on it. then about an 1/8 inch before the bolt touches in the intake, the bolt stops. i figured this bolt must be to long so im touching bottom. as i go to back it out, its very very hard. i took it slow but i still snapped it flush with the head. i took the intake back off and now im stuck sitting here with an ARP intake bolt stuck in a brand new AFR head.


SOME ONE PLEASE TELL ME I DONT HAVE TO DRILL THIS OUT.....
 
Put a nut ovet the broken bolt and weld the center of the nut to the bolt ,get it good and hot let it cool and run it out.then re tapthe hole
 
Either way if you drill it or somehow get it to thread the rest of the way out the threads are gonna be wasted. So its either get the hole welded and then drilled/retapped. Or you will need a helicoil or similar thread insert installed. Do yourself a favor and toss those bolts and buy studs. It makes it much easier to install your gaskets/intake. Also AFR recommends no torqueing, just snugged up
 
Did u crossthread it damn aluminum is soft normally u would pull the threads out before breaking bolt off you probly gonna have to do what superstang90 said
 
Shoot a pic of what you have going on here. I have been able to get busted studs out using the welding method. I actually have a youtube vid I'm editting on one way that works.

Basically, if you can get a washer around the hole with the busted stud, weld the washer to the stud. Then weld the nut to the washer. Between the heat from welding, and something to turn with, they USUALLY walk out. That said, I have only done it with busted exhaust bolts in Al heads, sounds like you might have had a bad thread going there. Might take a little more effort.
 
SuperStang90 said:
Either way if you drill it or somehow get it to thread the rest of the way out the threads are gonna be wasted. So its either get the hole welded and then drilled/retapped. Or you will need a helicoil or similar thread insert installed. Do yourself a favor and toss those bolts and buy studs. It makes it much easier to install your gaskets/intake. Also AFR recommends no torqueing, just snugged up
Click to expand...

IF i gotta, ill just drill it out and Heli-coil it because i guess these heads are Helicoiled from the factory.
 
ill have pictures tomorrow, if i don't get it out tonight.

i just set my tools down and walked away after that yesterday so i dident mess anything up.
 
Why don't you want to remove the head? Wouldn't that be better than shavings getting down in the chambers from drilling it out?
 
red347lx said:
Why don't you want to remove the head? Wouldn't that be better than shavings getting down in the chambers from drilling it out?
Click to expand...


The heads already torqued, pushrods and rockers are already lashed and by being bolted down on my stand it gives it a nice bench to hold onto so i wont have to hold the head.. i will remove the head at a last resort.

the bolt that broke is on the end by a coolant passage.


as for a status, yesterday i had to work late but i taped up and closed all open ports and areas.

i will start drilling today but im going to take my time. i picked up a nice set of extractors yesterday and hope that by drilling the center all the way out, this will take some tension off the bolt piece and let it collapse enough to let the extractor remove it.

i defiantly learned my lesson on this one, even brand new parts should be thread chased.
 
I bet thats not going to work and your going to have to EDM it out like i had to......but sometimes you can get lucky..
 
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Good luck dude, extractor should work no problem, make sure you cool your drill bit as you're cutting, I use penetrant for it, that way its lubing the stuck bolt as well as cooling the bit. Just mask the areas around it and you should have no problem with filings.
 
UPDATE

drilled it out first. went ok.

used an extractor next, and snap! snapped it right off inside.

The next two hours i drilled and kept working the extractor piece back out without damaging the head.

just decided to drill it and re-helicoil it after that. so i drilled it out just stepping up every time.

once i could see the helicoils, i used a flat head screwdriver and a hammer and broke the helicoil free and picked the pieces out.

ill reinstal new helicoil today and put the intake on again once i feel good bout the rest of the holes. im going to test them all out this time.

thanks for all the help guys. i hope i can help all of you out someday too.
 
SuperStang90 said:
Do yourself a favor and toss those bolts and buy studs. It makes it much easier to install your gaskets/intake. Also AFR recommends no torqueing, just snugged up
Click to expand...

FYI, I would recommend not studding the intake. I tried this, and yes it makes it easy for installation, but it makes the intake almost impossible to remove. To remove the intake I had to remove the studs first. Now, I use a few studs for installation, but once the intake is set in place, I replace the studs with bolts.

Mike
 
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