Broken intake bolt extraction??

[Rmck85]

Well, doing my plenum gasket today. Everything went smooth except that both front intake bolt heads snapped off. I thought I was ok since a good half inch of bolt was above the head. I found that it seems the intake gaskets failed in the front of the engine so the pocket around both front bolts on the head were caked with solid junk. I cleaned them out and soaked with PB, cut slots in the top of the bolts so I could use a screw driver and a wrench. Well, the metal is soft and they just split. I don't have a welder to weld a nut to them. Vice grips just slip. I even tried a reverse stripped screw extractor and its just reverse drilling them instead of moving them.

Is there any other tricks, or should I start soaking the exhaust manifold bolts and prepare to remove the heads to send out? I'd rather not have to go that route if I don't have to.

 

[dapepper9]

The very front bolt holes on each side go all the way through. Just drill em out and run a tap back through the holes

 

[dudeman2009]

Since you have so much bolt available, i'd resort to other methods of removal before jumping to drilling. Drilling will fix it, but it might be more work than you need.

Since you've already soaked it, try heating then cooling it. Take a torch and heat the bolt and a bit of the head around the bolt, don't cook it so much that you risk burning the headgasket, a minute with a propane torch is good enough. Then blast it with your favorite libation (fluid) be it WD-40 or water. Then repeat the process twice or thrice more. Then take a pair of vise grips and just clamp them onto that bad boy and rock them back and forth, tightening and loosening, don't try to go too much in one direction or you risk snapping it again, the goal is to break the rust and dirt loose. You can try heating and cooling some more if it doesn't work right away. I've gotten 4 snapped off bolts loose this way from these heads.

If you do decide to drill it, a good gold cobalt set is a must, dull bits will wallow out the hole and may enlarge the threads too much to be of any use.

 

[Rmck85]

My buddy just got back to me and has a turbo extractor kit. He said the same as you dudeman2009 about using heat. I was afraid of damaging the head or head gasket. I'm soaking them for now with PB Nutblaster and going to get the kit from him tomorrow.

 

[jessyj]

I went through this last winter. Had to drill it out and install a helicoil. Pretty easy if you have the tools.

 

[Rmck85]

Well I got them out. Truck is all back together and running good