Hey guys
So I woke up this morning and decided to take off the ole' exhaust manifolds and put on the headers that I've had for about a year now. Everything is going great until I get to the last drivers side bolt. I go to feel for it and it's already loose. Confused, I take it out and sure enough, it's sheared in half. The threads are still in the block and there's no thread sticking out. I don't know what to do here, this f-ing sucks. Any ideas or has anyone done this before???

Thanks
Tony

 

i've heard of people driving around w/ the same problem as you w/o any exhaust leaks, you can put the header in and make sure the other bolts are tight and just see if you get an exhaust leak.... you can drive the car to a shop and have them remove it for yah if you really wanted but you'll have to have the head taken out in order for them to drill it out, so might cost a few $$$

 

You know what that DOES suck !, the only thing you can do is try to drill it out. Or take it to a shop and let them screw it up.

 

Drilling that in the car would be near impossible, even with a right angle drill and a short bit.

Try spraying the bolt with a penetrating oil and letting it sit for a few hours, respraying occassionally. Get yourself a small butane torch and heat up the block around the bolt. Take a small chisel and hammer and hit the bolt on the edge counterclockwise to remove it. It's worked many times in the past, and the worse that's happened is I've messed up a thread or two. But I'd rather re-tap a hole than pull the head/engine.

Stay away from the easy outs. Every time I've used one they break.

 

Its not impossible to get it out, but youre going to have fun doing it. Spray it with this stuff called PB Blaster, its like a yellowish can, i think Walmart may carry it, its better than wd 40 and all the others. Your going to need a center punch, some drill bits, 90 degree drill adaptor and the drill bits for that, left handed drill bits and an ez out. Punch the center of the bolt after it has been cycled a few times with the penetrating oil, then drill a small hole in the center of it. Then step up to the next size, and next size with left handed drill bits, hopefully those will pull it out, if not, you then use the ez out, which will screw into the hole you drilled, and then you turn that and hopefully that will get it unthreaded. If you feel the ez out starting to fail, stop what your doing, because if it shears inside the bolt, you'll have an even bigger pain in the *** being that it is hardened metal. If those arent working, you could heat up the head around the bolt with a torch, and that may help when you go to turn the ezout out. If it still doesnt want to come out, you can drill a bit bigger, just about to the size of the hole in the head, then hopefully take a punch/chissle and bang the bolt in upon itself or in a direction that would turn the bolt out. when you get it out, just run a tap in the hole to clean up the threads. Its not impossible to fix, but if you dont have access to the machine tools, your going to have to take it somewhere, I would prolly stay away from garages, and maybe go to an engine builder/head guy and see what they can do. They should have all the stuff to get it out. But if you have a trusty mechanic, bring it to him with a case of beer. Good luck.

 

This happened to me on my car not too long ago in fact, when removing my manifolds I sheered a bolt off clean on the driver side middle bolt. I ignored it and ran my headers for about 2 months, No immediate exhaust leaks, but I blew gaskets all the time. I finally got sick of replacing gaskets and fixed it by using a right angle drill and tapped it with a 3/8x16 tap I believe; job done. (you're gonna want to use a LOT of oil as well)

if your bolt is right next to the firewall using a right angle drill would be near impossible as there is hardly any clearance. If its the bolt nearest to the front of the car than you're in luck at least for a mildly easier job.

If you have access to a torch you could drill a small hole in the bolt and use an easy-out (although this didn't work for me).

Good luck

 

Never done this with an exhaust bolt but works for some others in tight spots. Get a Dremel tool, cut a slot in the bolt stub as deep as possible, use a worn down cutter wheel to get deeper. As above, spray and heat, then try a short stubby screwdriver to turn out. Then get the chisel and hammer and try that if the screwdriver doesn't work.