i pulled the engine and trans out of my car, with the torque arm too. when i took out the transmission crossmember bolts, the ones on the pass side came out clean (although with alot of pushing), but the heads of the two drivers side bolts snapped off. i figured first ill try a screw extractor set where you drill into the bolt, then if it doesnt work drill out the whole thing to the next largest size. now maybe my drill bits just suck, but i have worn down about three drill bits trying to drill into these bolts and have gotten almost nowhere. my drill is 2500 rpm and they are metal bits. im pretty sure i cant get away with three bolts on the pass side and one on the drivers side, so can anybody suggest some certain drill bits or any ideas? i have three holes on each side but the original crossmember only used two on each, so i can definitely use the extra hole, only forcing me to remove one of the snapped bolts. any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated, im getting discouraged with this.

 

Well, your ruining your bits spinning them so fast. Use a variable speed drill if you have one and turn it nice and slow. Keep oil on the area you're drilling if you can.

I think you'll have to use the same holes again when reinstalling the c-member, so you'll need to get all those broken pieces out. I might be wrong though.

Start spraying the broken pieces with WD40 now and keep them soaked for a day or two before trying to extract the pieces with the screw extractor.

 

Be really, really careful with the EZ-out extractors. They are very brittle and will snap off easily, leaving you with a stuck bolt and filled hole. Now you're really in a bad place because the EZ-outs are almost impossible to drill. Don't ask me why I know this.

I haven't tried this trick yet myself, but several people have recommended drilling with reverse twist bits since these will also put torque on the bolts to unscrew them while they're being drilled out.

 

i got a black and decker screw extractor i think its what your talking about with the reverse twist.. yeah i been spraying pb blaster on it. my neighbor was telling me he has a drill bit sharpener i can use to resharpen the bits so ill give it another try. thanks for the help