Well isn't this great. I had a few hours of work left to do and I'd been able to start the car up, however the exhaust bolt on the driver side firewall, SNAPPED, as I was mounting the exhaust manifold.

Overtightened ? Not really, it simply had problems getting in, was still sticking out, threads messed up something.

Obviously with AS MUCH of room I have to work with there, plus no air compressor and angled die grinder, I have no choice but to remove the brackets, intake manifold and head, in order to use a screw extractor.

Unless someone has some bright idea, I'm all open to suggestions.

 

I'm not sure if this can be applied in your case, and I've not been there and done it myself, but if it's possible to get at it with a welder, I hear you can weld a nut to the remains of the bolt without having it stick to the rest of the manifold (even if it's broken below the surface). The heat should also make sure the bolt comes out easily.

 

I've heard this is NOT a good idea. I had a similar problem as I had broken a motor mount bolt off in the block. I was going to have someone weld it, but someone told me it makes the block brittle or something?

Remove the head. Take it to a machine shop, spend 25 bucks and have them drill it and tap it to it's original size. Everything will be straight and done right.

When I broke that motor mount bolt off I tried using an extractor. That broke off and then I proceeded to spend 40 bucks on expensive drill bits to try and drill it out. What a pain in the ***. Save yourself the trouble. Take it to a machine shop, they will be able to drill and tap it in like 30 minutes. I spent like 50 (they charged 50 bucks an hour) to get mine done, but it was a bit longer and deeper to drill.

 

Exhaust studs/bolts are notorious for becoming brittle from heat cycles and whatnot, making them more prone to breaking. Sucks to be you.

Where did it snap off? Can you remove the exhaust manifold and have some stud sticking out? Then i'd just grab it with a pipe wrench and loosen it. Or try the trick of melting some wax onto the threads. Or heat it up with a propane torch, then chill it with a quick blast from an upside down can of compressed air.

Once it's out, you might be able to get in there with a tap and clean up the threads, then try a new bolt - without having to pull the intake and cylinder head.

 

Actually it was a brand new bolt, what must have happened was it got into the messed up thread a tiny bit wrong and it didn't go in that far, got stuck, and then it broke.

I already pulled the intake and the head, had no room what so ever to get in there. Luckily everything came off easy, because the engine hadn't been started yet, soeverything was fresh, and I'll be able to reuse the head gasket and intake gasket as well.