What process do you guys use to successfully remove stubborn bolts? Is there a loosening agent that works particularly well?

 

PB blaster penetrating fluid. I like it alot! You can pick it up at autozone cheap.

 

How much time do you allow before removal?

 

The longer the better. Other tips are heat and sharp wraps with a hammer (but don't damage the head). Only use 6 point sockets.

 

Wouldn't heat encourage both the bolt to grow and the hole to shrink, thereby causing more friction? Or is the heat used to assist the loosening agent?

 

i had a pulley that would not budge and a bolt also. so i let it soak in overnight and in the morning it almost fell off and the bolts came off super easy.

 

I use this stuff called aerokroil, amazing, or what you could do is put your socket wrench on the bolt and take the handle from your floor jack and place it on the end of the wrench...talk about some leverage.

 

ya until you break it. been there done that.

 

Where is this bolt? What material is it threaded into? (steel, alum, iron..?)

There are different processes that work well for one condition, and poorly for others, depending on what the situation is. The only 'universal' method is heat, but its pretty hit or miss, and theres always the possibility of making things worse with heat (I've done it).
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You want to heat whatever the bolt is threaded into, so the hole will open up a bit. Same idea as freezing a shaft and heating a gear to slide over it - when they come back to normal temps, they fit tight.

 

I love PB Blaster. I almost use it religiously. It works very well on almost all solid bolts.

I love that stuff so much, sometimes I think about mixing it in with my favorite soft drink. YUMM

 

I'm just wondering what people do, in general.

I had a bolt stuck in the TPI intake manifold that I got out eventually, but was curious about what I could have done to make it easier.

 

Thats why I asked the question I did... people who really know what they are doing when it comes to problems like this will have different methods of solving the problem, depending on the circumstances. There really isn't one universal way to do it that will work 100% of the time. One method that might work well in one situation might be totally unrealistic or can't be done in another.

Just last weekend, for example, one of the engine mount bolts on my cousin's 351W snapped the head off the bolt when trying to remove the mount. Being on an engine stand, all we did was flip it over, drill it out, run a tap through it, and viola - problem solved in about 10 minutes. This would never work had the same thing happened with the engine in the vehicle, considering the location of the mount on the frame. You'd have to try a different method, like using a punch to turn out the bolt a little bit at a time, or possibly an EZ-Out if one could get a drill bit in there to start a hole (which I doubt).