I tried to take my intake off and broke my torx bit on the back bolt, so I went and got another one and broke it on another back bolt..so I said to hell with it, picked up another bit to put the other bolts back in and broke that one off in a bolt...........

follow me so far?

so they are tight to 55lbs, except 3 of the 12 bolts have a broken torx bit stuck in them........I really want to get this off so I can replace the gaskets..I know if I just put it back together , it will leak air/water/oil...

can anyone tell me what I need to do, and who makes a good torx bit that wont break on me...I have no air tools or access to them. I am working in my driveway with hand tools...

all advise will be apreciated............

 

I'm getting ready to do this myself. Hope mine are not like that. Were are you getting your tools from? Wish I new of a way to help, but follow this thread. Good luck.

 

ive had this happen to me too many time. quite buying cheap torx bits. go to a snap on truck and bring the bank w. you. and when/if those break call snapon and they will bring you another one. if they are stilltoo tight get out the air happer and be careful. ive had to do that too.

 

i called a friend that works in the parts dept in a chevy dealer and he is ordering me a snap-on torx, the first one i used was a cheapy from a set ive had forever, the second and third were from napa....the fourth will be snap-on......

now how do i get the broken tips out? and then what can i do to get the freaken bolts off...like i said, i have no access to air tools and dont want to tow the car anywhere..
im almost tempted to just leave it, but im sure i broke the seal when i took out the other 10 bolts

is there a good penetrating oil i can use, tips, tricks or methods.?

 

take a hammer and a half way dull chisle and place the chisle on the outer edge of the bolt and hit it with the hammer so it turns the bolt counter clockwise.make sure you get enough of a bite on the bolt so the chisle dont cut the edge off.
good luck!!

 

I needed to use an impact driver with a BFH. Electrolysis basically fused the bolt to the intake. Steel tends to do that to aluminum. Good luck!

 

OK, I had enough and I cant take playing with this anymore!! I read several posts that they had to grind the heads off and sometimes the bolt would just come out, They say that the bolt fuses to the intake not the head....so Im breaking out the grinder and cutting them bastards down!!!

I;ll let you know what happens next..............................

 

EWWW Fun! Be careful though. Be prepared to use a drill and set aside some down time!

 

so far it sucks!..they are all in the back and a pain to get to..... 1 down and 3 to go...i may need to go get a smaller disc for my grinder the one i have is like 4" i may need a 3" or maybe use my drill with a grinding disc attatchment...........oh, while im out i need a new box of band aids, just used the last one.. :-)

 

i cant find what i need as far as grinding discs.....besides there has to be a faster easier way..

can I drill the heads out? a bit just over the size of the bolts so that the heads will fall of when i get to where they meet?


I have a good angle at all the bolts with a drill..if so, what size should I use and what type of bit/s...?

any help please, I am at the end of my rope with this intake

 

Soak the hell out of everythign with PB blaster or the equivelant.

Let it sit for a day.

Buy/pay/bribe someone with an air hammer and compressor and a chisel bit and tap them counterclockwise till they come free

later
Jeremy

 

Been there, done that, didn't like it!!!! Luckily mine was a front bolt and I had air tools. I couldn't get a straight shot at the head to drill it out all the way. Broke out the die grinder to finish it off and the 30 year old compressor I had bit the dust half way through the job. $400 and a new compressor later I got almost all the head ground off. Finally, I had to use an air chisel to finish it off. When I got the last piece of the head off, the chisel slipped and put a hole in the stock runner........ had to use a very small pipewrench and a snipe to get the stub and helicoil out without removing the intake. I installed a new helicoil and went from there.

I always use pipedope on my bolts going in and this was the first one I have ever had stuck. Of course this one was in the water jacket...... Looks like the Edelbrock runners will have to stay on the car :-)

 

sprayed them down with wd40 (all i had), let them sit all day today, tomorrow i do a 24 hour shift so it will be monday morning before i can try again.......my uncle told me to try the metal cut blade of a dremel and just cut the heads off..(the 1 that i did grind took forever) .i will try that if they dont come out on their own......damn! i hope these come out....i am starting to loose interest in this project!

 

It realy sucks when projects go wrong. I find that when working on 10+ year old cars and trucks always expect the unexpected. It helps to have good tools. I also find the heating up old stuck bolts helps. But in your case it dosen't help that the tools keep breaking off in the bolts. Hope you don't let this stop you just use it as a learning exp. The worst cars to work on are the one's from the rust belt. I find my cut off wheel is my best friend on anything that is being replaced with new parts. Hope things work out.