Changing my injectors all of my fuel rail bolts were original and likely never removed. I am also thinking the original owner liked to wash the engine a lot and lived by the sea. A corrosive combo. One of the bolts was stuck, two of the other three made it out but with missing threads. The fourth bolt broke off flush with the manifold. I would rather not remove the manifold.

What's a good technique? I found a bunch of posts. A good method seems to be to Dremel a slot (I would have to cut across the top of the manifold too.) I have not had good luck in the past with extractors. I could just drill it out and chase the threads.

 

Use a punch to dimple the center of the broken bolt. Then use a left hand drill bit or easy out to extract the bolt. Make sure you soak down the bolt with pb blaster or equivalent. Heating with a propane torch may help break it free too. I'm sure the threads are 8mm maybe 1.50

 

a punch can also be used to tap it around.

 

Thanks for the tips. I'll likely have to drill it out.

 

Well, I can't remember the time a product was last on my S--t List, but Ez-Out has made it there. Two times in two uses, so-called Ez-out has snapped and elevated the problem I paid it to solve, to a whole new level. Happened again. I was drilling out the stuck rail bolt. Very easy. I thought I should just keep going with a larger bit, then I thought I'd pop in an Ez-Out. I barely put any weight on it and it snapped right off. Two diamond grit hole saws later I am debating yanking the manifold or ordering more grit hole saws. (they are cheap).

The Ez-Out package really should say in big letters "Do not use if the bolt is stuck" They really aren't for putting any meaningful torque on anything and when they break, you are now doubly stuck since the tool is hardened steel. AAAArrrrgghhh.

Alright. I ordered a 20 pack of 6mm diamond grit hole saws. I will prevail!!

 

I prefer to us LH drill bits when trying to drill a bolt out. Just in case it starts grabbing it might just break it free. I second you on the EX out, usually just makes the situation worse. The problem with a hardened tool like that, it's brittle and prone to snap. Then, it is even harder to drill out because it is Hardened!!!

We have all been there man.

 

Yeah, the easy outs are brittle, which is both good, and bad.... If I break one off, I will usually try and hit it with a punch, and try and shatter it, so I can pick out the pieces.

 

Tried that. All I did was imbed it further. Those things are only safe for screw heads. On the bright side I got my 20 pack of aggressive looking 5/32 diamond grit hole bits. Going to make Ez-Out soup tonight and I am going to laugh maniacally to myself to whole time.

 

If you can, bolt something on there to use as a drill guide, otherwise, the bit is going to want to slide off the truly hard stuff, into the softer material, that is easier to drill.

 

Ok, 20 diamond grit hole bits later and lots of water, I have the hole cleared but jeez, I still couldn't get the whole damn thing out.

Anyone used a helicoil setup before? The final hole I have is near perfect for an insert to restore the M8-1.25 stock bolt thread.

 

Yeah, in low stress applications, heli-coils actually work fairly well.

 

Well, mission accomplished. Got a heli-coil in there and replaced the crappy OEM bolts with 10.8 ones. I did have to shorten the repaired bolt since I couldn't clear the hole all the way but I got a whole coil in there.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

 

Advice.

And I'm sure all the veterans here will agree.

Given the age of these cars, I refuse to touch anything on mine without a long soaking with PB Blaster.

Just sayin.

 

Yikes. What a horrible experience. Sorry you had to experience the complete worthlessness of "extraction bits" first hand.

There's two ways to deal with this. Left hand drill bits, followed by thread repair if it doesn't back out at some point in the progressive escalation. Accurately center punching for the first drill attack is an ART FORM. I'm about 75% going straight down the center and leaving the threads. And I've got about 15 years experience with this sort of thing.

Or a carbide burr or end-cut end mill. My tool guy carries these and I have one on hand at all times:

https://www.theoriginalrescuebit.com

And yes - BEFORE you get started, heat the sucker as much as you dare and dowse in penetrant. My personal favorite is Yield from Chemsearch. It a favorite of industrial machine techs and paper mills. Very hard to get though. Have to order from Chemsearch in CA by the case and they only sell commercial AFAIK. It's about $170 a case last purchase I made for the shop. It's unbeatable in my experience and I've tried them all.

Heat and some candle wax is also a good trick. Works well.

Heat by itself often does wonders. But combine it with a product like Yield and it's quite powerful.

GD

 

Chems and heat are great when I can apply them. On a bench, I heated the pitman arm nut on my original steering box red hot and it finally gave way with a lot of persuasion after 28 years.

Those Rescue Bits look awesome! I am going to buy all three for my Dad for Christmas. He loves high quality machine tools, especially unique ones. And when I find some, I don't pass it up!

 

I remove a lot of broken bolts at work, I found that the absolute first thing to try is a cold punch. tap the outer edge of it (be careful not to dig into the edge of the hole) and tap the punch with a hammer counter-clockwise to spin the bolt out of the hole. once you get it to spin slightly it is smooth sailing from there.

If that doesn't work and I can't mount the piece in the Bridgeport then I'll usually weld a nut to the end of the bolt and try twisting it off, the downside to this is you cant really get good fusion with the broken bolt if you're using a basic 110v mig welder which creates a weak weld. 8 times out of ten this works and if it doesnt, the weld usually snaps right off the bolt putting you right back where you started with no harm done.

then I go to the drilling method. center punch on center as best as you can, start small, keep the drill dead straight, and as you step up the drill sizes be mindful of how close you are to reaching the threads. left handed drill bits work well for this because usually the remaining bit of the bolt will spin right out with the drill bit once you get close to hitting the threads. regular drill bits usually wont spin it out so I will get it as close to the hole's threads as I feel comfortable with and then use an easy out. at this point the remaining part of the bolt has no structural integrity and will usually spin out once the easy out grabs.