I got everything apart fine. Now, putting it back together, the lowest driver side bolt broke while torquing. It does not look like I can get a drill in there in order to remove the bolt because of the way the body is. Do I need to fix this or will it be ok with only 5 bolts?
Plans for the car are bolt on mods, shooting for 250-300hp, nothing crazy. I don't plan to pull the engine any time soon.

Further, I was using my Helm manual and it indicates 68 ftlbs for those bolts. When I did this job before, I only had Haynes and it indicates 55 ftlbs. I must have used that last time. Which is correct? Looking back, 68ftlbs seems high for a 3/8" bolt but that is the bellhousing to engine spec for the V8 in the Helm manual.

 

Can you get it with vice grips?

 

I don't think so. About 3/8" of the thread is still attached to the head so it's probably about flush with the block.

 

Can't IMAGINE where anybody came up with a torque "spec" of 55 ft-lbs for that hardware.

Correct torque goes with HARDWARE SIZE. Doesn't matter what "The Book" says.

ALWAYS.

There IS NO other "Rule". Fact is, if any higher clamping force than that was needed, the engineers would've used a larger hardware size.

The size hardware that bell housing bolts are (3/8"-16) takes a torque of 30 - 35 ft-lbs.

ALWAYS. No matter what chunk of casting it's bolting together. Intake, water pump, exhaust manifold, ... or bell housing. Makes no difference.

5 bolts is totally OK, as long as you don't over-tighten the rest of em and strip em or break em off as well. Given that those 6 bolts is completely OK for 1000 HP big blocks, there's no doubt 5 will hold your 305 together just fine.

 

Are you sure you weren't looking at the value for the trans to bell housing bolts? Those may be bigger on a T5, I don't know.

 

I am positive that I was looking at the correct value according to the Helm manual.
The trans to bellhousing bolts are bigger than the bellhousing to engine bolts.

 

OK, then are you asking about "TRANS BOLTS" then, not

2 very different things: you can't realistically expect us to read your mind and know that you weren't really talking about the thing you talked about.

Those should indeed be closer to 55 ft-lbs. The Helm (factory) manual likely called for 68 N-m, not ft-lbs at all, for the trasn bolts; although I don't know offhand when they changed the specs in those over to metric, my 83 is all SAE but by the mid 90s every one I have is all metric. They most certainly DID NOT call for 68-ft-lbs on the BH bolts. Regardless, torque goes with hardware size, ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE, and that's a rule you can depend on; and for the BH-to-engine bolts, the correct torque is 30-35 ft-lbs. You can't put 55 ft-lbs on a 3/8" bolt without a SERIOUS risk of breaking it off, let alone 68 ft-lbs... that's more torque than a head bolt or a main cap bolt gets.

However, you also can't get by with only 3 of those bolts; and most especially, if in fact you broke off a trans bolt and not a BH bolt, the particular one in question.

Pop the BH out of there and take care of it. Not much choice in that matter.

 

No, I was simply confirming 87350IROC's thought that the trans bolts are bigger.

I am talking about the bellhousing bolts and the spec in the 88 Firebird Helm manual for bellhousing to engine bolts is 68ftlbs (not nm).

 

Since I had time to calm down and think rationally, I decided that now is the time to make an effort, so I removed the bellhousing, and the one that broke unscrewed by hand, so no damage. Now I'll try to track down some replacement bolts since these are possibly no good.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the Automatic transmission section, and the spec there is 35 ft lbs. So that is what I'm going with for the new bolts. So the 68 must be a misprint. There is a similar discrepancy between auto and manual in the Haynes manual, 30 auto, 55 manual.