JaimeVrod

I just picked a used set of 243 heads. I was planning to send the to Total Engine Aurflow for CNC porting. I did a cursory inspection before buying them but it appears I missed something. It appears there is one snapped off header bolt on each head. The upper side of the bolt shank that remains is flat and almost flush with head surface. How difficult will this be to remove? Can a normal engine shop remove it without damaging the casting? Can Total Engine Airflow take care of this?

sevinn

With the heads off the car this won't be a big deal for any competent mechanic/shop to fix.

JaimeVrod

Thanks Sevinn. I believe you are correct as there are a few videos on YouTube showing how this can be done. One used a mig welder to weld a bent nail or a nut to the portion of the bolt that was left in the head and that provides enough leverage to turn the broken bolt Too bad I don't have a mig welder.

The other method used left hand drill bits and an easy out to remove the broken bolt.

I personally have only had bad luck with easy outs but maybe the left hand drill bits will be sufficient on their own to grab the bolt.

Apparently this is a common problem with LS engines and more so with Chrysler engines.

Happy Thanksgiving.

JayplaySS2

It's cake- I just had my machine shop remove 7 broken studs from a 6.0 truck- changing manifold gaskets- tech broken 7 that wouldn't budge- $15 each with heads off- easy

JaimeVrod

That seems like a really good price. I hope the shop I have in mind will cut me a similar deal.

djbrun

This was one of my first jobs at an engine shop.

I drilled out broken bolts (East coast winters) in heads all the time.

Not hard at all with the head off.


DJ

JaimeVrod

Thanks DJBrun. That puts me at ease to know I didn't spend my money on a bad set of heads.

JaimeVrod

Success, I went to Lowes and bought a screw extractor kit called Grab It. It came with 2 pieces consisting of a #2 and #3 bit. Each bit has two ends, one is a cutting tip like a reverse spiral drill bit (so it cuts with counter clockwise rotation) and the other is an extractor tip. The cutting tip didn't work for Sh_t! I think that is because the broken header bolt is probably a grade 8 bolt. I had to use my conventional drill bits to drill into the broken bolt shanks. Then I used the extractor end to remove the shank from the threaded hole.

I'm not sure how many uses you can get from these things since the #2 bit only worked on one bolt and I had to use the #3 bit and a larger drill size on the other bolt.

In any case, for $12 it was worth a try. I'm very happy with the results.

FYI - if you are going to try this, make sure you wear safety glasses, gloves and heavy clothing. When I was center punching the broken bolt shank so I could center the drill bit, a piece shot off and hit my hand and drew blood. I was wearing safety glasses but I didn't think I needed gloves. Doh!

djbrun

Glad to hear you got it done

Paratrooper307

An extraction kit pays for itself the first time you extract a broken bolt on something you can't remove and take in.

I used mine recently on a couple of broken differential cover bolts. Very handy item.