Thought I'd put a new water pump on the car today, something to do while I wait for the bits to come back from the powder coaters. You quessed it, bottom left hand bolt broke off about 3mm out of the block. Spent 16 years working on forklifts and Bobcats, so I've seen a few broken bolts but they're still a pain in the butt. We have people living on a space station, a car roaming around on Mars and who knows what else out in space, and knowone has come up with a simple 5 minute fix for this problem. NASA sucks as well.

Anyway, I managed to drill a hole all the way through the bolt and dosed it with penitrating oil and warmed it up a little. Tried an ezy out but it's still not playing the game. Had a quick search on the forum to see if NASA had had a breakthrough, apparently not. Did find some info on the Loctite freeze spray so I picked up a can to try. Gave it a go today and it didn't magicaly come out like the one on the video so I'll give it a few doses over the next day or two and see what happens. Theres still enough of the bolt sticking out that I can try welding a nut on it if this doesn't work. Would have done this straight away but the old stick welder died,and I haven't got one of those new fangled Mig welders. Maybe NASA's not the only one that should get their priorities right.

Happy now I've had my moan.

Cheers, Doug

PS.
For those of you without indoor plumbing, 3mm is about 1/8 inch.

 

I wouldn't be waiting for any break throughs comming from NASA any time soon. With the close of the shuttle program NASA will be laying off around 8,000 engineers.

 

try turning it counterclockwise, dude

 

Thats not good news. 8000 families will have a huge impact on the community. Sometimes we forget the flow on from that will affect many thousands more.

 

Damn, should give that a try.

 

This info comes too late, but for future reference;

Because you've already drilled it you won't be able to do this, but after almost 40 years of doing this the hands down best way to remove those is to use your arc welder and weld a flat washer to the broken bolt protrusion. This does two things, The arc welder instantly gets the bolt very hot and when it cools it shrinks. Of course the other thing it does is gives you something to grip on. Once you've welded the washer to the bolt you can weld a nut to the washer. But it usually isn't necessary. Take a centre punch and turn the washer at it's outside edge.

One mistake that people frequently make is using heat is to heat the broken stud. This works with the arc welder because of the instant heat without heating the outer circumference, but when using a torch you want to keep away from the bolt as much as possible and heat the nut or metal with the threads around the bolt (the block in your case). This expands the nut away from the bolt and enables you to turn it.

Drilling it out should be a last resort only. And then it should be done that you are going to drill out large enough that you can pick the remnants of the old bolt out of the threads. Ezee outs is a misnomer. The percentage of successfull times I've had with them is very small. Usually I end up drilling larger and larger until I am touching the external threads and then very carefully run a tap through to remove the remnants. Often you will have been into the external threads and once everything is out and cleaned up you will drill it out and put in a heli coil.

I'm off right now to remove about 8 broken studs from an old Wisconsin air cooled. I'll see if I can't bring back a photo.

Steve

 

Hey Steve,
Agree 100% about the ezy outs. The only reason I drilled it was because I didn't have a welder here. Have never tryed welding a washer on first, always just used a nut, but it sounds like a good idea. Youré also dead right about the heat, always the surrounding metal.
Wouldn't mind a dollar for every Heli Coil I've used either. I repaired a stripped bolt in an inlet manifold bolt a while back and used a different type of insert, I can't remember what brand it was but it screwed in similar to a Heli Coil except that it had small metal stakes around the outside. It was a lot easier to use and it worked great.
I'll be very interested to see the pics if you get them.

Thanks, Doug

 

Sounds like you've already been having your share of fun here. Since you've already drilled a hole in bolt and have an easy out set up, try heating up the surrounding surface red with an oxy/acetylene torch, then go at it quickly with the easy out. Usually works for me.

 

I've had indoor plumbing all my life. I've never cared what 3mm might equal. I've never broken a water pump bolt.

 

I contacted NASA regarding a way to remove your broken bolt. They said that they never broke bolts so they never worried about how to remove them. They suggested you contact YOUR aerospace agency in Queensland and see how they remove broken bolts from their biplanes

 

i thought NASA just used rivots...... not bolts.. just sayin'

 

Dr Van Schlugenhauser just responded to your request (I forwarded your query) and he stated that their titainium bolts seldom break, when they do, they blame the results on the FKM seals in the booster rockets, sorry I guess it's not much help. You may just want to try lefty-loosey, sometimes that works.

 

I used to do a lot of work on bug engines. There were 4 studs with nuts that would hold the exhaust manifold to the heads, I don't think I ever got an engine apart without breaking at least one of the studs. I learned early on that EZouts were a risky business. More than once, I got a good hole in the stud, put in an EZout and ended up breaking the EZout off in the hole = back to square 1, or maybe even zero as the EZouts are pretty hard. Needless to say, I don't recommend them.

 

 

Maybe you should replace the engine.

 

If the hole that you have drilled through, is pretty much centered, re drill a few sizes larger until you basically have a shell left, then heat the shell with an acetylene torch, maybe #3 tip, quickly cherry it, then fold the shell inward, (use maybe a screwdriver), which will reduce the diameter, then take a pair of needle nose pliers and unscrew the shell. Stay out of the cast iron block threads. As a last resort, you can always helicoil it. An ac oxy-acetylene rig will work if you do not have a gas hatchet set up.
Chuck

 

left hand drill bits have been my secret for quite awhile. dont bother goin to sears, or any local hardawre stores, theyll tell u theres no such thing. theyve never failed me

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....re&dir=catalog

 

Funny you mention that....I just got rid of a project VW. All 8 exhaust studs snapped. The 'weld a nut on' trick didnt work. (The weld just snapped) I wound up drilling and tapping. Ive gotten pretty good at drilling, tapping and helicoils. Im convinced that sometimes two metals just fuse together on the subatomic level.....ooohhh.....lemme call NASA about that one! 8*)

 

Hey Mike
Don't you have a water pump on your car?

And just so you know, the secret of life is based entirely on the many many things that 3mm is equal to.

 

And the winner is;

Contacted them today, said they were too busy doing research for some Aerospace mob in the States. They did however state very strongly that they do not use bolts in our Bi-plane, just wood screws and glue.

Doug