Broken exhaust manifold bolt LH head at rear.

[lmorris]

Have enough of the bolt drilled to get an easy out in there but it feels too tight and I am worried the easy out will break before the bolt turns out.

 

Anyone ever put heat to these heads to loosen up the bolt, and if so how much heat is safe?

 

Put some heat to it, unfortunately it is close to the exposed part of the headgasket with the rivet, and the gasket gets bright red. I don't want to wreck the gasket. Any suggestions?

 

What is the general consensus on helicoiling this hole? I don't want to have to pull the head, only as a last resort.

[mrbudge]

I threw out my easy outs years ago. Mig weld a nut on the broken stud, then hit it with penetrating fluid while the nut is still red hot. Sometimes it takes several attempts, but the thermal cycling caused by welding then cooling with the penetrating fluid always does the trick. A torch on that big lump of iron full of coolant will never get the stud hot enough to help. I just did one on #8 exhaust port not long ago. Pull the fender liner to get at it.

[lmorris]

I have the cab off because it originally came in for high fuel pressure codes and did the HPP. We noticed the exhaust leak during diagnosis. We don't have a good enough welder for the nut thing unfortunatly. After wrecking 3 drill bits we finally drilled enough of the bolt out that another try with the easy out worked with very little damage to the threads.

[Matt Saunoras]

that's why I bought my own mig, the thing is a life saver. weld a booger to the end of the stud. while the weld is still soft hammer a extractor bit over the end. batting 1000 after figuring that out

[Brad Clayton]

Glad to hear you got it out without having to monkey with head removal. It's always good to be able to breathe a sigh of relief when an exhaust manifold job works out.

[joshbuys]

Got one in my stall right now, spent almost 2.5 hours today trying to get the bolt out with drilling and extractors, broke an easy out off in it, it's getting a new head per ford hotline(after waiting on hold for 30 minutes!).

[Brad Clayton]

We have a plasma cutter, and with delicate surgeon like hands, broken bits can be "blown out" without damage to the threads.

[Matt Saunoras]

great......now I have to go buy a plasma cutter

[Keith Browning]

Or you can use a Dremmel and stone bits to grind the broken tool and stud out. Sometimes low-tech still works.

[joshbuys]

Now that you mention it, we have a plasma cutter at the shop Maybe it's time to play with it! What do you guys think of putting a heli-coil on these manifolds? Will it hold?

[Brad Clayton]

Gotta heli-coil in my 5.0 Explorer left manifold, but she don't make nowhere near the heat energy. So I can't say one way or the other.

[cbriggs]

I put a heli coil in the rh side of a 6.4. Seems to be holding up good. Heli coils are a stronger thread than a lot of machined threads!

[lmorris]

With the cab off and the rest of the truck on the ground, I had to kneal to do the drilling. My legs are still sore.

[JSHTech]

Mig weld a nut on the broken stud, then hit it with penetrating fluid while the nut is still red hot. Sometimes it takes several attempts...

I agree with the heating and cooling process but I use plain ole H20 for the first few rounds. I don't really know what is in the smoke of penetrating fluid as it evaporates, but I'm sure it's not EPA friendly. I use it once the nut has cooled off a bit.

 

 

Another thing I've found that works well, especially if the fastener has started to break free but still turns hard, is the use of anti sieze. If it's applied while the fastener is still hot it acts kind of like solder and gets sucked in. And the torch/welder doesn't need to be used for heat either. I have a hand held butane torch that generates enough localized heat and works well for this method.