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snapped bolt and then easy out
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:35 pm
by brockharro
hey guys i snapped a inlet manifold bolt off in my head then snapped a easy out in the same hole
now any chance of getting them out hahaha
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:44 pm
by revmax
brockharro wrote:hey guys i snapped a inlet manifold bolt off in my head
Far out that must have hurt !
seriously, once you get the manifold off you are going to have to carefully drill the remaing bolt out. But that depends one where it is broken off. If there is enough bolt left to grab with vice grips, give it a few taps with a small hammer first. If that doesent work.
If you can grind or pein the bolt so you have a flat surface, carefully center pop the bolt, then drill it ever so accuratly with a 3mm drill to depth then drill that out to 5mm, if you have done that properly the thread will be able to be picked out with a scriber or sharp object or may even just fall out while it is being drilled.
edit The easy out is still in there DOH ! easy outs should never be used if a bolt has snapped off cause it is seized in place.
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:41 pm
by brockharro
ready drilled it out then tried easy out then snapped that in it so it fairly fudged so do i give up and get another head
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:44 pm
by GOD
revmax wrote:Far out that must have hurt !
Beat me to it
easy outs should never be used if a bolt has snapped off cause it is seized in place.
In that case, when
should easy outs be used? Just curious.
Dane.
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:44 pm
by RSR 555
Easy-outs are made from a very hardened steel, so drilling into that will require very high quality drill bits and lots of cooling fluid. IMO, you're best off changing the head.
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:24 am
by tony
if there is a bit poking out you may be able to weld something on to it.
otherwise any good engineering shop will have a diamond drill kit to do the job.
ring around. the problem may be cost, might be cheaper to get another head.
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 5:18 am
by revmax
Sorry not a fan of easy outs at all, if I bust a bolt it gets drilled out every time, cause I have wasted to much time with easy outs in the past.
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:54 pm
by Matt
You can also use cobolt drills to, you can get them through bunnings, etc.
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 6:53 pm
by Silverbullet
What are easy-outs made of anyway? They wouldn't be HSS, are they just case hardened? Either way almost impossible to drill out at home. Had the same problem Brockharro but the drill bit snapped off

Luckily I had a spare set of heads to put on.
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:48 pm
by discopotato03
How much of the easy out is exposed ? Maybe worth hitting it with the freeze spray if you can grip enough of it to get it out .
Electric arc nibblers are good at boring through high speed steel bits .
A .
Yes also hate easy outs , they seem to fail more often than they work .
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 8:08 am
by steptoe
another for hating and never use again ezi outs - spelled wrong so as not to have to live up with the suggestion things made easy. Spiral ezi or square ?
China or German sourced big scope in between in quality,
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:29 pm
by brockharro
snapped of just under flush and snapped off at an angle aswell so drilling is still gunna be a bitch
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:20 pm
by brockharro
and spiral and dunno borrowed it from a mate and anyone know if i can get reco heads from anywhere
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:44 pm
by revmax
can you post a macro photo of it please. unfortunatly I have had way to much experience removing busted taps in blind holes in stainless steel. If you can send the head to Coffs I reckon I could get the not so easy out and fix the thread. Trying to explain how to do it is far more difficult.
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:58 pm
by brockharro
yer i will when i get a chance im a apprentice mechanic we wernt even gunna use a ezi out we just did bad decision haha ill see how much my mate wants for a head coz it might have done a head gasket coz theres white sludge in the radiator but the car doesnt get hot what so ever so i dont no
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:11 pm
by Battlewagon
Don't freak out when you read this, but I have removed busted off bolts with my mig welder.
You need to dremel, dig, chisel, whatever, a little alloy away from around the stud, just enough to expose about 1-2mm of the steel. No more.
The you'll need to find a nut that is just a little larger than the busted bolt, it must be plain steel, not galvanised.
Carefully postion the nut over the busted off stud and weld through the hole in the nut, joining it to the busted off stud. The weld won't stick to the alloy.
This is the interesting bit: cool it with WD-40 or similar, working it gently back and forth.
Done properly, this method has never failed me and I've used it sucessfully on mining eqipment that looked like it was left on the ocean floor for a decade.
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:58 pm
by revmax
hey that is a great idea Battlewagon. MIG is low hydrogen and will weld to bolts and other hi tensile steel alloys.
The busted easy out could be a problem for this one but worth a shot.
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:22 pm
by sven '2'
Battlewagon wrote:Don't freak out when you read this, but I have removed busted off bolts with my mig welder.
You need to dremel, dig, chisel, whatever, a little alloy away from around the stud, just enough to expose about 1-2mm of the steel. No more.
The you'll need to find a nut that is just a little larger than the busted bolt, it must be plain steel, not galvanised.
Carefully postion the nut over the busted off stud and weld through the hole in the nut, joining it to the busted off stud. The weld won't stick to the alloy.
This is the interesting bit: cool it with WD-40 or similar, working it gently back and forth.
Done properly, this method has never failed me and I've used sucessfully it on mining eqipment that looked like it was left on the ocean floor for a decade.
Awesome
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:23 pm
by NachaLuva
So cooling it with WD40 shrinks the bolt slightly while also lubricating it?
Cant wait to see how it goes...
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:38 pm
by steptoe
odd thing I have found on so many EA82's is that the shaft of the single manifold bolt on efi manifolds is what gets stuck in the manifold SNAPPO occurs in the manifold not the head itself, but the broken bit hardest to get out ends up in the head. That freeze shrink lube really for freezing yer nuts not yer head, head absorbs too much of the coolth to really work in my limited and panicked hexperience