Snapped exhaust mainfold stud

openflame06 · Post by **openflame06** » Thu May 28, 2009 7:03 pm

hey all

On the weekend doing work on a telstar one of the manifold bolts broke, which was ok i managed to get it out (as it was still sticking out a bit) and replace it.

However, another one was broken inside the head. I drilled a hole into the bolt and then tried an easy out. Surprisingly the easy out broke as well.

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what to do. Should I just drill another hole and retap it? Or is there any other tricks?

Thanks

subybrumby · Post by **subybrumby** » Thu May 28, 2009 7:45 pm

I've heard of people welding a nut onto the broken bolt. Havn't seen it done and you would want to be a good welder..

openflame06 · Post by **openflame06** » Thu May 28, 2009 8:28 pm

Yeah i had one person tell me to heat up around it with an oxy torch first before trying to remove the bolt, but i thought that was a bit extreme and semi dangerous

Porty · Post by **Porty** » Thu May 28, 2009 8:58 pm

tap an allen key in the hole and try undoing it.. If the key is slipping in the hole try drilling a bigger hole and using a bigger allen key..

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Thu May 28, 2009 9:00 pm

happened to me once, i drilled a small hole in, and used reverse tap and was lucky it came out nicely.. Other hand i've seen people drilled it right thru and retap it again and some have put helicoil in.
Cheers
AP

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Thu May 28, 2009 9:42 pm

The oxy will work as it heats up the steal around thus expanding it slight and free the thread to turn, put you need to be extremely careful!!!
Also if you managed to get the easy-out out of the hole spray some rust out on it (Might help lossen it off). And try another easy out.
And another solution is Freeze Spray (You can get a places like Jaycar, Electronics Stores, etc) and spray some on the thread thus contracting it slight and maybe lossen it for your easy out to thread it out.

openflame06 · Post by **openflame06** » Fri May 29, 2009 9:14 pm

Thanks everyone. Good advice from the subaru community!

Phizinza · Post by **Phizinza** » Sat May 30, 2009 9:49 am

openflame06 wrote:Surprisingly the easy out broke as well.

Why does that not surprise me? Oh, that's right because I've broken at least 3 of them. Only have had one experience with an easy-out working.

mattims · Post by **mattims** » Sat May 30, 2009 6:04 pm

better call them easy not outs.. I've never succesfully used one, but they are a bugger to drill out when they get stuck in.

Just drill the whole thing out with the size drillbit for the same sized helicoil and put a helicoil in and you can then use a standard stud.

openflame06 · Post by **openflame06** » Sat May 30, 2009 9:06 pm

Hmm hadnt thought of that. I'll have to give it a shot.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat May 30, 2009 11:15 pm

mattims wrote:Just drill the whole thing out with the size drillbit for the same sized helicoil and put a helicoil in and you can then use a standard stud.

That's usually the go! Just make sure you get the helicoil with the correct thread lenght, you want as much thread as possible for the stud to grip with. I made this error with all my head bolt threads on a rebuilt EA82. Story goes we managed to over heat it due to a dud radiator. Once it was ready to fire again with another radiator installed it had done a head gasket. The motor was removed and stripped - all the helicoils had moved because they were not long enough thus placing more stress on a smaller area in the hole. Not happy Jan! Now I say "Bring on the EJ!"

Cheers

Bennie