broke an intake bolt...

[TruckNutzDude]

I just broke my thermostat bolts off in the intake. Normally I'm not scared to drill and ez-out a bolt but the intake is aluminum. Is there any special procedure to getting a bolt out of aluminum? Can I just cut it flat, center punch it and drill it out like normal??

 

[cyclone]

broken bolts

The best way is to grind flat then center punch, then drill w/left handed drill bit. It usually backs out the piece before you're even all the way through. Vermot American and Irwin are the two brands I've seen.

 

[84_Chevy_K10]

Worst case scenario you heli-coil it. That's what I had to do to my intake. PO of the intake stripped the hole and tapped it to 7/16-14. I pulled the half ass tapped thread out and had to drill it and heli-coil it back to the correct 3/8-16 size.

No problem, piece of cake.

 

[dremu]

I just broke my thermostat bolts off in the intake. Normally I'm not scared to drill and ez-out a bolt but the intake is aluminum. Is there any special procedure to getting a bolt out of aluminum? Can I just cut it flat, center punch it and drill it out like normal??

Another option, if you can get in there, is to weld a nut on top -- thread it down as much as you can, then fill the center.

Took me *seven* tries last week to do this (I'm still learning to weld, can you tell? ) ... but the seventh one did the trick, backed right out.

-- A

 

[Russell]

What the guy above me said -- I went through this with my all aluminum TPI intake. The bolts react with the aluminum causing them to fuse together much like a rust bond. -- Simply weld a nut onto the broken bolt, then give it a few sharp blows with a hammer to break the corrosion bond (heating it up by welding will help as well), then back the nut out I broke the nut off a couple times as well, but eventually got it out. Make sure you clean the threads out with a tap after you've finished and use some anti-seize on the bolts you install later on

 

[sweetk30]

it works!!!!

the welded nut trick realy work put you need to take your time. i have had to apply some heat to the intake before to help with this. best of luck.

 

[zeroz400]

I did the same thing but then i broke off the screw extractor in there cuz i was being retarded and used the smallest one i could. I just tapped the extractor down, redrilled and retapped and put a stud in its place and its all good now.


Later