Even if they are broken flush with the head, I have plug welded a washer to a broken bolt. I then plug weld a nut with a hole bigger than the nut to the washer. After all that they usually turn easily. I have gotten bearing cups out of tight spots by welding to them. Welding seems to break frozen things apart.

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas

Another thought. Remove the other manifold bolts & the manifold. With any luck there may be a bit of the stud showing. Using an alloy electrode or welding wire, weld a washer to the stud. Allow to cool some. Weld a nut to the washer. Let cool completely & use a wrench to remove the stud. Worth a try & costs very little.

Paul

Im with you Ron , Its only nuts and bolts!

Frank

A grand? That's a lot to pay, just for one broken bolt. You could get it apart in a day. After you remove the manifold, head, distributor, and exhaust manifold/header, all you would need to replace is some coolant and gaskets. You would just need to have the engine at TDC before removing the distributor, so it can be put back in correctly. Then set the valve lash after you put it back together. If you have more time than money this would be a cheaper alternative, provided you did it yourself. If this is your daily driver then you gotta do what you gotta do to save time. Good luck though, at least you have the tools now for later use.

I have already committed to $250 Dotco Drill, Bits, and a good selection of easy outs from snap on. If it dont work, it will cost me 1250 instead of 1000. I was willing too take the risk hoping it would work and willing to have the close clearance drill for other projects if it didn't. Sometime in the next 30 days, I will have more information. My hope was to avoid the cost assiciated with having a mechanic take out the head to do this on the bench. Newer engines, this is very costly and involves replacing additional parts. Thanks everyone for your input!

Darrell Howard Whitefish, MT Outlaw 56 Ford F-100's

Hey Outlaw,

There are tap extracting services available, they "burn" out the bolt using an EDM machine. I had a broken bolt in my trans tailhousing and I broke an ez out in it. I took it to one of these services and it cost me 36 dollars and was done the next day. He burned the ez out out too. The only thing is you gotta remove the head so they can set it up on the machine, you can leave the rocker arms and valves in too. I don't know where you live, but if you live in so cal I can refer you to this guy. Just an alternative to spending a bunch of money and still may not be able to get it out.

The  manifold bolt is broken off between the head and the manifold. It appears to be flush with the surface of the head. Its the rear manifold bolt on the driver side, which access is restricted by the firewall. I have found a guy on ebay who has used  low RPM Dotco drills before to remove manifold bolts in similar locations with sucess. I think this is a long shot, but I will fab a bushing with a small hole in the center to center the drill bit and press it into the empty hole in the manifold. This should increase my chance of getting a bit up against the broken surface of the bolt and start a hole in the center without damaging the threads in the head.  

I found a used drill that includes bits and ezeout for $250.00. I am skeptical it will work, but willing to take the risk. If it dosen't work, I can always unload the drill on ebay for close to what I paid for it. I believe the clearance necessary to to use this drill is just a little over two inches.  Thanks everyone for your suggestions and I will let everyone know how this worked.

Darrell Howard Whitefish, MT Outlaw 56 Ford F-100's

We run into broken exhaust manifold bolts on 5.4 & 6.8 F-Series pick-ups all the time. We usually pull the plastic inner fender and have a straight shot at drilling the broken bolt. We also replace the exhaust manifold because its usually warped.

Dan      Kingman Az.      86409

I would think that if Paul 2748's solution is workable in this case, it would not cost anywhere near $600 and up. On the other had if that engine is one with a plastic intake, all bets are off..

Paul

Back when Kelly AFB was still in operation in San Antonio, Dotco right angle drills appeared in pawn shops all the time. I have several of them. They are handy at times, but drilling out a hard to get to manifold bolts was not one of the handy times. They are very handy for drilling aluminum rivets on our trailers in awkward spots and I think they were probably designed for aluminum air frames. I have gotten studs out by carefully burning a hole in the middle of them with a torch and splashing water on them. I left thread eze out removed them quite easily then. I would only recommend that on an old jalopy that I had spare parts for.

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas