UH OH!

"Meatcoma" (mastapoof) 04/02/2015 at 11:14 • Filed to: None

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So I've been removing my exhaust manifolds on my 2003 Ford F250. I have 5 broken bolts that have to be drilled/extracted out, 2 here on the pass side and 3 on the drivers.

Here is the passenger side. I was able to get every bolt out except the far right top which broke off with just a mm sticking out of the head. The one of the far left top is broken inside the head.

Here's my FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU moment. I've attempted to weld to what was existing on the far right bolt and turn it out, which just broke the weld off 3 times. So I broke out the extractors and drill/bits. I drilled a 7/64 hole in the bolt, stuck in my next to smallest extractor and got it tight and grabbed my crescent wrench and started to turn it and *&$%*#$ the extractor broke off inside the bolt, flush with what is left.

Any ideas? I'll get a pic tonight but just imagine a stud with a hole drilled slightly off center with what looks like a drillbit broke off in it.

P.S. whole write-up coming when finished.

Updated with photo:

I still have yet to mess with this one again. Maybe this week I will start on it.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Meatcoma 04/02/2015 at 11:20

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Welding normally gets it hot enough it wants to come out, but in this case not, I guess. Snap-off is probably due to cooling too fast for the carbon content of the steel. I wonder if a weld (again) followed up by focused longer term torch heating to de-brittle the weld and get some heat down in the threads would help. If nothing else, that would make the hard plug now in the hole slightly less hard.

Leon711 > Meatcoma 04/02/2015 at 11:21

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did you fix it?

Meatcoma > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/02/2015 at 11:28

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Well I think since the block is aluminium that it's dispersing the heat too well. I even tried to heat the block around the stud up with a torch after the weld. I'm debating trying to drill around the extractor with a smaller bit.

Meatcoma > Leon711 04/02/2015 at 11:29

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Not yet, asking for any other ideas as I'm kind of disgusted with this one stud.

Meatcoma > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/02/2015 at 11:31

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I may have to try that, weld on the stud again and then do some focused torching on the stud to de-brittle the weld, that may have been my problem.

Leon711 > Meatcoma 04/02/2015 at 11:31

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A center punch (pictured) hammered down off-center then when you have a good amount of penetration Hammered at an angle is if to unwind to the stud.

Meatcoma > Leon711 04/02/2015 at 11:34

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Not sure if that will work, there is limited room but I could give it a shot. I had to punch it with an automatic center punch to mark it for drilling and my angle drill barely fits in there.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Meatcoma 04/02/2015 at 11:39

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The higher the carbon content, the easier it transitions into martensite (i.e. really hard but insanely brittle steel crystal). Martensite actually expands from "normal" pearlite or bainite crystal. So, with uneven cooling at the weld, you could have little chunks of brittle cementite mixed in with martensite layers all glued to low-carbon pastiness that will shear off instantly. If you could make it all cool at about the same rate it wouldn't be so bad. I was also assuming that galvanic corrosion was the culprit - it doesn't really have a point at which it *starts* to break loose, and its base level of resistance means it doesn't like to pop into looseness readily. It's very hard to heat *just right* to drive moisture out of the aluminum oxide and burn it - much more so than steel in steel, because with steel in steel you just have to heat everything until the rust either collapses to powder or finishes oxidizing *off* the metal. Aluminum/steel interfaces like to gall together, particularly after they've been heated and softened. Try everything you can to get oil in there, too.

Absolute worst case, you damage the head and have to helicoil it. Not the end of the world, but a real PITA.

Leon711 > Meatcoma 04/02/2015 at 11:39

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it's the only thing I can think of short of removing the head and drilling it out to retap.

Meatcoma > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/02/2015 at 11:49

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Yea. I figured I'd ask on here before I booger it up and just retap it.

Sethersm > Meatcoma 04/02/2015 at 11:59

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Why are you doing the work? Taking the heads in to be machined? If so, just ask the machine shop to get it out. They'd likely use an EDM to get it out. Barring that, drilling out the broken EZ-out is a no-go. You might try hammering on it with a punch to try to break it up further, then pull the little bits out and have another go with a new, bigger if possible, EZ-out.

For the record, I've never had any luck with using an EZ-out, but they're much less prone to breakage if you use a tap handle instead of a crescent wrench. Same applies to taps BTW.

Meatcoma > Sethersm 04/02/2015 at 12:07

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eh the handle didn't have a slot small enough for the easy out. I'm doing the work myself because I'm cheap and I like the 'HELL YEA, I DID THAT!' factor.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > Meatcoma 04/02/2015 at 16:15

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My idea would be to run it without the manifolds but you probably shouldn't do that.

brianbrannon > Meatcoma 04/12/2015 at 16:25

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A carbide bit in a dremel tool will remove the broken extractor.