Umm, anyone have any idea how I might remove a snapped off bolt that contains TWO snapped off easy-out chunks?

I'm talking about the one threaded hole on the manifold flange. I was putting in a new bolt and it was going in pretty tight, but not much tighter than the stock bolt I removed which also seemed cross-threaded. Well sure enough the sucker snapped right off. So I tapped it, inserted the square easy-out, and barely gave it two taps with the hammer and I lost the tip in there. I tapped again right next to it, was able to pound in the rest of the easy-out and crank on it a few times with a wrench (did not budge however) and it snapped again! WTF

So my car is still sitting on rhino ramps in front of my house, with no y-pipe or cats.

BTW, if you want to overwork EVERY SINGLE MUSCLE in your upper body, I would highly recommend trying to do this install with just a pair of rhino ramps with the **** end on the ground. Ima gonna be in hella pain tomorrow!

 

did you try heating it up with a torch to let the metal expand, might be a little tricky and dangerous since it's a tight fit up there. I'm not positive but I think those studs are threaded since one of them came out when I did mine. so heating may do the trick. If they are pressed I wouldn't try tapping them out unless you removed the exhaust manifold. All else fails, just drill it out and use a bolt.

 

I think you'll have to drill it out. Is it the driver’s side or the passenger’s side? If it's the drivers side you'll have even less room to work, sorry this happened to you.

Now, what you said got me thinking...

1. Easy outs are threaded therefore you have to drill and tap a hole into the snapped off bolt. Then you screw in the easy out (a left handed thread) and then turn it the opposite way to remove the broken off bolt.

2. It sounds like you use a hole enlarger since you mentioned having to "tap in" the instrument. That's not the right tool to use.

I'd recommend using a good brand of penetrating oil, apply a bunch of it liberally and then wait. Apply more and wait. Apply more and wait (see where I'm going with this? )

Finally try to use an easy out. If you do get brave and try heating the bolt, make sure that after you heat the bolt to let the bolt cool to a fingers touch. If you try to remove the bolt while it's hot you will probably just gull the end of the bolt.

Also, does this bolt have an extension on the back side? Can you thread on 2 nuts onto the back side of the bolt and "Jam" them against each other? If so you can turn the last nut up against the first nut and wrench the bolt out that way.

Does the bolt head have any of the shank exposed? Could you heat the tip and then apply vice grips or tap on a socket while it's still hot? You could even try to saw in a slot and use a flat head attachment on a socket wrench.

Pictures would really help, but given the tight space you're working with, I'm sure they're not practical.

BTW, real easy outs are made of SUPER hard steel. You'll have a heck of a hard time drilling those out. Make sure you really used an easy out and if you did your life just got really tough.

 

Thanks for the tips guys.

The bolt broke off and both ends were recessed inside the flange, so nothing to grab hold of. I also don't know anyone to borrow a torch from so I pretty much gave up on trying to do it myself which would most likely result in making things worse

For one of my gigs, I write software for about 40 mechanics, and luckily for me one was nice enough to offer his services. So I did the install and put some small C-clamps in place of the missing bolt, just so I could limp to the garage. He ended up doing it the brute force way, hammering the **** outta the easy-out sliver until it popped out, then used a cobalt bit to drill out the rest of the bolt. There wasn't enough room for his drill to widen the hole enough for the 10mm bolts, so we just put an 8mm in there temporarily.

Lessons learned: Crossthreading soft bolts is bad, very bad. Oh, and also, when I get around to buying a house, it's gonna have a lift dammit

 

HERE, HERE on the lift! Saw pics of a guy who uses one of those X-type mini-lifts that fits under your car. When he laid the slab for his garage, he recessed a pit for this lift to sit in, so he could drive/park his 911 over it without clearance problems... ...AND it was ready to use when needed. Nice storage solution as well!

And I hate soft bolts. I snap 'em every time. Of course, I had to buy a newton meter years back just to be sure I didn't torque those hand tight bolts too tight.