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Best Birthday Present. Broken Head Bolt


zKars

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It is common I have found to struggle with the removal of two particular head bolts. Left side, #4 and 5 from the front. Coolant seems to get there and rust them into place.

So the recent engine (N42/N42) needed the head off, and sure enough, all were easy to break free, but #4 was a struggle, and #5 broke. Here we go again.

Took the head off, and found stage one of the birthday present. The bolt broke a good 3/8” of and inch above the block! Yahoo!

16703CB5-472D-4FD6-9F25-F06AC72FBB7E.jpeg

Look at the crud around that bolt. The head gasket was mostly eaten through here. Old engine, old coolant.

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So I wire brushed the stub clean and set up a rag pad around it to hold penetrating oil and let her sit for 24 hours with hourly application of more weasel squeezings....

 

4BDA539A-1E42-4B97-AD40-3F9FDF72B84A.jpeg

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There's no way I would reuse that bolt.

I would chuck up the remains of the bolt in the lathe and drill a hole in the end. Do the same thing to the threaded stump, and then turn a metal dowel pin to fit the holes. Press the dowel pin into place to align the two while you run a small weld bead around where it broke. If your welding skills are good, they say "the weld is stronger than the base metal".

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1 hour ago, Captain Obvious said:

There's no way I would reuse that bolt.

I would chuck up the remains of the bolt in the lathe and drill a hole in the end. Do the same thing to the threaded stump, and then turn a metal dowel pin to fit the holes. Press the dowel pin into place to align the two while you run a small weld bead around where it broke. If your welding skills are good, they say "the weld is stronger than the base metal".

I’m totally doing this! New bolts are a fortune! Thanks!

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zKars,  You would need to hold a gun to my head in order for me to reuse any of those old head bolts.  Bite the bullet and get a fresh, new set.  They won't break most banks. They are about a hundred bucks for a set of OEM bolts!

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Interesting.  I've had good luck removing frozen fasteners with vise-grips over the years.  My theory is that it comes from the shock created when the pliers -- adjusted to a strong over-centre setting -- are clamped closed.  You can almost hear the pliers ring when they go over-centre and lock.  No penetrating oil required.

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2 hours ago, mayolives said:

zKars,  You would need to hold a gun to my head in order for me to reuse any of those old head bolts.  Bite the bullet and get a fresh, new set.  They won't break most banks. They are about a hundred bucks for a set of OEM bolts!

Entire thread is tongue in cheek I assure you. I cannot always be counted on to do the right thing, but in this case, I know what to do. And in this case it involves charging my customer a nice markup for new bolts.

Edited by zKars
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