Machine shop costs/ extreme broken bolt situation ->

[WLDHRSE]

My PITA now is not being able to get the cork oil pan gaskets to line up w/ the bolt holes, but it's sat overnight w/ Motorcraft grey silicone on the rest of the gasket surfaces, so I don't want to have to tear those off, re-scrape and clean, etc, just to line up those bolt holes...
It certainly sounds like that might be my only option at this point, though. Does anybody else have any other day-saving ideas to save me from having to de-gasket and re-gasket???

Glad to hear you fixed it. You probably saved yourself about $100 from a machine shop.

I don't know about day saving, but can you take the holes and cut them into slots with a razor to get a better fit.

 

[WLDHRSE]

I'd use a Cobalt bit... As far as I know, they are the strongest out there. I have a full set (about 30 bits) that was well over 150 bucks... They have never failed me at all. They will drill through anything. I've had this happen at Ford when I did a Water Pump on a 95 F-150 with a 351W.... All I did was drill it out, and tap it... Bam, done... Took all of 20 minutes to do. EZ outs are evil, because if they break, like it did to you... you're screwed.

Nick

Cobalt is not as strong as Carbide. Cobalt is still High Speed Steel (HSS) but with some percentage of Cobalt in the metal. Unless the easyout was an absolute piece of junk (mild steel of any grade), Cobalt would not have cut it. Carbide is significantly harder and was the proper type for the job. But carbide is not good for hand drilling for the reason jrichker brought up. Things that are hard dot not bend. Things that do not bend, break. It is very hard to exert force straight with a hand drill, there is always a side load on the drill bit just because of the pistol grip shape. Your not pushing straight inline with the drill chuck and drill bit, your pushing from the side at the handle which is just acting as leverage adding side load to the drill. Doesn't take much of a side load on a carbide drill bit and it will snap. Cobalt drills are a better choice for hand drilling, but would not have been a good choice for this application.

Cliff

 

[PoopDawg]

Ok lol. Sowwy.

 

[89white50]

i have a broken motor mount bolt into my spare block and the machine shop is charging me 35 bucks for it out. not too bad at all.

 

[FrogLeg]

glad to hear you have it out..

 

[jaymac]

Thanks, and thanks to all!!!!
:SNSign:

 

[89 Saleen#455]

Jaymac - I have to replace my waterpump in the next couple of weeks. It's the stock pump, so I'm preying I don't snap any bolts/studs during the removal process. Did you heat the bolts before removing them or did you just go after them with a breaker bar? I wondering if I heat the bolts and spay them with PB Blaster the night before, if I'll reduce the risk of snapping a bolt?

In hindsight, would you have bothered with the EZout or just tried to drill out the broken bolt? Just curious in case bad luck creeps up on me during the swap.

Where are you in Northern, MA? I'm in Reading.

 

[jaymac]

Hey, I'm in haverhill. Still kinda new to the area, so I don't know how far away that is.
The problem I encountered waws not taking it out, it was putting the new one back in. it was a brand NEW bolt that I broke, not the stocker
Getting them out should not be that hard at all, or at least it wasn't for me. It wouldn't hurt to hit 'em w/ some PB the night before, though. You also don't have to take out all the timing cover bolts, so you have less of a chance of breaking something. I definitely would NOT use a breaker bar. If you have to use that much torque to loosen up a 5/16 bolt, then you'll prob. snap it taking it off. Use a regualr 1/4 open end wrench to break them loose to make sure you don't use too much force and snap it. Then, get a long shank bottoming tap to clean all the block threads beofre you try to install ne bolts. And yes, do install new bolts. 4" 5/16-18 bolts. You'll prob have to re-use the 6" stud, though.
My problem was that I didn't have a long shank tap and couldn't clean all the threads in the block and I tried like hell to torque down the bolt into old corrosion and I had 1/8" to go and it snapped off as I torqued as hard as I could. I'm an idiot.
CLEAN THE THREADS!!!!!!!!! Use 3-in-1 oil and TAP THE THREADS!!!
The EZout might've worked better if I had drilled the proper size and depth hole before I tried the first time. However, I drilled it too shallow and thin, and it broke. Live and learn.
Let me now if you need any tips/pointers, and where's pics of your Saleen??

 

[89 Saleen#455]

Thanks Jaymac. I'll just take it slow and chase the old threads per your advice.

Haverhill is just 15mins North of Reading. In fact, I was in Haverhill on Saturday with my wife picking up a slab of granite for our kitchen at Boston Granite (exit 48 off 495).

I don't have anywhere to host pictures of the saleen, but I could email you pictures if you're really interested.

Thanks for all the great write-ups on the bolt extraction! The information will come in handy.......then again......I hope I don't need to refer back to this thread

Take Care. Rich A.

 

[jaymac]

Yeah, I'd definitely like to see pictures. Also, you can go to Photobucket.com and get a free account and upload your photos and post them on here as IMG's.
I'm right off exit 51. Do you ever go up to the track? I'm hoping to go up this Wednesday or Friday; it would be awesome to cruise up w/ a bunch of other Mustangs this week~