One of the bolts in the front of the pan snapped. It's the bigger bolt that is right at the front main seal behind the balancer. I tried drilling into it so I could extract it with a bolt extractor, but I cant even penetrate the bolt. It started to go in just a tiny little bit, now all it does is sit and spins until the drill bit gets red hot. But I can't get it to go any further.. what do I do?
Snapped oil pan bolt.. need help
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NKau
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Is the engine in or out of the car? Any of the bolt protruding from the hole, or is it pretty much broke off flush?
NKau
Founding Member
Dang, if it was out of the car, I would just tell you to take it to a machine shop and let them handle it; might be what you end up doing in the end anyway. One thing you COULD try would be taking a dremel and cutting a slot across the exposed portion of bolt; something you could possibly get the flat tip of a punch/chisel into and crank on. Do you have a torch to put some heat on it? This would probably aid greatly in removing it; just get the bit of bolt pretty hot, let it cool, and it should come out a lot easier.
Yep, I tried cutting a slot in it and using a screw driver to pop it loose. BUT, all that did was break one side of the bolt piece off. Shouldnt there be something that can drill into this stupid bolt? I got a hard metal drill bit and it still wouldnt cut into it. The dremel cutoff wheel had no problem slicing a slot in the bolt. I don't understand why I can't drill into it if I can cut into it that easy with the dremel.
If you already cracked the bolt, you need to weld a nut to the end that is showing and take it out. Quite possibly you can grab it with a pair of vise grips and unscrew it. It should be loose at this point. Dont know why it is tight.
I have 6 words of advice.
Torque Wrench Torque Wrench Torque Wrench
I have 6 words of advice.
Torque Wrench Torque Wrench Torque Wrench
With this particular bolt, it may have been because of antifreeze getting on it when doing pump swap or something. This may have helped it freeze up in there. Yeah, I dont know what to do at this point. I guess I'll see if my dad can bring his welder over tomorrow or something and try welding a bolt onto it or something and seeing if that will work. Thanks for that idea. I don't know what else to do at this point.
92Patrol5.0 said:
You need a sharp drill bit. In this case a counter clock wise cutting drill bit. This way it will remove the bolt while it cuts rather than push it in. Local machine shop supply shop will have these.
I would recommend to everyone to spend the 90 bucks on a drill bit sharpener.
About 5 years ago I had a bolt snap on a water pump bolton an 84 T-bird. I drilled it out. Every 60 seconds or so I would pull the bit and sharpen it. The cutting action of the bit does the work, not you leaning on it until the bit buckles.
Good luck
The sharpest bit in the world won't help you if the metal has work hardened. If it's a stainless bolt, the work harden really easily.
Penetrating oil and heat are the only things that will work while the engine is in the car.
If it can't be removed and you don't want to pull the engine, you can probably live without that particular bolt, especially if you bolt a long piece of steel under the adjacent bolts to distribute the clamping load closer to the missing bolt.
Penetrating oil and heat are the only things that will work while the engine is in the car.
If it can't be removed and you don't want to pull the engine, you can probably live without that particular bolt, especially if you bolt a long piece of steel under the adjacent bolts to distribute the clamping load closer to the missing bolt.
Well I finally got a whole drilled in the bolt, but that damn thing just wont break lose. I eventually drilled all the way through, but at an angle and the bit is out the top about in the middle of the bolt. So, I guess what I'm going to have to do is get a bigger bit and drill out the hole bigger, rethread it, and put a bigger bolt in it I guess. Or as someone said, just leave it out and distribute the clamping power. Ugh, I would have been done with this project by now if this bolt had not snapped off. I worked on getting the pan off last night, and planned on putting the gasket on and bolting everything back together today, but this damn bolt didn't allow that to happen.
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