Help! Broken bolt.

[xandrew245x]

I wasn't sure where to put this so I'm throwing it here.

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That picture is where my water pump should be. However when I was torqueing the bolts down two broke off in the block oh joy. I was able to drill and extract ONE successfully after many tries. However the second one kept breaking my extractors. So next step was to try to drill it out and use helicoil to repair it. Well I got myself a nice cobalt bit and had at it. Well I've made it a half inch at most in and it will not go any further. Tried smaller bits and they still won't drill any further. I'm at a complete loss of what to do and this is holding my build up. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[YUPOK]

Good news: it can be fixed.
Bad news: you need different tools.

Only way I can think of at this point is to finish it off with a carbide end mill and put the block right into a milling machine. Will take about half hour and you'll have a nice clean hole to work with.

Problem your at now is your cobalt drill bits hardened the broken bolt. So now you need a harder material to cut it, pressure, and very firm steady hold. Milling machine or big drill press is the only thing I can think of. Good thing is the engine is out!!

 

[xandrew245x]

That is what I was afraid of. I do have a drill press at my disposal, BUT I don't know if its big enough to accommodate the block or not. If not I know a guy right up the road from me that does have one big enough that could drill it out for me. Only issue I have is getting the block to him. I supposed I could let it on the stand, wheel it up on a trailer, strap it down good and take it up.

 

[donniekak]

Weld a nut over the bolt and turn it out.

 

[xandrew245x]

Weld a nut over the bolt and turn it out.

Tried that before, even tried welding an extractor in the drilled hole I made, No luck at all.

 

[Neil Van]

i broke an arp turbo bolt and used cobat bits to drill it out. it defiantly stops at certain points and you think its never gonna go but eventually i got through it.

 

[xandrew245x]

Maybe tomorrow I will try drilling more and see if I can get it. I am literally so frustrated with this.

 

[Neil Van]

low speeds too if you go fast you just dull the tip of the bit and harden the bolt

 

[partylikeits82]

I've always had good luck with reverse drill bits. If you can't get that to work weld a nut to it (make sure it's a good weld from the inside of the nut), then hose it down with some penetrating oil and let it soak overnight.

 

[xandrew245x]

I'm going to set my engine stand so that the flywheel side is facing down. That way I can get a more equal and stronger pressure on the hole to drill maybe that will work.

 

[Neil Van]

make sure you didn't ruin your bits that you were using before. that's what happened with mine when i got impatient and drilled too fast.

 

[xandrew245x]

Good news, I was able to get enough drilled out that I was able to thread it and get a helicoil in. I had to use a little shorter bolt but it tightened down. However, I do not know what torque spec I have them at, I don't trust my torque wrench anymore at 10# I tried today at 10 and it wasn't clicking and I felt like the bolts were getting ready to snap or break the threads If I went any further. Needless to say, they are tight. Is there any way I could pressure test this before the engine goes back in the car, I want to make sure its not leaking before it goes back in, because that would not be fun.

 

[Neil Van]

it would be alot easier to have the head on with the water pump with water pipe and thermostat housing. you could use a radiator hose and loop the system and cap off the other coolant line spots. then you could do a coolant pressure test. maybe a machine shop may have another way