Cylinder head has stripped stud. Need advice.

I have several sets of easyouts and thinking back probably over 60 years noodling around with mechanical things, I can't remember ever using one successfully. Left hand drills - yes. Welding nuts onto shafts - yes. Drilling and carefully peeling back the remainder of the bolt - yes. Heat, penetrating oil, whacking with a hammer and vicegrips - yes. But not easyout.
 
What noboD said. I've only had one success with an Easy Out. The head of a screw on the door handle of my wife's Roadrunner was broken off. The screw was loose but I couldn't get a hold of it. I drilled it & used an Easy Out. Every other time it was a waste of time, usually breaking off & complicating the problem.
 
When I had my machine shop I warned everyone I knew not to bring something to me with a broken off easyout. Bring it right away when it breaks and that's easy. Broken easyout I don't have time to waste. A local shop broke off about 4 of 6 spark plugs. They wanted me to put Helicoils in. An hour and a half later I took the head back with good threads, no helicoils and would not tell him how I did it. He got POed and never brought anything again.
 
I've had an easy-out work well on an allen set-screw. Something about "bottoming out" on the bottom of the hex hole.

would not tell him how I did it.
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Take the head off, grab the bent electrode with a pair of vice-grips.

Joe K
 
Of all the jobs I have done on my Model A, the one I hate the most is re-torquing the head. I have had that experience of having a torque wrench go from 52 ft. lbs. down to 25 ft. lbs.. It was on a rebuilt engine in which I was installing the cylinder head. I should have had the rebuilder install the head! In my case, the studs were a new set and it broke off flush with the block. I remember going back into the house and I know I had "wet eyes" I was so upset. I called a club member and he game over with a set of small cold chisels, one was only 1/8 in. wide. In ten minutes with light tapping on the circumference of the broken stud he had it backed out of the block. I couldn't believe it was so easy.

I have also put in helicoils and managed to tap the hole badly (the new stud was not perfectly vertical). Now what?? Before I put the cylinder head back on, I looked at the bad stud, saw which direction the stud was leaning and took a round file to the top of the head and opened the hole slightly to relieve the pressure between the head and the stud. I installed the cylinder head without the bad stud. After the head was lightly fastened in place with other studs and nuts, I ground a slight taper on the end of the stud so that it would engage the hole in the block better, I applied Never-seize to the threads and dropped the stud down in the hole. Then, with two thin nuts I screwed the stud down into the block. It was amazing, the stud when in with moderate effort and was torqued in place. After 5000 miles, it is still going strong. You do what you have to do. Ed
 
Depending on the grade of the stud it can stretch a little when torqued down and straighten out. Grade 5 or 8 will not stretch.

Some studs on other cars are necked down and designed to stretch. The studs must be replaced each time the head is re installed.
 
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