remove snapped off bolt

[mrtexas]

Works every time for me, even this small broken bolt. First weld on a washer to the broken stud, then weld on a nut.

 

[blucar]

What I am going to suggest to remove a broken bolt might sound crazy, but it works.
Use a small gas welder with a small tip, 0 or 00, set the gas for a neutral flame, put on safety glasses, face shield and leather welding cape.
Put the flame on the broken bolt, as the bolt heats up and starts to turn cherry red, keep the flame on the bolt, just as the bolt turns molten it will explode out of the hole.
The hole will be quiet clean with small amounts of slag. After cooling run a drill bit down the hole, then clean the treads with the correct size tap.
I have used the above method to remove broken manifold bolts from an engine on two occasions.

 

[1948F-1Pickup]

What I am going to suggest to remove a broken bolt might sound crazy, but it works.
Use a small gas welder with a small tip, 0 or 00, set the gas for a neutral flame, put on safety glasses, face shield and leather welding cape.
Put the flame on the broken bolt, as the bolt heats up and starts to turn cherry red, keep the flame on the bolt, just as the bolt turns molten it will explode out of the hole.
The hole will be quiet clean with small amounts of slag. After cooling run a drill bit down the hole, then clean the treads with the correct size tap.
I have used the above method to remove broken manifold bolts from an engine on two occasions.

Yup. Never heard of that..... and I'll be 60 this year. I have heard of a metal
disintegrator and that's the only magic tool I've ever seen used that makes
broken stuff come out of tapped holes.

 

[GB SISSON]

In my early flathead years in the late 80's old local guys told me to heat the broken stud to molten, blast it out with oxygen and the threads would be perfectly good for the next bolt. Seemed so against what I'd gleaned from backyard metalurgy that I never tried it.....All I could think of was cracked iron castings from the localized heat... but????

 

[Vics Stuff]

Heat bolt up red hot. Quench with water. Next weld a flat washer over the bolt then weld a nut to the washer. Allow to cool.
Done that on several occasions
Vic

 

[KiWinUS]

In my early flathead years in the late 80's old local guys told me to heat the broken stud to molten, blast it out with oxygen and the threads would be perfectly good for the next bolt. Seemed so against what I'd gleaned from backyard metalurgy that I never tried it.....All I could think of was cracked iron castings from the localized heat... but????

I have used this method hundred of times & works perfect. The block & threads see way less heat than the method so many try of heating block & studs to attempt to get studs out.
There are many reasons studs & bolts break to include:- bottoming out, galling up, over torquing, or like is common with flathead corrosion from water jacket end of studs along with many other reasons. All of these reasons for breaking can require different methods of removal.
Cheers
Tony

 

[blucar]

Yup. Never heard of that..... and I'll be 60 this year. I have heard of a metal
disintegrator and that's the only magic tool I've ever seen used that makes
broken stuff come out of tapped holes.

I'm a young fellow of 86, an old mechanic told me about the gas welder trick in the early '70's. I really had to think long and hard about trying it, but then the alternate was to disassemble the engine to get the head off, take the head to a machine shop and have them remove the broken bolt, then re-assemble the engine.

 

[drolston]

Good advice on what to do. Here's some advice on what not to do.

Wrung off a head stud on my third flathead at age 19. Tried to drill and extract with an easy-out, which promptly snapped off, leaving an un-drillable piece of very hard, brittle steel. Oh well, I just put the head back on, minus that bolt. My brother ran that engine through the logging trails for years in the shell of a '34 coupe with a milk crate for a seat. Sort of a rat-rod before the term was invented. Neve lost compression or leaked.

Here is the only surviving picture of that car, behind the '48 coupe into which I foolishly stuffed a 57 Buick. Never sounded right and broke too many axels and cluster gears.

Pardon my nostalgic digression.

 

[wga]

Used both with great results. Learned Blucar's method in the USN.