[Red74Goat]

I have a '74 GTO and was removing the old headers (I had previously soaked all bolts for several days with PB) when the front bolt on the drivers side broke off flush with the head, all other bolts came out easy. I've been trying to mig weld a hex nut on top of the broken off stud, but the tightness of the work space makes getting a good angle for the weld just about impossible, so the hex nuts break off due to poor welds (I'm not a particularly good welder, so that doesn't help!) No room to get a punch and hammer or drill into the space either.

After six days of laying under the car trying to get a good weld, I'm getting pretty close to resigning myself to pulling the head to get the broken stud out.

The engine/car has less than 30,000 miles on it and is relatively stock, so I don't want to have the heads milled at this point. With an advertised 7.6:1 CR, I have considered putting thinner head gaskets on to raise the compression a bit and possibly install a Summit 2800 cam while I have things apart.

Any other thoughts about other possible mods while I have the heads out and the top end torn apart a bit? I'm not looking for anything radical, more interested in dependable. I haven't quite given up yet on getting the broken off bolt out while head is still on the engine, but getting close.

Thanks

[rexs73gto]

I understand your pain, I had something similar happen. The clevis ball that holds & let the Z-bar pivot broke off on me a long time ago. I called a few shops in my area to find out who was the best at getting this thing out. There may be someone like that in your area to do it for you. It was hard for me at the time to let someone else work on my car but in that case I couldn't get it out & didn't want to pull the engine just for that , so I took it to someone who had tools & experience to do it for me. There are always someone that has a trick to get those things out better then you. Just a thought.

[Red74Goat]

Rex, thanks for the sympathy and suggestion. It would be easier to take it somewhere if the exhaust system hadn't already been removed. I live quite a ways out of town, so not trivial getting it to someone without any exhaust system at this point.

If I end up pulling the head, I will give it a try to remove the broken bolt under better conditions, but likely will quickly decide whether the head goes to someone else for removal, as you suggested.

[rexs73gto]

I was lucky I had about 4 shops close to me that said they could do it & the one that I took it to had it out & the new one in in about 2 later . The only thing bad about getting there for me was I had to start in gear & pull it out of gear to stop because I couldn't have the Z-bar hooked up to drive it down there. Kind of a wild ride , just glad I had the M-22 in at that time I could get it out of gear just had to time it just right by revving the engine a bit to get it to come out of gear without to much trouble.