[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by BruceWilkie

Pull the crank... dont worry about pistons unless you had planned to save them. You should be able to use wood in the rod fork and the piston will hit the head when you hammer on the wood. Might take awhile and you may need to replace the wood after a bit. the rod pin and piston may or may not get hurt.

Exactly, Bruce, I've had engines where I had to use the same process due to the pistons being stuck at the bottom of the stroke.

[BruceWilkie]

Originally Posted by hurryinhoosier62

Exactly, Bruce, I've had engines where I had to use the same process due to the pistons being stuck at the bottom of the stroke.

Same here... even sawzalled a few rods to get crank out before. Breaking pistons is not easy as it looks unless you have a strong sharp point. Then you tend to screw the cylinder walls etc if you do.

Dont take much of a booger on a broken bolt to jam things up beyond imagination.

[Squidward]

Dude... The suspense is killing me! Is it off yet?

[lust4speed]

Oh well, a lone voice in the wilderness still whispering

E D M



Every machine shop has to have a EDM specialist that drops by with nothing more than a phone call from the shop. You can destroy the head and possibly the block using everything short of dynamite, or you can drop the block off and pick it up in a few days with the bolt gone, the head off, and the threads looking like new.

[cuz68]

The chain the tree the truck.

[AZ64GP]

Hi all,

I didn't have a chance to work on the engine yesterday. I have my dad and a friend coming over in about an hour, and we're going to work on it some more. I've been spraying PB Blaster down the broken bolt hole twice a day for a week. I'm hoping that helped a lot.

The engine itself isn't very rusty at all. It was a San Diego, CA car most of its life before spending time in AZ, so the car is very solid (one of the main reasons I bought it). The problem is that the car has really bad freeze plugs in the heads and engine. Probably the reason why the car sat for years and wasn't driven. Many of the freeze plugs were either rusted and disintegrating or some sort of repair was installed (like a plug, etc.) in the hole. One freeze plug in the head didn't have a repair, but had some epoxy slathered over where the remnants of the freeze plug in the head. The head bolt closest to that epoxy-covered freeze plug was the one that was super rusted (my guess from water leaking out of the head for all those years) and I broke the bolt trying to free it. A couple took some PB Blaster to get loose, but every other head bolt came out without too much trouble. Unfortunately one had to break.

I'm anxious too to see what happens, and I'll post an update this afternoon to let you know how it turned out. If I can't free it with a large pry bar in the exhaust or intake ports and PB Blaster, I'll try removing the crank and using a block of wood on the piston (they're going to get replaced anyways for lower compression pistons) or I might just take the whole block with the head on it to a machine shop. Thanks for all the suggestions and the encouragement! Wish me luck!!!


Chris

[3fastgtos]

This happened to me once but the engine was still in the car. My temper got the best of me and I got midevil on it. I stuck about a 3ft bar in the intake port closest to the bolt, stood on the frame rail with one foot, wedged my other foot somewhere on the other side of the engine and violently (cursing all along) yanked back and forth until the bolt broke flush with the block. Then the head fell on my foot that was on the frame rail. I guess it still got the last laugh.

[428GTO70]

lol, I guess at this point if its going to the machine shop anyways, maybe let them just take care of it. Otherwise if it were mine and I just needed to have the satisfaction of getting the head off myself I would just start drilling out the bolt. Starting with a small bit to get the hole started as centered and straight as possible and keep working up to bigger sizes in steps. when you get close to completely hollowing the bolt out it should loses its hold and pull out or break off pretty easily. then of course you would still have to deal with the threaded portion in the block.

[3fastgtos]

In my case the threaded portion came right out because the rusted part was in the head.

[AZ64GP]

Hi All,

I got the head free this morning! Yay! The first step was turning the engine on the engine stand. Even just the weight of the head hanging down (it was still held on by the broken bolt and one other bolt I left partially threaded) started to pull the head away from the block on the side which didn't have the broken bolt. I used a couple small pry bars (not much bigger than large screw drivers) and carefully pried/applied pressure to the space between the block and the head. My friend pried up with a large pry bar in one of the exhaust ports of the head, while my dad pounded down with a mini sledgehammer on the large pry bar. We also liberally sprayed on the PB Blaster. Little by little we started to see the head separating from the block on the side of the broken bolt. I removed the bolt we had left in the head to help hold, and one person held the head so it would come off before we wanted. We got the head off far enough that we could turn the head (three people carefully turning and holding the head) around, since we got it over the dowl pins. When we started turning the head around the broken bolt, we could see the broken bolt was actually coming right out of the block. I figured the bolt was probably rusted in place in the block, but it was unthreading as we turned the head. We kept turning the head until it came right out of the block with the broken bolt still in the bolt hole. I then set the head down on the bench, and the broken bolt came right out. After looking at the bolt closely, I could see how the surface of the bolt which was in the head was corroded. Spraying PB Blaster down the hole with the broken bolt for the last week must have penetrated the bolt enough to help loosen it. I think using the weight of the head hanging down to help pull it away from the block, as well as continuing to whack at the pry bar and using little pry bars to put pressure between the block and the head helped. I didn't have the broken bolt still left in the head or the block to extract!

Thanks again for you all your comments and suggestions!


Chris

[scld1354]

Good to hear!!!

[428GTO70]

grats!

[b-man]

Cool.

All it cost you was a little time and a can of PB Blaster.

[Will]

Excellent! Glad to hear it's "problem solved."

[pugslyx234]

If all else fails get a bigger sledge hammer, just kiddin !!!!

[Squidward]

And yes, rust is still an enemy, even in AZ!

I have closure now. Thank you.

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by Squidward

Dude... The suspense is killing me! Is it off yet?

Originally Posted by Squidward

I have closure now. Thank you.

I've been checking this thread daily too! Thankfully the drama has ended!

[2002Z4CSS]

Glad to hear you got the head off.

[sdbob]

Good to hear. I 'll rememeber this till tonight! for future problems. I have a jet stuck in an old Clinton engine carb I've been trying to get out. I'll soak it with Blaster.