Broken Manifold Bolt - Don't Try This At Home!

Broken exhaust manifold bolt in a iron head.


Clean the end of the bolt.


Hold a washer and a 7/16th nut in place with magnets and weld.


Almost done.


Broken bolt out.


Done.


Notes:
It took longer to resize and post the photos then it did to do the whole job.
Engine removal was done for demonstation purposes only. You don't need to remove the engine from the car.
This bolt came out fairly easy.
I have had some stubbon ones in the past that broke multiple times.
A MIG welder is nice but I've done this with a stick welder in past.

wow you did good. gold star to you.

We now know where to send our cars when we break bolts off. Good work. You did say it was easier than it seemed.

Nice pics, Jim! Looks like the technique has improved with experience!

(not sure if that's a good thing or not... )

I'm impressed. Couldn't begin to imagine what a shop would charge for a job like that.

did you get rid of the flux core and use gas ?

If your car is anything like mine welding the nut on is the easy part. I usually have to cut the nuts off the manifold studs, replace the studs, and break or cut the cat to imtermediate pipe bolts.

I'll bet it would cost more than the cost of a welder for a shop to do it. Seems most want to pull the head.

I got gas. It was expensive to buy the tank but I should be able to weld thinner metal and clean up is much easier.

Bill I still have the first bolt with a broken extractor in it. That was on the driver's side of my current car. That's the one I did with a stick welder. Much later I did the passenger side and had 4 bolts break. One of them broke 3 times after welding on a nut. I used up my entire stock of 7/16th nuts on that job.

I posted this because a few folks on that other forum either didn't want to try or couldn't get a welder willing to do it and ended up pulling the head. Of course you could always buy headers but that assumes you won't break any other bolts.

Almost forgot, I unplug the PCM before welding just in case.

And don't worry I'll replace those Delco plugs with some nice Bosch plugs.

I used a MIG welder on mine. Basically the same method, with the exhaust manifold off (of course). I didn't think of using magnets though, just held the nut and tacked it up. Great job guys!

Works for broken brake caliper bolts too.

That's an awesome trick

Works on rusy differential cover bolts too. The magnets loose their magnetism after a few heat cycles.

Freakin awesome job Dude. I got a couple broken manifold bolts that need to come out next summer. This information is priceless.

I now use Harbor Freight rare earth magnets. Strong little suckers. One or two heat cycles and they lose most of their magnetism.

Great job! Will a MIG like the one below do the job? I have the same one but never used it for anything besides light exhaust work. Even with that I still have no welding skills
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-wire-feed-welder-gasless/p-00920568000P?prdNo=2&blockNo=2&blockType=G2

I'm glad you posted this and provided good pictures. I can see that the rear bolt on the DS seems to be missing, so I'm guessing that when the manifold comes off I'm going to find a broken bolt in the hole.

Time to learn how to use my welder.

Is there ever a problem with the weld fusing the washer to the head itself if everything isn't lined up exactly right, thereby creating a greater FUBAR situation?

No problems on the 6 or so that I have done. With cast heads I think you'd have to really try hard to weld to them.

boojum wrote:

No problems on the 6 or so that I have done. With cast heads I think you'd have to really try hard to weld to them.

Cool.

How much practice does someone need with a flux core welder before they can do this? Almost none, I hope.

I don't really know, try it on a bolt in a vise. Often the rear bolt is actuall very loose after the head is sheared off.

Nice job.

Another piece of advice for anyone with a broken exh man bolt that I learned the hard way. Don't assume that just because it's broken that it's stuck. A few years ago I took my cylinder head off my 9C1 to drill it out only to find that the bolt came right out by hand. The manifold had warped and popped the head of the bolt off, but the threads were still fine. Try it by hand first, you might get lucky!

I pulled the DS manifold off today. There were only 4 out of 6 bolts holding the thing to the head; the back two bolts were missing because they had snapped off in the head at some point. So obviously that back exhaust port was sealing very poorly and creating a large leak.

I gotta get my welder back from the friend whom I loaned it to and practice some real basic maneuvers so I can get this job done. One bolt is broken off about flush with the block, maybe just a little less and the other is inside the bolt hole a ways.

Yippee!

Impressive work.  This could lead to $$ for you doing this for those of us that have suffered!!

Wonder how many times you've made money doing this in the last 4 years since this was posted Jim?????????