Removing broken stud from head

[Dignlif]

Last Sunday my upper alternator mount setup broke a stud in the cylinder head and though we tried getting it out by drilling and using easy outs...there was no success.

I did some searching on youtube for a solution and found this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKlYKG2vyaA . Basically the guy goes through the steps of welding a nut to the broken stud/ bolt. I decided to try it and 5 minutes later the broken stud was out...too easy! Thanks guy with Hero voice!

Broken stud


Nut sitting on sliver of threads - I saw another video that suggested superglue to hold in place if needed


Nut welded in place


Taa Daa!

[TheSilverBuick]

I've heard of that too. From what I gather the heat from the welding also helps in getting the bolt loose. So double win, have something to put a wrench on and heat to help remove the bolt! Thanks for sharing this victory!

[BBR]

Very nice!

[68scott385]

'at's slick'r n snot on a door knob.

[OldMachinist]

Good job! Another trick that will help is after welding the nut, while the stud is still hot melt parrifin from a candle into the threads and it helps lubricate so stud comes out easier.

[tardis454]

Good job! Another trick that will help is after welding the nut, while the stud is still hot melt parrifin from a candle into the threads and it helps lubricate so stud comes out easier.

Roger that, I've had success with vice grips & parafin wax.

Welding a nut/bolt is great if you have a welder..

[TexasT]

What better reason to buy a welder?




Welding a nut on is a great way to get broke off stuff out. I used it on a turbo and several heads that I broke the exhaust manifold bolts off in. Cheaper than having the machine shop do it. Though I do use a lot of nuts.

[Beagle]

I'm glad to see it working! I tried that on the D3 heads because it broke 9 or so of the 16 exhaust bolts, had a couple that would flat not cooperate. It'd twist the bolt off a little further down than the weld. Some of them didn't stick the first time, I'm not much of a weldor. I tried the wax deal too. I ended up drilling and tapping several of them and I'm still not real happy with how they turned out. I'll probably end up with heli-coils in a couple or may just stud them if I have room.

Good job!

[anotheridiot]

I'm glad to see it working! I tried that on the D3 heads because it broke 9 or so of the 16 exhaust bolts, had a couple that would flat not cooperate. It'd twist the bolt off a little further down than the weld. Some of them didn't stick the first time, I'm not much of a weldor. I tried the wax deal too. I ended up drilling and tapping several of them and I'm still not real happy with how they turned out. I'll probably end up with heli-coils in a couple or may just stud them if I have room.

Good job!

The trick is to not get greedy. If you have the 3/16ths bolt broken down into the threads, go straight to the 5/16th drill just to find the center of the broken bolt, then use a smaller bit to start drilling thru the center to keep your 5/16ths from wobbling into the old threads.

Great job on this thread though. never fully understood what people were telling me til I saw your pics. I guess this is one case its good that cast iron is so hard to weld. it saves you from welding any of it together other than the nut and stud.

[milner351]

Great news! I've had mixed luck with that technique - great to see you got it to work! antisieze it when it goes back together!

[Dignlif]

Glad this was helpful to others.

It actually didn't twist off as I was removing it. The problem was that the length of the upper mount setup from the Moroso kit created a pivot point of sorts and fatigued the stud to failure (at least that's what I'm figuring). I'm going to redo it in a different way to eliminate the extreme length so I don't have to worry about it failing again.

I have taken to putting anti-seize on most things (thanks, good advice), naturally this was assembled before I became somewhat religious about doing that and I still forget occasionally.