I just tried to remove my factory exhaust manifold on my 97 accord, and the bolt broke off flush with the head, how hard is this to drill into and back out??

 

shouldn't be too hard. Take a hard look at how thick the bolt is and half it. Use a drill like that and drill into it using the other bolts as a lesson on how far to go into it.

Go to the store and buy easy-outs. Those things are the shiznat and should easily get that thing out of there.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Obsidian &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Go to the store and buy easy-outs. Those things are the shiznat and should easily get that thing out of there.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I was gonna suggest those. As long as you're careful with them, they'll back out anything.

 

so u drill into the middle of the broken bolt then screw in the easy-outs? If the bolt didn't budge when the head is on, why is it gonna budge when u try to take it off with easy out?

 

the easy out bites into the bolt using reverse threads. While you're screwing the easy out further into the bolt by using left hand rotation, the bolt is coming out using left hand rotation. The only way not to get that bolt out will be if the easy out snaps so get a fatty.

 

Hi Dave,
This isn't hard to do. First of all, the bolt most likely didn't mushroom or spread - it just seized in the threads - bound up. A couple of things to remember; 1) Try to be as on-center as you can, 2) Using Obsidian's advise of using a drill of one half the diameter of the bolt, half that size and drill STRAIGHT with that size and then redrill sith the half-sized one. Blow the hole clean. If you had to push hard to get the drill to bite you may have caused enough friction heat to cause the bolt to get even tighter so, use a sharp drill or wait till the bolt cools to back it out. You're not as screwed as you might think. (As an aside, there are reverse helix drills that drill in the direction of bolt extraction - counter clockwise - which is supposed to assist in removing the bolt - never tried it.).