extracting bolts

[ThatOneEuroE30]

so i'm working with a buddy on fixing up his 24v swapped car. He was doing the thermostat and decided to hulk out on the housing bolts and broke one off. BTw I called him a dumbass and lol'd pretty hard when he did that so that took care of that. Now he needs to extract the broken part. Any tips on doing this?

[glnr13]

how far in is the remnant of the snapped bolt?

you need a drill to start a small hole in the snapped bolt and use an ez out by hand. that's if it's accessible or far out enough.

if it's too deep then it'd be better to take it to a machine shop

[The Dark Side of Will]

Removing broken bolts without screwing up the part they're screwed into is varsity... if you have to ask, you don't have the skills. Take it to a machine shop.

Until then, soak it in as much penetrating oil as you can afford. It *might* come out with a left handed drill bit.

[ReSoP]

steady hands, center punch it, What sucks is its into aluminum, which means the bit will take the easiest path, (soft aluminum) over the hard steel, So be careful good luck

[Adrian_Visser]

Centre punch it VERY carefully, I like automatic centre punches myself. Then drill using incrementally larger drill bits until you are at the proper size for the E-Z out. If the E-Z out works, awesome! If not keep drilling incrementally larger until you have drilled out the bolt, if you are careful you can drill the bolt out without damaging the threads in the housing. Be careful with the E-Z out, they are very brittle. You will need an unobtanium drill bit to drill out the E-Z out if you break it. If you aren't careful and drill out the threads in the housing by accident you will have to install a threaded insert such as a heli-coil.

Make sure you are as accurate as possible throughout the whole process, from centre punching to each step of drilling. You can walk the drill bit a little bit as you go up in sizes to stay perfectly centred on the bolt but be careful not to flex the bit too much or it will snap.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

E-Z out got it.