I give up.....broken bolts in engine block

Voymom

Original poster
Member
Feb 3, 2012
2,523
Was putting the new water pump in, one bolt snapped in the block, it's a good 1/2 inch deep inside the engine block. Went to take the rest of the bolts out to check if we could get a pair of grips on the broken bolt....and a second bolt freaking snaps flush to the engine block.


At this time, I'm throwing my hands in the air over this damn truck, and really considering taking it in to the dealership and calling it quits.

Any idea's? I have a bolt extractor, but I know that is still going to be a bitch to deal with. I really can't get a flipping break can I???
 

Sparky

Member
Dec 4, 2011
12,927
Your luck with working on cars sounds about the same as mine - kinda crappy :crazy:

I think the extractor is the only option. Were you reusing the old bolts or did the pump come with new? How hard was it to get them out originally?
 

Voymom

Original poster
Member
Feb 3, 2012
2,523
Sparky said:
Your luck with working on cars sounds about the same as mine - kinda crappy :crazy:

I think the extractor is the only option. Were you reusing the old bolts or did the pump come with new? How hard was it to get them out originally?

Old bolts, but they looked to be in really good shape, no rust or anything on them. It wasn't hard at all to get the bolts out originally, it was a piece of cake. One bolt that is flush has a bit of wiggle room, I can move it around pretty good. The other one is about a 1/2 inch in the engine block. I'm pretty pissed, I don't think I will be making it to the meet in amana now on Saturday, unless we can get the damned bolts out tomorrow. I already had to arrange a ride for my kids to get to school.

EDIT- Got the flush broken bolt out with a pair of tweezers and a itty bitty screw driver. May attempt the same method on the other one, only issue is...being able to see....
 

blazinlow89

Member
Jan 25, 2012
2,088
Voymom said:
Old bolts, but they looked to be in really good shape, no rust or anything on them. It wasn't hard at all to get the bolts out originally, it was a piece of cake. One bolt that is flush has a bit of wiggle room, I can move it around pretty good. The other one is about a 1/2 inch in the engine block. I'm pretty pissed, I don't think I will be making it to the meet in amana now on Saturday, unless we can get the damned bolts out tomorrow. I already had to arrange a ride for my kids to get to school.

Water pump bolts are aluminum, rust would not be present.

Your best bet is to keep at it with the extractor or rent a good easy out set from your local auto parts store. I would also buy new bolts while you are at it and some anti seize. You may also want to take one of the old good bolt and make a thread chaser out of it, take a grinder and make a v shaped groove in the first 1" of the bolt. This will work to help clean out any gunk, metal shavings etc out of the threads.

Any important bolts on the engine i will replace when I take them out, especially any that are aluminum.

I am trying to think of the best way to get these suckers out. I know space is limited unless you removed the radiator. I would check to see what your auto store has in their arsenal. If you can get your hands on a small 90* drill, it will make life a breeze. I call it a dental drill but this thing helps make for and accurate hole especially in small spaces.

This is the one I use at work (they supply)

*NEW* Desoutter 90 degree Angle Air Drill D314-L-1050 1/4"-28 1050 rpm on eBay!

It is expensive, but there are cheaper alternatives and these make drilling it tight spots a breeze, might be able to find one for rent too.
 

Guano

Member
Jan 4, 2012
423
I have left handed drill bits (they spin counter clockwise, hopefully unscrewing the bolt while you drill it out)
 

Voymom

Original poster
Member
Feb 3, 2012
2,523
Thank you everyone for you comments, and suggestions!

I am happy to say that after a lot of stress, it took 5 minutes to get the broken bolt out. We used a left hand drill bit, hand drill, punch and lots of slow turning and patience.

Now I can breathe easy until we put everything back together again lol
 

Black_tb

Member
Dec 6, 2011
817
i hope you get everything else goes smooth for ya
 

Voymom

Original poster
Member
Feb 3, 2012
2,523
Black_tb said:
i hope you get everything else goes smooth for ya

Thanks!!!! I hope so too. I was seriously considering setting the truck on fire and blaming it on my ex husband lmao. I was seriously stressed over this entire situation. I didn't sleep but 45 minutes last night all because I was thinking the worse possible scenarios. Thankfully my lovely truck decided to lose the attitude and cut us a break.

I really really really need to go to this meet tomorrow, I need a day to just relax.
 

AbsoluteZero

Member
Nov 21, 2011
211
Voymom said:
Thank you everyone for you comments, and suggestions!

I am happy to say that after a lot of stress, it took 5 minutes to get the broken bolt out. We used a left hand drill bit, hand drill, punch and lots of slow turning and patience.

Now I can breathe easy until we put everything back together again lol
Out of curosity were the bolts aluminum as suggested? I haven't needed to change a water pump but if aluminum would be cause for caution. I did read to use a two step process in torquing to final torque of 89 in-lbs.
I will say your 5 minutes beats my hour on the phone back and forth between Century Link and Directv however the outcome was positive........... for now!!
 

Voymom

Original poster
Member
Feb 3, 2012
2,523
AbsoluteZero said:
Out of curosity were the bolts aluminum as suggested? I haven't needed to change a water pump but if aluminum would be cause for caution. I did read to use a two step process in torquing to final torque of 89 in-lbs.
I will say your 5 minutes beats my hour on the phone back and forth between Century Link and Directv however the outcome was positive........... for now!!

Yes, the bolts are aluminum....as is the engine block :biggrin:
 

CaptainXL

Member
Dec 4, 2011
2,445
Voymom said:
Thanks!!!! I hope so too. I was seriously considering setting the truck on fire and blaming it on my ex husband lmao. I was seriously stressed over this entire situation. I didn't sleep but 45 minutes last night all because I was thinking the worse possible scenarios. Thankfully my lovely truck decided to lose the attitude and cut us a break.

I really really really need to go to this meet tomorrow, I need a day to just relax.

You might want to sell it and get a 2006. Sounds like you are putting a lot of time and money in this. Every other thread on this forum deals with something critical about your vehicle.
 

Voymom

Original poster
Member
Feb 3, 2012
2,523
CaptainXL said:
You might want to sell it and get a 2006. Sounds like you are putting a lot of time and money in this. Every other thread on this forum deals with something critical about your vehicle.

I still owe on it, and with my credit history I would NEVER get approved for anything newer. It's bad enough I have a GPS tracker that the bank uses to keep tabs on it in case they need to come repo the thing. It also has an auto kill on it so they can disable the truck if I try to run away with it without paying.

Besides...I could run into the same issues with a 2006...all years, makes, and models have their "lemons".
 

MacMan

Member
Mar 3, 2012
194
Voymom said:
Yes, the bolts are aluminum....
Really???? You made sure with a magnet? I NEVER heard of water pump bolts made of aluminum.

If so, this is a new one on me.:eek:

My suggestion is that IF you get the other bolt out, and decide to finish the repair yourself, get a little tube of anti-seize and put a little coat on the threads before putting them back in.
 

Voymom

Original poster
Member
Feb 3, 2012
2,523
MacMan said:
Really???? You made sure with a magnet? I NEVER heard of water pump bolts made of aluminum.

If so, this is a new one on me.:eek:

My suggestion is that IF you get the other bolt out, and decide to finish the repair yourself, get a little tube of anti-seize and put a little coat on the threads before putting them back in.

Yes, we checked with a magnet after we got both bolts out as the dealer was just as shocked when we told them, and they didn't believe us. I took my bolt with me just to make sure I had one for size if the dealer did not have any. Sure enough they were all aluminum. Dealer was actually the ones to confirm our suspicions. The extraction took 5 minutes with the right tools as they did not seize or cross thread, they just snapped under very little pressure. Like I said in one of my other posts, we used a torque wrench with the specifications in our repair manual for the bolts.

We replaced the bolts with non aluminum ones this time with plenty of anti seize just in case.

I have a feeling that whom ever owned the truck before us cared very little about the quality of work they put into it or had put into it, if any as most regular maintenance stuff seems to have never been done, well let me rephrase that. MOST of the things we consider on the forum as regular maintenance doesn't seem to have ever been done. But thankfully everything worked out for us...this time lol
 

DucatiSS

Member
Nov 19, 2011
369
I have never seen alum. water pump bolts, however when I checked the torque specs for the 4.2 it said 89 in. lbs, (7.4 ft. lbs I believe) and the 5.3 V8 is 22ft. lbs.

Sounds right for the torque on alum. bolts. :undecided:
 

MacMan

Member
Mar 3, 2012
194
Wow.....hard to believe, but good to know for the future. If I hafta change mine, the alum. bolts will NOT be going back in. Steel w/anti seize.
 

MAY03LT

Member
Nov 18, 2011
3,412
Delmarva
I learned something new today. Do you have the size/pitch of the replacements?
 

Voymom

Original poster
Member
Feb 3, 2012
2,523
MAY03LT said:
I learned something new today. Do you have the size/pitch of the replacements?

Hubby says they are 6mm x 1.0

We also had to get washers with our replacement bolts, as the replacements didn't have the "lip" on the head of the bolt.
 

sevendj

Member
Dec 9, 2011
52
Voymom said:
Thank you everyone for you comments, and suggestions!

I am happy to say that after a lot of stress, it took 5 minutes to get the broken bolt out. We used a left hand drill bit, hand drill, punch and lots of slow turning and patience.

Now I can breathe easy until we put everything back together again lol

GOOD news... I must admit, I felt incredible sorrow for you reading those first posts...
 

Voymom

Original poster
Member
Feb 3, 2012
2,523
sevendj said:
GOOD news... I must admit, I felt incredible sorrow for you reading those first posts...

Thanks, it was quite a run I will say that much. I was extremely upset about it. But it all ended well for us, this time. I got my baby running and driving and that's all that matters.
 

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