# Removal of very stubborn broken water pump bolt.



## Varn (Jan 6, 2004)

Decided to remove timing case cover an remove the broken water pump bolt.

I have taken everything apart. Went pretty smooth. To my surprise the oil pan came of completely and did not hang up. It just fell off once I got the gasket loose. I was expecting to have to raise the engine. Like I said everything went very smooth and easy. That is until I got to the root of the problem, that broken water pump bolt. 

It was broken off flush with the block so I could not use a stud remover to grab it and pull it out. I hit the broken bolt with a flat ended punch and hammer hoping to break the threads free. I drilled it for an easy out extraction. Soaked it with PB Blaster. No luck. Was afraid to really put the torque on it for fear of breaking off the easy out. Didn't want that problem. So I drilled it bigger and tried a larger easy out. No luck. It's like that broken bolt and the block have become one. I then used a larger drill slightly smaller than the thread minor diameter thinking that I could get the wall thin enough to be able to get a small punch or chisel in there and bend the thin wall of the bolt inward until I could grab it with needle nose pliers and pull it out. (I have used this method many times when the easy out method did not work and it has always worked.) But, no luck here either. The bolt threads are fused to the block.

What can I do now? Can I run a proper size tap down that hole and hope to clean out what's left of the bolt threads? Or, can I drill it out and install an insert? Is there room in the surrounding wall to put in an insert without cutting into some cavity? I am going to get a metric tap and try that first. What size and number of threads (per inch or per mm) is that bolt? It's the larger water pump bolt. The threads measure 0.307-inch, which is a little less that 8 mm. Must be an 8 mm thread.


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## non-racerX (Jan 29, 2004)

Did you ever get this problem resolved? If so, how did you end up doing it?


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