Not sure what to do

[sxracerb25]

Hey guys, I had a 95 V6 Firebird as my daily driver for a long time and recently it started burning coolant and I figured it was the head gaskets. Since I knew that would take a while I bought a new car so I could work on the firebird then eventually sell it. Well, as I was tearing the motor down, I went to take off the heads and a head bolt broke. It was below the surface so the only thing I could think to do was drill it and use a spiral extractor or something. Well, when I was drilling, I guess I got off center and I think I drilled into the threads some. I'm thinking it's ruined but I don't know. I was going to see what you guys would do in this situation. I mean, if I could fix it that's great, but I don't know that I can without at least pulling the motor out and that's kind of more work than I'd like to do. Even if I found a short block, I doubt it'd even be worth it to buy it and go through the hassle of putting it in would it? It seems like running I could only get 1500 for it and if I sell it as is how much do you think I could get? It's basically a rolling chassis now with a 5 speed transmission and (probably?) a ruined short block in it. I'm just frustrated right now so I thought I'd see if you guys had any insight. If there's anyone in the Wichita region that would be willing to come by and see if it's fixable that would be great too, but I doubt that's going to happen. Thanks guys

[bszopi]

This has come up recently, and I know someone mentioned welding something (threaded rod perhaps) on to the top of the stud, if possible, and then fashion that to be able to unscrew the remainder of the bolt. Until you have the bolt out, there really isn't a way to guess what, if any, damage was done to the threads in the block. It may be as simple as just chasing a tap down the hole to clean up the threads some, to it becoming a junk block. I'd say if you think there is a possibility of welding on top of the bolt, start looking into that. If you don't have a welder, do you know anyone who does? Hope that helps, for now at least.

[sxracerb25]

Yea, I'm not sure how I'd go about welding though since it's actually inside the hole. Even more so now that I've been trying to drill it out.

[bszopi]

How deep in the whole is it?

[sxracerb25]

Well there's one little piece still sticking above the surface but it's a very very small piece of it and the rest is about 1/8" or 1/4" below the surface at least.

[bszopi]

I'm not a welder, so I can't say if that's enough room to get in there or not. Hopefully someone else, with a little more experience, will be able to chime in about it.

[sxracerb25]

Yea, I don't weld either. I'd just be afraid of welding the bolt to the block lol I've asked on my local forums but it doesn't seem like anyone is willing to come look at it.

[walterdude]

Would it be possible to get a cutting torch in there?? The torch will blast out the steel bolt and not touch the cast iron.. On heavy equipment it's usually easier/faster/cheaper to just cut bolt heads off, then blast out the threads, instead of using a wrench... A HOT wrench is what we call it!! A tap cleans the threads up....
Just a thought,,,
hopefully helpfull,,,
Tom...

[sxracerb25]

Well, I got it out. I couldn't believe it. I worked on it this morning and was able to use a flathead against the little piece that was above the surface and hammer it until it started rotating. I can't wait to get this thing running again so I can tear apart my trans am lol