Broken manifold bolt - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

94LT1m6 · 11-19-2008, 10:14 PM

The guy I got the car from broke two manifold bolts off in the head. I was going to pull the heads and drill them out on the bench to make sure I get a good strait line for the bolt extractor, but I was thinking about giving it a try with the heads still on the car. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

LTb1ow · 11-19-2008, 10:21 PM

Which ones? And are you good with a right angle drill? Sure enough that if you mess up, the heads will have to come off anyway?

Stevoone · 11-20-2008, 06:23 AM

I've done it a few times, never on an F body tho. Drilled a hole in the bolt and used one of those easy out extractors. One of them was on my old F150 and I was able to get it done during lunch break at work.

94LT1m6 · 11-20-2008, 07:00 AM

I'd like to think I'm pretty good with a drill. They are the back two on the driver side.

Stevoone · 11-20-2008, 07:09 AM

I'd try to avoid taking the head off unless you really need to. How much room do you have to work next to the manifold? My third gen looks pretty easy from the drivers side but the passengers side would be tight. Only other thing I could think that may help would be to unbolt the drivers side motor mount so you can jack the side of the engine up to give you some more room to work.

11-20-2008, 09:56 AM

http://www.njfboa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=30590 take my word for it... remove the heads lol. i broke the second one back off as well and look what i had to go through.

Pampered-Z · 11-20-2008, 12:01 PM

Common problem with early LT1. Check the passenger side front bolt too ( pull the alternator ), it's probably sheared off too. The early TL1 seems to have problems with the exhaust bolts bottoming out ( possible the holes weren't deep enough when driller/tapped, and it's always the same bolts, driver rear/pass front ( same holes during machining )). This allows the manifold to warp over time with the twisting of the engine and over time the bolts shear

Did you pull the exhaust manifold off yet? Sometimes just the head of the bolts shear off and you can get a visegrip on them and spin them out.

If they are sheared off clean with the head, you are going to have to pull the head to remove them, there is no way to get to the bolt with the engine sitting back that far under the cowl.

There is one other option to consider if you can't get the rear bolt out..... The LT1 head has two outer bolt holes, the stock manifolds use one, but MAC shortie headers use the other. So you might have to install shortie headers if you can't get the rear bolt out!

94LT1m6 · 11-20-2008, 03:17 PM

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Pampered I love that idea! I can tell her it is not a "mod" its a "fix"

LTb1ow · 11-20-2008, 04:42 PM

MAC mids. For all that work, go big.

sweetbmxrider · 11-20-2008, 04:56 PM

i was going to mention the fact that there are two outer bolt holes. good luck

94LT1m6 · 11-20-2008, 06:27 PM

After much thought I think I'm going to pull the heads, have new guides, springs put in and DIY port them.
Shownomercy: I wanted to do LT but I already have 1 single magnaflow cat that came with the car. The LTs I wanted(LPP) don't have any of the emission hookups. I thought about leaving the stock stuff on for inspection and swapping it over to LTs after but I'd really like to put the headers I get into place while I got the heads off.
I miss that about Indiana 0 inspection. If the car ran you could plate it.

LTb1ow · 11-20-2008, 07:39 PM

No no mids. They will use the single cat and have all emissions nonsense hookups.