Broken Header Bolt? Fixed mine w/o Removing Head
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From: Baton Rouge, LA
Broken Header Bolt? Fixed mine w/o Removing Head Well, this past week I installed LT's on my car and noticed that one of my header bolts on the driver's side had snapped off inside the head! 
After contemplating taking the head off, I decided to go the Home Depot to look for any tools that may be helpfull in getting the bolt out with out disassembly. Well, I found it! They carry a flexible extension about 11'" long designed to let you run screws in tight places. There is no chuck on the end for a drill bit, but you can fit a quick connect bit with the 1/4" hex on the end of it into the flexible extension. It worked beautifuly, the extension is capable of snaking down to the bolt and making tight turns to line up the bit correctly. After drilling the hole in the center of the bolt, I simply used a screw extractor to back out the broken bolt.
All in all, the flexable extension cost me about $13 and the operation took me about 45 minutes from start to finish, including removing plug wires, driver's side header, and re-installation.
If you would like to see the tool I am refering to go the Home Depot web site and type in Flex A Bit into the search bar.
After contemplating taking the head off, I decided to go the Home Depot to look for any tools that may be helpfull in getting the bolt out with out disassembly. Well, I found it! They carry a flexible extension about 11'" long designed to let you run screws in tight places. There is no chuck on the end for a drill bit, but you can fit a quick connect bit with the 1/4" hex on the end of it into the flexible extension. It worked beautifuly, the extension is capable of snaking down to the bolt and making tight turns to line up the bit correctly. After drilling the hole in the center of the bolt, I simply used a screw extractor to back out the broken bolt.
All in all, the flexable extension cost me about $13 and the operation took me about 45 minutes from start to finish, including removing plug wires, driver's side header, and re-installation.
If you would like to see the tool I am refering to go the Home Depot web site and type in Flex A Bit into the search bar.
When installed LT's I stripped two of the threads in the heads and was like oh **** but a tap and dye set and some time fixed that. Glad to see you resolved your problem there and it ought to help out others who will possibly run into that situation.
Thread Starter
11 Second Club
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Joined: Feb 2005
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From: Baton Rouge, LA
The reason for my post was to help out others in my situation. I literaly felt sick when I saw the head of the bolt laying on my manifold, then the feeling got worse when I realized it had broken off inside the head. I would love to save others the trouble of removing the head to fix this problem. The cool thing about this tool is that, if the bolt is on one of the hard to reach cylinders, they can be connected together to form a VERY long extension!
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Joined: Apr 2005
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From: NJ
i had one bolt the back passenger bolt seems to not go in striaght it went in faily easy but 3/4 way in it wouldnt go no more so im guessing the threads got crossed or sum ****, so we just put about 5 small washers on the bolt to take up the remaining space and tightened it, cant think of a way to fix it sense its so far in without possibly totally f'n up and making it completely unusable. i am not pullen heads off.
Originally Posted by rgaynor85
i had one bolt the back passenger bolt seems to not go in striaght it went in faily easy but 3/4 way in it wouldnt go no more so im guessing the threads got crossed or sum ****, so we just put about 5 small washers on the bolt to take up the remaining space and tightened it, cant think of a way to fix it sense its so far in without possibly totally f'n up and making it completely unusable. i am not pullen heads off.
Edit: also blow out the hole with an air gun, after you tap it, to get all of the chips out..
