I have a 98 Durango with 236 k and the passenger side exhaust manifold rear bolt has broken. Can someone provide me with instructions to remove this bolt? And by the looks of the other bolts I may be removing several other broken bolts.
Thanks in advance.

 

soak them really good with pb blaster. goto autozone a get the "grabbit" bit set for removing busted bolts,screws, ect.. if that doesnt work then you might need to drill the busted bolts out and tap them with a tap and die set. (re-thread the holes)

 

When you say rethread the holes, do you mean with a tap or a heli-coil?

 

with a tap

 

Is it better to take the head off to do this work?

 

Look, you need to use an easy out to get it out. You need to get a Quality tools here, nothing cheap will work for this job, you are dealing with a harden bolt.

First you need to get a drill bit that is high quality to drill a starter hole into the center of the bolt. (need to use a punch to get a center dip so your drill bit will not go sliding off to the side of the bolt)

Once you have a hole drilled into the broken bolt you need to use a QUALITY easy out
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...6196000P?mv=rr

Spray it real good with PB spray and start screwing the easy out into the hole, stop every so often and tap around the bolt with a hammer as you are trying to remove the bolt, this may help break it lose.

If you break that easy out inside the bolt (been there done that) then your going to have real troubles because it is a really harden material. Then you only option is to drill the thing out and you will use several quality drill bit doing it.

Sometimes you get luck and they come right out with the extractors and sometimes its a nightmare.

Removing the head is almost a must in my opinion.. It may be just worth your time if you don't already have the tools to remove the broken bolts just to take the heads to a shop , then let them remove the broken bolts.

Here is a link that may help
how to use an easy out
http://www.crustyquinns.com/tech/easyout.html


http://www.brokentap.com/easy-outs.html

http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/671.cfm

 

If you've never done anything like that before i highly suggest you take it to somone else. You will have to remove the header /other bolts to gain access to what ever portion is left.
Even experienced mechanics have hard times with header bolts and if you break it inside the head/or break a ezout your toast because the head will have to be removed... So i highly recomend bringing it to someone else....

 

You could alway remove the manifold and that might gain access to the bolt if there is enough to get on it with vise grips. Besides, you have to replace the gasket anyways!

 

I did this job a couple of months back and I really don't want to tell how long it took. Let me just say a long time. There were two bolts broken flush and the y pipe flange was completely rusted out. I put lots of p oil and drilled a hole for my easy out and of course I broke the easy out. I used all my drill bits, heated up the broken easy out and finally got the easy out removed. I have no idea where this tool got it's name because there was nothing easy about it. The second bolt I decided to drill out and tap and that part went smooth.I think these bolts were broken when I had the oil pan replaced, the mechanic didn't even remove the y pipe but rather forced the pan on. In the book I have it says you have to take the y pipe off in addition to several other things.