Been spending my downtime, tinkering on this new truck... I've really enjoyed just how much room there is to work under the hood. I come from the land of original minis and volkswagens, where everything is shoehorned into the engine bay....

anyways, as I was singing along fixing my drivers side exhaust leak, I get to my last bolt... number 8 and find theres nothing there.. not a head to wrench on to... got the manifold off... and there it is... less then a dimes width inside the head.

Shouldn't have jinxed it.... shouldn't have said how easy this was and that my bolts came out with ease....

Drill and attempt to extract is all I've been reading. Any thing I should know? Pull the tire, pull the splash guard and hope I can get a drill in there? Find an angle drill?

2004 4.7

 

do not drill or u will be replacing the head.
professionals use a mig welder and weld a nut onto the broken stud. place the nut over the stud, weld through the nut opening in the center of the nut down onto the stud. build the bead up to the nut. let it cool and turn the nut to remove the stud.

 

I'm familiar with that technique but sadly I am not a welder or own a welder or have buddies that weld.

This forum is scattered with threads of people suggesting to centre punch, drill, extract with easy out... If that's a doomed option then I guess I'm towing to a muffler shop

 

so... no one has any successful centre punch, drill and easy out stories to share?

 

Bolt it back together missing one bolt/nut and forget about it.

Was it causing you any problems or codes?

 

I personally don't but I would caution you to make sure you're not drilling too deep into the broken portion, as to pierce the head. I'd take one of the good bolts out and measure based on that. You only need to go deep enough for the reverse bit to bite and hold. Plenty of PB blaster/liquid wrench beforehand, while manifold is hot and cold.

 

No codes... I could hear it ticking when cold and the heat shield was rattling on account of bolts 7 and 8 broken off.

That's a good idea with regards to measuring. I have all the bolts and its maybe half an inch so I'll make sure to mark the bit. My friend is coming over on Monday with a variable speed right angle drill with some extractor bits... We're are going to try nice and slow. If it ain't working, I may very well just throw the 7 on and forget about it as suggested