Well it finally happened. Truck is 14 years old. I have owned her for 10. Doing a quick 15 min job changing out the thermostat, everything is going great. First bolt on the thermostat comes of. No problems. Go to do the second one, break it loose, get about two turns and then that great sound that everyone loves. I look and sure enough it snapped right off, flush with the intake. Murphy's law strikes again.

 

that super sucks.. drilling that rascal could involve shards of metal in your cooling system if'n you're not careful, which could conceivably block up your rad.. Once I got that rascal drilled, danged if I wouldn't pull the bottom hose off the rad and flush that system for a while.. I'd force h2o through that engine until clean water poured out the other end.. Just sayin'.. Or you ucould just shove a towel in the passage, and hope for the best.

Best of luck with that man.. that does suck..

 

Well, the idea I have kicking around in my head right now is to use the old thermostat and rtv seal it in place and use it as a plug to keep the before mentioned shards from falling in. Option 2 I guess would to be pull off the intake to complete the job. I have tonight to think about it. I got a little cold and dark to be working outside. Anyone have thoughts or reviews on tools to get that bugger out? I know the ez out bits are an option but I really cant afford to screw this up. Just wish I had access to a welder.

 

OOOOH, that sucks. Been there done that. The last time that happened to me was with two of the spark plugs in my 2000 Ram. I got one out with an easy out, but the other I had to pull the head and snag it from the bottom side.

Good luck. I feel your pain.

 

i have a easy out set it works great... that really does suck i know i broke off a few bolts in my day and have had to replace many parts but the easy out has been my best $50 dollar investment ever

 

I would block off the opening with whatever you can use to make a tight seal and then drill a hole and use an easy out. If need be use a little pb blaster or another penetrating oil of choice.

 

You could get a pvc pipe cap and rtv it there for the same purpose.

If it comes down to it, I have a '02 keg w/ hughes plate on it I'll sell you to replace yours. Let's hope it doesn't come to that though. It shouldn't be a big deal, it'll just waste more of your time is all.

Btw: this is the primary reason I hate 15min jobs. They never are.

 

A center punch, good drill bits, easyout, Center punch the bolt dead on, let the drill bit do the work, don't press hard on the drill or the bit will wander on you. Grease the bit and its shaft as to help hold the metal shards, clean and reapply as needed. Not to sure but a bath tub plug night be close for plugging the thermostat hole. just go slow and all will be good.

 

The +1 kick in the pants is that I am military and have access to a craft shop with every tool needed to do this. But again it was nice out earlier and this was supposed to only take a few min. Now here I am and the truck is stuck in the driveway. Great Googly Moogly!

 

Well I spent most of the afternoon outside trying to get that bolt out to no avail. I bought one of the ez out kits and cobalt drill bits. I drilled on that sucker for the better part of almost a couple hours and barely made more than a dimple on it. Not sure what the problem was. Any ideas?