Broke a bolt in a Ford 5.4 block and found a weird fix with a welding rod

Last week I was pulling a broken exhaust manifold bolt out of a 2007 F-150 5.4 and snapped my extractor clean off inside. That thing was stuck in there so deep I figured the head was toast. A buddy who works at a shop in Phoenix told me to try welding a cheap stainless steel rod right onto the broken extractor piece. I set my welder real low around 50 amps and took my time. The heat actually loosened the bolt just enough that when I twisted it out with vice grips, it came out smooth. I saved a customer about 400 bucks on head replacement labor. Has anyone else tried something like this or got a different trick for stuck bolts?

3 comments

3 Comments

david56215d ago

Used to think welding on broken bolts was just making a bigger mess but this honestly sounds genius. The heat expansion trick makes so much sense now that you say it. Gonna try this next time I'm stuck, you had any issues with the welding rod sticking to the threads at all?

vera_palmer15d ago

Oh yeah, the rod sticking to the threads is definitely a thing. Nothing like making one broken bolt into two broken bolts and a new project, right?

john65015d ago

Oh man, that hits close to home! I once spent a whole afternoon trying to extract a seized exhaust manifold bolt on an old truck. By the time I was done, I had three broken bolts, a snapped easy-out, and a drill bit that decided to join the party inside the hole. My buddy walked over, looked at the mess, and just said "you know you could've just welded a nut on that, right?" That was the day I learned the hard way that sometimes you gotta step back before you turn a simple fix into a saga.