Hi all..

Looking for input as I can’t tell If I’m having an overly difficult time or this is regular stuff for everyone here and I’m just a baby. Storytime

Latest culprit of my 2011 XFR 5.0 S/C coolant leak looks to be a broken bolt from the water pump. Went ahead and ordered replacement as well as new reservoir (mild leak from seams) and began to tear apart while waiting on shipping.

Skid plate removed, coolant drained, then removed coolant reservoir, air boxes and intake tube, drive belts, decided to take out radiator fan as well for more room.

-Problem 1: The wonderful design of the WP coolant outlet elbow O-Ring. 1hr
-Problem 2: Hard plastic S/C coolant lines in way of WP and fear of breaking. Can’t get my small hands far enough to pinch and undo from S/C. Trip to Oreillys for fuel clip pliers. Holding these in place very specifically while squeezing and pushing hard enough to get those *******s off included a few expletives. 3hrs
-Problem 3: Plastic quick release on bottom end of S/C coolant lines not functioning. Tried new pliers and can hear the click but no budge. Resort to undoing hose clamp and removing from there. 1.5hr

Finally, everything out of the way and more than enough space to work in the engine comfortably. Now let’s have some fun!

WP removed. Bottom left bolt broke off leaving a 1/2in. thread remaining. Tried nuts, and alligator pliers with no luck. Trip to Home Depot for screw extraction kit. Starting with smallest bit, learn that 0 of my 3 drills are short enough to fit between bolt and radiator or narrow enough to get a straight shot without hitting the tensioner mount. After 2 days of trying to make it work I decided to remove the tensioner and mount. Why didn’t I do this before!? Now I have room to push rad back far enough to get a clean shot with only a few bent radiator fins. Now running a cycle of penetrating fluid, wait, heat, drill, repeat. Finally have enough clearance to drill then smack the extraction tool in place and give her a whirl (never used one before). Tool is set with good amount in pilot hole, now slowly wiggling and twisting with no movement. I can see fluid start to seep from bolt and get a very very slight sense of hope. Continue with same slight force wiggling, trying to twist, heat up try again over and over and finally SNAP. The bolt didn’t break, but the extraction tool broke flush off into pilot hole.

This is night 4 of working on this till sunrise. It’s near 4:30am and I’m at a loss for words. Do I attempt the next size bit and drill through the extractor tool and try again? Clearly I’m no mechanic, but every “15 minute job” I read about takes me at least a week with 5-6 hours a night. Do I just need to toughen up and work faster? Does anyone else run into issues like this that put a complete stop to workflow and kill any sense of joy


to the repair? Don’t get me wrong I love this car but my savings account is drained and my soul is bruised every time I try to save this thing.

 

At this point, I think you are in the situation where you will need to weld a nut to the broken bolt to remove it since you have an extremely hard extractor bit stuck in the middle. Maybe there's a mobile welder in your area that can come to your car to do it.

 

Consider looking at the thermostat housing, lid and seal for CW staining. Or change it out now anyway. The cap seal tends to leak.
Check the supercharge and utilities belt rollers, idlers and tensioners for any bearing dry or on the way out, now while they are accessible, removed.

Look at the welder option!

Take a big breath and,

Consider a flat faced pin punch, to accurately knock the edge of the broken stud at say 45 deg to the horizontal, anti clockwise to the stud face at two accessible areas 180 deg apart.

This was a M6 soft steel screw bolt, now slightly expanded with a broken stud extractor in a very soft Al engine block.

Have faith, use a suitable good quality hardened steel pin punch set and a small hand hammer. (it is all about the application of force)
along the lines of. see below.

https://www.harborfreight.com/hand-t...set-93424.html

Use what you have space for tools wise, and do not use excessive force. You are knocking soft steel in a softer aluminium engine block.

or last chance saloon.

Speak with your local engineering tool shop or mr google and see if they have any milling bits for hardened steels. Explain the situation.

hand held milling is not going to be easy, you will need control of the milling bit and speed. Preferably with the drill clamped.
eg.
https://www.cutwel.co.uk/landing-pag...teel-55-70-hrc

I would imagine you stud extractor is chinese harden steel, so a milling bit harder should cut/mill/bore it out it. Have a practice with the broken bit/end or the other extractors in the set. With the milling bit and see if it cuts, and how much control you have.

Good luck.
(We have all been there, only the resources available changes.)

 

I would have recommended the hammering with a very pointy punch, but that really only works for bolts that aren't in there very tight. With the expanded bolt, I give very little hope that would work in this case. It was definitely already jammed in there because he even broke an easy-out trying to turn the stuck bolt.

The beauty of welding a nut to the bolt is that the welding process really heats up the bolt and that heat breaks the bolt free. I believe he needs that in this case since it is so stuck.

 

We are talking about a M6 (6mm) broken set screw with a stud extractor broken into (and expanding) it. Its very small! I recommended the pin punch as it give a bigger area to apply the force to turn out at the outer edge.

Rather than spreading the stud. May work with centre punch if applied to the harder stud extractor.

The stud being soft steel into aluminium.

Be sure to disconnect the battery, and have a very good return earth to the weld set from work site (engine).

 

After nightly rounds of penetrating fluid, I was able to get a wiggle from side to side from remaining nub of bolt left. Drilled and drilled and could barely scratch the extraction tool that broke into my pilot hole which luckily wasn’t near as deep as it should’ve been to be effective as I was too scared to damage the block. Finally decided to dremel a flat spot into the bolt. I really had low hope but this gave me a much better grip with the vice grips. Instead of wiggling left and right, I was focusing on twisting. After a few minutes of a good wrist workout, she came loose and came out just like that!

I have a great feeling of accomplishment, as well as denial that I’d been defeated and held back for 5 days by such a small piece. Helicoil thread repair kit on the way and ready to tackle whatever comes next!

 

Now that is a WIN! You have the stub of Victory in your hand!
Congratulations!
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Congrats on getting it out!

Usually what I see is the lower 2 holes get filled with coolant when you remove the water pump. If you don't blow them out the next guy that removes the pump is in for a surprise.

I would try a Blue Point M6 thread chaser (don't use a thread tap, too sharp) to clean up the threads before resorting to a helicoil.

 

I don't think there's any need to helicoil as you have not stripped the female thread.