philcav7

Three of the 20 year old bolts snapped when removing the water pump. Two of them I was able to remove by double nutting and vise grips. The third will not come out, there is a small nub sticking out of the block.

I have two options.

1. The "easy" way out. Mount the pump up without replacing the bolt and hope that it doesn't leak. If it does leak resort to option 2.

2. Grind the nub off and try not to damage the gasket mating surface on the block. Buy a right angle drill and drill and drill down the center of the bolt then use an easy out to remove the bolt. If that does not work I will have to drill it out tap new threads and use an oversized bolt or helicoil and mount the pump with all 11 bolts.

I would really like to skip the drilling out the bolt process. I know it will be more work in the long run if the gasket fails but, is it worth a shot? I am sure I am not the only one that has experienced this problem before. The bolt hole in the red box is the one in question. It is right below the upper water jacket. There are two bolts above the jacket and a couple to the left, sealing the propeller section.

75ohm

You can grind it, smooth it down, and lightly coat the whole gasket with rtv on both sides but it most likely will fail and you get to do it all again.

Is this a daily driver?

Have you tried any PB blaster and contact heat?

75ohm

Post the solvent and contact heat, is there enough of a nub to cut a relief in it to tap it around?

philcav7

What do you mean cut a relief and tap it around.

It had PB blaster soaking for about 20 hours, two generous applications. I am not sure how effective it is, considering that the factory loctite is the issue. None of the bolts came out easily, even after breaking them free.

I didn't torch it, the nub is too small to get a nut or vise grips on. I would say it's 1/4" or so.

philcav7

Do you think it will fail due to the pressure in the system or the expansion of the block/pump during heat cycles?

Seasonal driving, about 5K per year.

75ohm

Okay, we're getting serious now.

If you have a dremel and you can notch a small groove, you may be able to leverage that spot to use a punch and tap it around carefully.

Secondly, do you have any MEK? If you can get that going in there and soak the loctite, and do this several times since it will evaporate, then hit with PB, then attempt the tap movement, you may get lucky.

Or, you can drill it... I know, I know... big pain.

With the little amount of torque on the bolts to hold the pump to the block, any span on that gasket, in my opinion, will over time cause a failure in the gasket there. Heat will not help this at all...

philcav7

There is about 1.5 or so threads sticking out. I don't think there is an option of turning from the outside.

In regards to the bolt spans...

The bolts surrounding the propeller are up to 2.75" from one and other(most of them are greater than 2" on center). If I leave the bolt in question out, it's distance to the two closest bolts would be 3.5"

You can tell that I am really trying to talk myself out of drilling that bolt. I feel that it's the 'right thing' to do but, I am more leary of damaging the block surface while grinding/drilling. My fear is the risk of drilling is higher than the risk of leaving it out.

MEK is that the same as MEKP(methyl ethyl ketone peroxide)?

I'm just not sure that the bolts is all that important. Heck, both of the front tires only have two lug nuts on them. They've been trouble free for the last 6K miles.

This image represents the spans.

Yellow 3.5"
Red 2" or more
Blue less than 2"

AR10

If it was me, I would leave it like it is. The nub will keep the gasket
from slipping out. I would NOT use RTV (silicone). Use a contact type
cement. 3M makes a good one. Good luck!

potent951turbo

+1, I have used this method on many bolts with great success.

Another option you might try is to go to Sears and see if they have one of their sockets made specifically for getting rounded off bolt heads out in a small enough size. I know you said you only have a nub to work with but if they make one small enough it might work since your still grabbing a rounded surface.

Also use hylomar on the gasket, it works great for water pumps.

75ohm

I hope you're kidding...

philcav7

Of course I'm kidding

75ohm

Jeez man... don't do that to me...

Only time will tell for sure... I would; however, advise that you put a pressure tester on it if you decide to maintain the status quo -- but do it prior to putting belts on. Personally, I'd try to get that thing out of there, I just couldn't live with it.

Mike C.

I suspect you can get away with it but I would use permatex or a similar type of strong gasket cement.

xsboost90

i just went through this on my wp job. I ended up buying a dremel and grinding the bolt out. Best thing to do here? I would say drill the center of that bolt out bigger and biger until there is just a thin piece of the threads left- pick it out and retap the hole. Then put it back together properly. If it leaks you'll have to pull everything back down and that would definitly suck worse than drilling that bolt out.

75ohm

^^^
The voice of reason has spoken.