Thermostat housing bolts
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Ah nevermind found this thread from a year ago…
www.viperalley.com
Shit! 🤮
thermostat bolt in block
sucks when a simple job takes a turn for the worse.. removed thermostat housing, one of the bolts broke in the block. simple solution was (i thought) drill hole in bolt and use EZ-out. well the EZ out broke inside the bolt as well. got a carbide drill bit and have started drilling the bolt out...
www.viperalley.com
Shit! 🤮
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Thats the plan, 2-3 days PB with a little torch heat at gametime for added persuasion. There is about a 1/4 in of the bolt exposed where I can comfortably get a visegrip on there without contacting the mating surface on the block. Fingers crossed this works and I dont have to drill.
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I only had that happen ones, on my old 2000 Mountaineer. I actually just sold that truck, only vehicle out of them all I kept all those years since new in college. Lmao. Ford 5.0, except in the Explorers/Mountaineers it was a hybrid block, basically lower GT while upper was the Cobra aluminum manifold. Though they kinda gimped it with a different cam. But anyways they used steel bolts, which you can take a guess what happens over time with aluminum threads. I go to change the tstat years and yeeears ago, like 2007 I think for 1st time. I though I had the bolts slowly off. Nope, they not only seized but each (I think except 1) sheared clean off in the block. I'll never forget that. $10 tstat turned into a getting flatbedded and extremely slowly and carefully extracted, $700. Their in a very awkward position on those trucks, pain in the ass changing tstat as you had to remove hoses, the radiator hoses, and few other things b/c they crammed that engine into a bay never made for a V8 lol. Took hours and hours and hours with heat and slowly extracting as you didn't want to really damage the bolt housings. And due to location to correctly heat and extract yiu basically have to remove the whole front to get clean access and no wonky blocked angles. So remove radiator, again something on that truck which was a nightmare to replace, don't that before. They designed it at factory so it was already installed and than the body put on and the at they designed the clips to hold it, fuck me. Make you want to murder Ford engineers. That's why bolt extractions are so expensive on those trucks lol.
That truck got a 331 stroker eventually haha. That thing was a blast, lifted, 160k miles and still ran flawlessly. I just had no room for it with move and I hadn't driven it in over a year. Now I'm regretting, few more years and could've slapped antique tags on it lol.
But I'll never forget a $10 tstat job turning into getting flatbedded and $700 bill, called. Two other shops that were closer and both quoted estimated $1k. That shop we knew said pry 6-800, so smack in the middle.
That truck got a 331 stroker eventually haha. That thing was a blast, lifted, 160k miles and still ran flawlessly. I just had no room for it with move and I hadn't driven it in over a year. Now I'm regretting, few more years and could've slapped antique tags on it lol.
But I'll never forget a $10 tstat job turning into getting flatbedded and $700 bill, called. Two other shops that were closer and both quoted estimated $1k. That shop we knew said pry 6-800, so smack in the middle.
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122 Posts
This bastard bolt…
tried heating with a propane torch and turning with a vise grip. Eventually got to the point where I couldn’t get a good bite with the vise grip.
today a welder came out and got a nut on there. Ended up snapping off with more of the bolt with it. He was able to get a second nut on and am now giving it time to soak in more penetrating oil. i’m not optimistic.
tried heating with a propane torch and turning with a vise grip. Eventually got to the point where I couldn’t get a good bite with the vise grip.
today a welder came out and got a nut on there. Ended up snapping off with more of the bolt with it. He was able to get a second nut on and am now giving it time to soak in more penetrating oil. i’m not optimistic.
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1,089 Posts
Keep putting penetrant on as it cools and it may pull some deeper into the threads. Work it back and forth gently- don’t go full retard on it. I had many come out on the first try, some take three tries. If its that stuck, then most other methods would not even come close to getting it loose. Last ditch effort you can try a left handed drill bit that is close to the minor diameter of the threads, and then retap the threads to clean up, but it’s hard to drill that without messing up the threads in the process.
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14,349 Posts
Where did you apply the heat - the bolt itself, or around the bottom of the female threads in the block? You definitely want to get the aluminum to expand around the steel bolt, then do as Recluse suggests above. Spray the bottom of the welded nut with penetrant, then use a punch and hammer to hit straight down on the bolt shank several times. Then, start rocking the welded nut back and forth.
As tight as yours is, you may be headed to a TimeSert installation too.
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122 Posts
Torched the housing and the bolt. Added PB when cooling down. Tapped it with a wrench, with a hammer. Rocked it side to side when hot. Slowly rotated the vise grip right and left. Did this about 5 times (~2 minutes heating each time).
The nut got red hot when it was welded on, it was kind of beautiful. With that I didnt slowly twist right and left, I just went for it, which didnt help.
With this last nut, twisted gently and added some aircraft version of penetrating oil the welder had.
I’m trying to make peace with drilling and tapping a new hole. Its not something I trust myself to get right when its the viper in the crosshairs; will be looking for a legit mechanic or someone more confident than I if this nut fails.
The nut got red hot when it was welded on, it was kind of beautiful. With that I didnt slowly twist right and left, I just went for it, which didnt help.
With this last nut, twisted gently and added some aircraft version of penetrating oil the welder had.
I’m trying to make peace with drilling and tapping a new hole. Its not something I trust myself to get right when its the viper in the crosshairs; will be looking for a legit mechanic or someone more confident than I if this nut fails.
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12,562 Posts
Why when I had that happen on truck above I didn't even attempt, called a shop. As 99% of people at home trying to extract fucked the aluminum upper manifold so bad you had to replace that for even more $$$. Yours seems like mine where it wasnt oh just a lil seize, mine was like the god of seized bolts did his dirty work and laughed. If I remember it took the shop like 3 days and a our 5-6 hours per day to carefully extract. I'm sure as fuck glad I didn't attempt that myself back then haha, I would've been out more thousands for the upper manifold at the time. All for a $10 tstat lol
Craziest part is I soaked those bolts in penetrating oil for a week and drove to let heat expansion and that work, or try to as I knew the horror stories. 1 week of that and made zilch difference
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14,349 Posts
I think we need to recommend to all Gen 2 owners that T-stat gaskets get replaced every 10 year no matter what. The gaskets start to break down and coolant seeps out into the housing bolt threads. If your car has never had the intake off, you should look closely for signs of leakage and prepare for the worst.
That also means that intake gaskets are replaced at the same time. I was looking at my hex/torx bolts last night when installing my intake and found the 3 that had been on the t-stat housing before the engine got built. It was easy to spot them. Now I use them on the intake where they stay dry.
That also means that intake gaskets are replaced at the same time. I was looking at my hex/torx bolts last night when installing my intake and found the 3 that had been on the t-stat housing before the engine got built. It was easy to spot them. Now I use them on the intake where they stay dry.
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122 Posts
This is the unfortunate truth. Mine was on for 21 years and I saw the coolant leak from the tstat this year. Who knows how long it was leaking just enough to not notice but still corrode the bolts. New gasket and bolts every few years seems like appropriate preventative maintenance now.
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5 Posts
I've drilled out bolts larger than normal and used a larger ez out to get tough bolts out in the past. Good luck 👍
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124 Posts
Good work! Welding is a great method for breaking these loose. I do wonder if an air hammer bolt breaker would do any good; I suspect temperature is more effective. Regardless, glad you got it out.
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