97 Mustang GT 4.6L engine question

My son owns this car, and recently had the upper thermostat housing (where the upper water hose connects) split. He removed the large black housing on top of the engine block (sorry, I don't know what it's called), and found that one of the bolts that connects the thermostat housing to the engine block had snapped off -- actually, it broke in the middle, with the bottom half still threaded into the block housing.

Anyway, he's been trying to get this broken bolt out with no success. We've tried drilling into it so an extractor can be used, but this bolt piece is made of extraordinarily hard metal -- we've broken about a half a dozen bits. We did manage to get a tap into it once, but then the tap snapped off. And, there's not enough of the bottom of the bolt sticking out so we can unscrew it from below.

Any suggestions on how we can get this broken bolt piece out? I thought one of you might have had the same problem and could give some advice. Thanks!!

Reply to
Rad17
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That is the intake manifold.

That's not the block, its the cylinder head and is expensive. I would suggest you take it off and bring it to a machine shop so you do make it unusable.

Reply to
Thomas Moats

if you can see the bottom of the bolt then its NOT bottomed out into the block.. maybe someone used locktite on it previously and thats why its not turning??? some locktite stuff needs heat to release it... i used a propane torch to get the brake calipers off a 83 mustang where the pin bolts would not turn and i kept breaking the torx bits trying to take it off... found out that i needed heat.. put the propane torch on it and the wrench (a big torque wrench) weight of the wrench turned the bolt.... if you can get to the bottom of the bolt with some plier or vice grips, heat it up and if its locktite on there it might just move back up and out... hope this helps.

Reply to
jim

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