Broken Water Pump Bolt on 5.0 Ford

I snapped on of the water pump bolts on the 5.0 liter in my 93 F150.

Based on the number for postings it appears as though this is a fairly common problem.

The broken piece is buried - I can't get to it to weld on a nut, use vise grips etc.

I "think" my only option is to drill it out and use a Helicoil....

Other than making sure I drill straight what else should I be concerned with?

Anyone else think of a "better" solution (other than "buy a Chevy"!)

Reply to
Chuck
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I live in the rust belt and see way too many snapped off bolts.

I have good success by center punching and then drilling a small pilot hole just off center of the broken bolt first, then I use a drill bit that is about 2/3 or 3/4 the size of the bolt and run that down the pilot hole. I use lots of cutting oil.

I try to aim it so it 'just' tags the bolt's thread bottom down one edge of the bolt leaving me with a hollow 3/4 moon shape. The heat and oil and little nip out of one edge has always loosened the bolt enough for me to back it out. I use an old torx bit lots of times as a hole grabber or I can spin it with a punch or mini screwdriver.

I have been lucky and never have needed a helicoil or had the new bolt come loose. I normally use loctite thread sealer on the new one though. It stops more corrosion.

I also have seen folks with a cutting torch just blow the bolts out of the cast block. They were good enough a new bolt fit ok after a bit of thread cleaning. I would want to practice that a bunch on junk first....

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: N>
Reply to
Mike Romain

Mike,

the problem is the bolt that broke is buried about 3" down inside the front of the front cover.... the actual hole is recessed so I can't even see the bolt to drill a pilot hole. I'm hoping that the recess will let me guide the drill straight down the middle of the bolt.

I have zero hope that I can get the old bolt out... I'm just hoping I can get the Helicoil in!

Reply to
Chuck

Ug, nasty.

I don't think I would attempt that. The bolts are hardened and the cover is likely soft metal. I think it would walk out on me....

If that is the/a bolt that goes into the water jacket, well....

I think I would cuss a lot and take the cover off or loosen it so it can be rotated out of the way.

Good luck!

Mike

Chuck wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

Been there plenty times on that model. My best success was to remove the timing cover and work with the broken bolt protruding from the block. PB blaster, heat, hammering on the end of the bolt, and working it back and forth has usually done the trick. Couple of times the galling between the bolt and the timing cover would just not let go and a new cover was required after having to break the old one off. So far I have always gotten the bolt out of the block once the cover was removed.

Reply to
Kevin

Just throwing this out there. Something I'd consider is find a left hand drill bit the same size as the hole or slightly smaller. Koil, heat and drill and it may grab it and back it out. Machine shops will often have left hand drills. Sears has a set of tools made to back out screws and one may be the right size and long enough to reach the top of the bolt. Just something to consider.

bobby

Reply to
bob

I ended up pulling off the timing chain cover. There's about 1/2" of the bolt sticking out.... I'm been spraying it with Kroil and I'm going to try heat and a pipe wrench later this week....

Reply to
swimdad16

Best hope is to find a punch (make one from an old drill bit if you have to) that is exactly the size of the hole that the bolt is buried in and punch the s**t out of it, so the drill bit doesn't walk on you. Then have at it. Once you get up to the "tap drill" size for the thread you are using you should be close enough to the threads to clear the swarf out with a tap. I had to do this on three (!!!!!) of the water manifold bolts on my Stude V-8 because some unspeakable bad person had used cheezy grade-2 bolts to hold it on (not factory, Stude used grade-5 hardware universally, at a minimum.) Amazingly enough, I didn't have to use a single helicoil, new bolts torqued to spec with the old block threads. But if you follow my advice above, you should get the holes close enough for helicoils to work if you have to. Might have to buy an extra helicoil tap if the hole is blind, so you can modify it into a "bottoming helicoil tap." Make sure you Loctite the helicoils in so you don't create a headache for some future mechanic, and also remember that anti-sleaze is your friend.

USE GOOD DRILL BITS! anything else is a waste of your time. Might need to buy some new ones.

I ended up pulling the radiator in my car so that I could get a straight shot at the bolts with my big 1/2" hand drill. You might have to do the same, it will certainly make your life easier though. Since you are apparently replacing the water pump, I would assume that you already have the fan off. (in my case, I was not so lucky - I was just trying to stop some water leaks and tried tightening down a bolt to stop a gasket from weeping. Once I broke the first one I stopped right there and tried to replace them all with new, good stainless bolts - I'm a stainless junkie - but broke two more trying to remove them. You win some, you lose some.)

good luck (you'll need it, although I can't say that I fear this job anymore, I still can't actually say that I enjoy it.)

nate

PS - of course, after I did this, I ended up pulling the engine, tearing it down, and finding out that I wasn't going to use that block anyway because the bores were worn. But such is life.

PPS - I have never had any luck blow> Mike,

Reply to
N8N

Missed this before I made my previous reply... Kroil is good stuff. Hope it works for you. You could also try threading the stub with a die, threading a nut halfway on, and welding the nut to the stub to give you some more grunt on it. If it's not *too* badly stuck the heat from welding may help loosen it.

Another trick that I have used in the past is to heat the stub up with a torch and melt a cheap candle by pressing it against the stub. The heat will draw the melted candle wax into the threads. Sounds crazy but it has worked where Kroil has failed.

If all else fails, grind it flush with the block, center punch, and drill per my previous post.

good luck,

nate

swimdad16 wrote:

Reply to
N8N

I'm trying to remember exactly how the front of a Ford 302 of that vivntage is set up (the last one I actually owned was a '68)... IIRC, the water pump bolts to a timing case, and the timing case bolts to the front of the engine block ala small-block Mopar. If that's the case, just pull the whole timing cover off and either replace it or drill/helicoil it on the workbench. More hassle, but at least the job will come out right in the end.

If I'm mis-remembering and you're talking about actually goes all the way into the engine block, I'd still remove the timing case for better access, and you might find that it snapped where it passes thru the timing case and that enough is sticking out of the block to allow you to get vice-grips on it.

Reply to
Steve

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